Most Of Us Will Suffer From Health Problems At Some Time In Our Lives, But Some Folk Show Incredible Courage When Forced To Deal With Ongoing And Serious Health Conditions

As we get older, we all discover that some parts of our bodies don’t work quite as well as they once did and some unlucky people seem destined to suffer from one problem after another throughout their lives. However, a lot of the people who appear to have many health problems often show a resilience that the remainder of us have to envy.

I am aware of two such individuals who I’ve known who have exhibited a determination that has kept them going for a lot longer than medical science would have suggested. My dad developed asthma as a young man, which meant that he frequently suffered from periods of breathlessness and needed inhalers from a young age. Around the age of 45 he was admitted to hospital with a very serious asthma attack and shortly after that he experienced a cardiac arrest. We were told that he had no more than a fifty per cent chance of pulling through and we were told that if he did make it there was a very real likelihood that he would have suffered some level of brain damage as his brain had been deprived of oxygen for too long.

However, he did live and his brain was not affected intellectually although his physical reflexes had slowed down somewhat. A few years later, whilst hospitalised again after another dangerous asthma attack, he advised the staff of other symptoms and was told he had bowel cancer. Fortunately it was at a very early stage and he underwent successful treatment for it.

In later years, his lungs and heart became so badly damaged that he needed to be hooked up to a permanent oxygen pipe and became virtually housebound. His lungs were so awful that simply moving from one seat to another would leave him gasping for breath and totally unable to manage anything else at all. Even lifting a glass to his lips was impossible. He died three years ago, but to live into his seventies whilst suffering from such debilitating problems truly was an achievement.

The mother of a good friend has suffered a similar list of health problems. She got polio as a youngster, was confined to an iron lung throughout her childhood and was not expected to walk again. She confounded the doctors by teaching herself to walk and went on to become a singer and after that trained as a nursery teacher. She married and had three children despite being advised that she was unable to have children, and spent many years tending to her husband after he broke his neck and developed a dangerous heart infection.

However, soon after her husband’s death, she had an unpleasant fall which destroyed her ankle and this, together with the beginnings of severe arthritis in both legs and arms, led to her becoming almost totally housebound. She also had a lung complaint and then began to have problems with her vision. Surgery on one eye left her in a lot of pain, and despite being recommended Laser eye surgery for the other eye, she didn’t want to get it done after the nasty experience she’d had after the conventional eye surgery.

A chest infection a couple of years ago had a serious effect on her already diseased lungs and left her in hospital literally minutes from death, but somehow she managed to keep breathing and made a slow recovery. However, she now has to use a constant oxygen supply and has had no alternative other than to go and live in a residential care home where her mobility issues and breathing complaints are reviewed on a regular basis.

Since settling into the home though, she is now able to mix with other residents rather than spending a lot of time alone at home. She now takes more care with her appearance, and has become a big favourite with the staff because of her feisty outlook on life. Whilst she frequently says that the place isn’t ‘home’, it has undoubtedly given her a new lease of life. A recent trip to the optician again suggested that she have Laser eye treatment on her other eye as she was having difficulty when looking at the television, and this time she actually thought it a good idea to go and see an eye specialist for a Laser eye surgery assessment.

She recently visited the local hospital where a extremely friendly specialist carried out the Laser eye treatment and at last she realised just how bad her vision had become. Her big complaint now? That when she looks in the mirror, she can now see how old she has become!