I was looking through some of my old private messages to see if there were any I could delete because my inbox was full. This prompted me to look through some old threads I'd started and consequently I came across this old thread that was last added to a decade ago. After a little thought I decided to add an update as a lot happened after posting my medical woes.
Following the confirmation that my back had been broken in that accident, now almost 15 years ago, I decided to take legal action against the woman who had caused the accident. I was quite shocked when her insurance company contacted me to inform me that if there was any settlement i would only get 50% of the compensation becasue according to their records, I was partly to blame for the accident. I contacted them to ask why they thought this becasue I was hit from behind while cycling to work. I'd been in the correct lane and had been doing everything a cyclist should do when on a dangerous interchange. I was informed that the lady who had hit me had reported to her insurance that I'd moved across from an inside lane to the central lane and she had been unable to avoid me. I replied informing them of and sending a copy of the police report that indicated that the defendant i.e. the woman who had hit me, had reported not seeing me at the time of the accident, so i pointed out to the insurance that how could she report that I crossed over lanes when she'd said at the time that she hadn't seen me.
Several years later I was in conversation via Team Speak with a good online friend who I'd met via this site. Sadly he passed away back in 2013 following chemotherapy for a slow growing cancer (that the doctor had said would take upwards of 30 years to kill him, but had still advised he undergo chemo'); the chemicals they used damaged his heart and he died following a heart attack a few months after stopping the chemo'. He was a pharmacist and after a particular discussion we had talked about regarding our medical issues (we invariably talked about them in the early days), he said I think from what you have said that you are not producing some important hormones (that turned out to be Cortisol, Growth Hormone and Testosterone) and he suggested that I should get my bloods tested, which I did. By this time I'd been seen by several different specialists because that accident had left me with lot of medical issues; some of which to this day have still not been resolved. Anyway, it transpired that I wasn't producing three particular hormones which incidentally are produced in the Pituitary located in the brain. Oddly I wasn't informed of the results and nothing was done about this following the tests, so things continued onward. I was seeing a pain management specialist who had been employed by my solicitor as part of our defense against the defendants (by this time I'd been told that I must involve the NHS in the legal case as it was they who had sent me home with no treatment and therefor were complicit in many of the issues I was now suffering). While being examined by the pain specialist, she noticed the results of my blood tests and was shocked that nothing had been actioned. As I was seeing her privately she immediately booked an appointment with a colleague of hers, who was an endocrinologist. The following week I went to see her and she immediately took more bloods and got the results in less than half an hour. From those results she said I wasn't producing three important hormones. She then sent me for an MRI and before I left the private hospital four hours later I'd been informed that I had received some brain damage at the time of the accident (something I'd always believed myself, but no doctor had listened). Part of the damage was located around the pituitary gland, which explained the almost total absence of those hormones (Growth hormone is important for the repair of damaged cells as well as healthy muscle, how our bodies collect fat, the ratio of high density to low density lipoproteins in our cholesterol levels and bone density. In addition, growth hormone is needed for normal brain function. Testosterone, which apart from its obvious effect on libido is also important for the regulation of bone mass, fat distribution, muscle mass and strength, and the production of red blood cells. also cortisol, which is an important hormone that regulates a wide range of vital processes throughout the body, including metabolism and the immune response. It also has a very important role in helping the body respond to stress. I now have to take various drugs and inject myself with growth hormone every day for the rest of my life.
We were almost at the end of my legal case when I'd received this new information. I discussed this with my solicitor and was told that if they entered the new information into the legal case it would almost certainly extend the case for a minimum of another 3 to 4 years. We'd been fighting already for several years and were dog tired of all the consultations I'd had to attend on behalf of the defendants who were trying their best to mitigate the compensation. They even searched right back to my teenage years (1970's)to see if I'd had any back injuries that they could then say were the actual injuries I was claiming for; so I decided not to include the brain damage in the claim despite it being a significant injury and would potentially double the compensation I would eventually receive. Two years ater we were finally approaching the time when a court date would be announced. At the same time a beautiful bungalow in a perfect spot came on the market. We had been looking at bungalows for a couple of years, but they tended to be a lot more than a traditional two-story detached home and also way out of our budget at the time. (The cheapest we had seen was approaching (£600 000/$900 000 - exchange rates at the time were hovering around $1.5 to the pound), so I decided to accept the last offer they had made a few months previously. The Queens Council that was representing me advised me to carry on as he reckoned even without the head injury being counted he would get another 50% on top of the offer they had made. However, the bungalow was selling for significantly less than all the others we had seen (£425000), so I decided to accept and immediately put an offer on the bungalow. We moved into that bungalow several months later.
Recently I was seeing another sleep specialist as the sleep apnoea had become worse. My previous interactions with the sleep service had been of little use. They had confirmed that I was suffering from sleep apnoea, but they had determined from some sleep studies where I'd had to stay at the hospital wired up to loads of monitors that it was only mild, so I was discharged with no treatment. On my latest visits they have now changed their diagnosis and I've been prescribed CPAP, which I'm hoping will help. I've yet to receive the equipment. One surprising outcome from this latest consultation was that I was told that it was almost certain the injury to my brain that was causing this central sleep apnoea.
Apart from the above everything is hunky dory. :)
