Dr Krir has been conspicuous by her absence recently!
I have summarised the reasons below to stop you all worrying about me. I am now doing well and trying to do more each day. I’m not a good patient but I have no choice in the matter – my body won’t do more than it wants to do at the moment!
I would like to thank you all for your concern and for the huge amount of Get Well cards that I have received.
I must apologise for the fact that I am going to be away from the clinic for the next 12 weeks or so. I would also like to also take this opportunity to reassure you that Dr Verity Moore and Dr Richard Barton are both excellent chiropractors and will be available on alternate days in the clinic to treat you. To ensure the continuity of your care I will work closely with them so that they treat you in the same way as I do.
This situation has come about following an incident early in August, when I collapsed while driving home (fortunately very slowly and with few cars around!). I ended up in a hedge, unconscious. On being admitted to Southampton General, it was found that I had a rare condition whereby I only have one ‘leaflet’ in a valve in my heart that should have three ‘leaflets’ and that had lead to that valve being overloaded over the years and it had finally ‘given up’. Not only would they not let me out of hospital but I couldn’t even get out of bed.
I was amazed and delighted at the high level of care I received over the next three weeks in hospital. A few days after arriving they replaced the heart valve but due to the severity of the damage already done, they thought I would need a pacemaker too and one week later one did have to be fitted. This did not do the job and I had to have the heart ‘shocked’ into beating correctly, which did finally result in my feeling better and I left hospital a few days ago.
Now starts the rehab – all those times I have nagged you to do exercises have come back to haunt me as I have to get myself fit again! I have to have so long off because surgery involved cutting the breast bone and this takes 12 weeks to heal, during which time I must not lift anything heavier than half a kettle of water, push or pull, which makes treating you impossible!
I had no warning of this other than a couple of short bouts of mid chest discomfort. Maybe I should have had those symptoms checked out – I always say to patients that it is better to check out something small rather than wait for it to become a bigger problem – I was proven right again!
I hope to see you all again soon but meanwhile I hope you will keep your treatment going with Dr Barton or Dr Moore.
Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Keep well.
Kind regards
Jan Krir