Well folks, had a bit of a wake up call last week. Finished my shift and headed off home, on the way home felt kinda strange weird ■■■■ going on with my vision and a kinda indescribable feeling.
Got home made dinner had a shower with a headache coming on,so I decides to head to bed. Couldn’t get to sleep due to my head getting worse by now it’s really pounding behind my right eye.
My wife gets in from work, and to cut a long story short,I’m up at the local hospital and unusually for here I’m straight in to an A+E cubicle. BP checked after a short chat Bang…227/121 doctor says that’s about as high as you can get without either a stroke or a heart attack…lucky escape. Spent 2 days on the ward constant checks every 4hrs and numerous blood tests and full MOT. I’m now out and advised not to drive until my BP is stable but just now it’s still pretty high 183/113 but not as dangerous. It’s something u don’t feel but it can hit anyone at anytime. I didn’t realise and if I had just left it I probably wouldn’t be here telling this story. I have been in this game nigh on 30 years now and very rarely had a day off or needed to see a doctor, I’m typical like a lot of us drivers,where we just get up and get on with it, working through the aches and pains and the like. I’m supposedly going to be fit enough to return to work in a week or so but will be on pills for the foreseeable future. Problem that I have is I don’t really want to go back, I know it’s the stress of the job that is doing it and realising that if I keep going I’m only going to make things worse so I’m looking to change my career because I’m not prepared to die for a job
Your last words say it all , good on you for realising the problem and knowing the cure
New pastures
bigsidney:
I have been in this game nigh on 30 years now and very rarely had a day off or needed to see a doctor, I’m typical like a lot of us drivers,where we just get up and get on with it, working through the aches and pains and the like.
Can confirm. Ended up having emergency spinal surgery on my L2/L3 disc in 2019 as a result and unfortunately damage to my spinal chord had already been done so bits of my left leg don’t work and I’ve not felt my big toe since 16/8/2019. I was stupid enough to go back to driving and have knackered it up again over the last 12 months and this week am off sick with it, not as bad as back then but I really should have knocked it on the head 18 months ago.That was my second chance and I wasted it all because of a mindset common in this job that harks back to the 1970s and 80s which many on here believe was the golden era of the job.
You have “life” experience so perhaps scheduler for a transport company?
I have not driven professionally now for 3 years and do not miss it much.
The days of working for those want to shaft you are over.
You might be able to get re trained via the job centre so something to look at as a possibility?
I for a while did volunteer work and very enjoyable to give something back to society.
I sadly not have all the answers but after a doom bar I might.
You see it time and time again, the guys who have been absolute tear arsing stress heads, maxing out all the time on their endurance test of a job, flat out all day, minimum rests in crap holes, and if they don’t die before retirement age, they do within a year having burned themselves out. 
Not referring to o/p as I don’t know him, but speaking generally.
That is why I give the job a layed back approach, I rarely stress out, I’ll give 100%, but if my stuff gets there late, the ■■■■ world won’t end.
It makes for an easier job and life.
Edit… Sat here now waiting for my reg on a screen to appear for a re.load.
Seat back, feet on dash, coffee on, radio on, posting on Trucknet, whilst watching guys around me, running back and forwards to their cabs, and pacing and prowling, eyes glued to screen…case in point.
I’d look into being a shunter. Most of their time is spent reading newspapers or watching YouTube videos.
Either way gl.
It often takes an event to act as a kick up one’s backside. Doesn’t have to be health events either. Can be anything.
Too often in this job you end up in a cycle. You need the money, what else will you do, still enjoy it etc etc etc. Many reasons.
What changed it for me was being put on furlough. For the first time, ever probably, I had time beyond the basic four or so weeks annual holidays where you try and cram everything in. I spent time with my wife which we hadn’t done properly for years due to work and whatnot, I bonded with my lad in a way that I’d never really done before. Now I’m his Dad, not just his father.
It made me realise that there’s more to life. I actually afforded dropping 20% wages really easily and still lived well so from then on it became a case of me doing what I was willing to do rather than what I thought I needed to do. Weekends and nights out are gone unless I fancy kipping out for the night and I’m much more focused on the family. I used to look for other class one jobs on indeed, now I look at ALL jobs.
Theres more to life than “crack on cracking on” kinda thing. Sometimes it just takes something to realise it.
toonsy:
It often takes an event to act as a kick up one’s backside. Doesn’t have to be health events either. Can be anything.Too often in this job you end up in a cycle. You need the money, what else will you do, still enjoy it etc etc etc. Many reasons.
What changed it for me was being put on furlough. For the first time, ever probably, I had time beyond the basic four or so weeks annual holidays where you try and cram everything in. I spent time with my wife which we hadn’t done properly for years due to work and whatnot, I bonded with my lad in a way that I’d never really done before. Now I’m his Dad, not just his father.
It made me realise that there’s more to life. I actually afforded dropping 20% wages really easily and still lived well so from then on it became a case of me doing what I was willing to do rather than what I thought I needed to do. Weekends and nights out are gone unless I fancy kipping out for the night and I’m much more focused on the family. I used to look for other class one jobs on indeed, now I look at ALL jobs.
Theres more to life than “crack on cracking on” kinda thing. Sometimes it just takes something to realise it.
I was the same on furlough, enjoyed every minute of it, mostly sat in the garden in the sun, I’d jack tomorrow if I could afford to maintain a decent standard of living.
I often put on here that I have knocked it back to 4 days…sure you’ve all noticed 
(mostly because I’m so ■■■■ pleased with myself 
)
I don’t mind nights out as I’ve done nothing else, but the 5 nights out a week, or the weekending and then another 5 is history.
Said it before,.say it again there is more to life than spending it in a effin truck. 
I too missed a lot of my kids, but I like to think I was a good Dad to the 4 of them when I was home,.and when they came with me on school hols…that was also good Dad bonding.
I changed my attitude about 12 years ago when on applying for my licence I got knocked back on blood pressure, not sure if it was job related or not, but it was a wake up call anyhow.
sadly a lot of drivers bring these situations on themselves cause they dont cut their cloth accordingly. in this world of must haves it will never change…
p.s this is not aimed at o/p just the many thousnds who do… life is for living not gathering as many possesions as you can…
Maybe see about working a lot less hours per week. What about general life style ? What about some sort of hobby or interest, walking , bowls , golf fishing just learn to chill. More to life than having “things”.
Aye I know what your going through , just over a year ago the old jimbo near died flat on my back ,out for the count for half an hr in - teens /blowing snow while changing trailers . Life has changed for ever and I still have problems with not driving again after 40yrs . The brain is a strange thing for sure. Only three yrs to 65 and my memory is shot along with many neuro problems from hypothermia . And not a lot going out in the sticks , my only wish is I could have finished on my own terms . , I always said I wasn’t prepared to die in a freight liner little did I know I nearly did next to it!!
I hope you get better soon , do you have to notify DVLA medical section? But be careful as if you ring them up they decide what action to take on the information given in the phone call with no medical evidence they basically decide your fate and drivers have to appeal later if they take away a license, appeals are only accepted from a magistrate within a time frame.
Basically any contact with DVLA is pointless has they refuse to divulge any updates.
Get one of these and check your own bp, we’ve now realised after checking am/ pm at home ( filling a form in doctors gave me ) that my blood bp is reasonable when checked at home or on the road ( portable ) , but is up when at hospital / clinic / doctors , I get wound up ( anxious) wondering what there going to tell me / do next , there’s a name they use white syndrome or something like that
Doctors should give you one of bp monitors but not normally got one so you could wait months , my girl got me this , money well spent .
Anyone know how many days a week Robroy is doing these days?
This is common with drivers as a lot just convince themselves 70 hr weeks and 4/5 nights out are “normal”.
I packed the tramping in just before I got married and started a family,
What kicked it off is my moods were terrific bike Sunday nights I’d go in to a deep depression at the thought of another week away with work been piled on me…
Then the Mrs picked me up from the yard one Saturday at 1pm after a week away I put my stuff in the car and she said said “come on it take you for a pint”.
It was a nice sunny day and say out side the pub I fell asleep on the bench after about 5 minutes 
Then my Mrs said right that’s enough you change jobs your gonna end up dead.
I took a job on local container work average 10-12 hour a day h9me nearly every night and no pressure,it gives me a family life with the kids too and is 5 minutes from my house,we get the dad 15 hour shift but not many.
Contrast me with my mate who carried on well he is on blood pressure tablets his weight has ballooned as he “don’t have time to eat properly” has sleep apnea and is on 12 month licence reviews from dvla and constantly stressed but he keeps saying “I need to max out Id only be sat at home” like it’s some sort of justification for working like a dog.
dave docwra:
Anyone know how many days a week Robroy is doing these days?
Have I not mentioned it?
I’ll let you know. 
You’ve done it now.
Now I know I’m annoying people, I’ll just do it all the more,…you know what I’m like.
Just can’t help being smug.
dave docwra:
Anyone know how many days a week Robroy is doing these days?
Sat nights , Sunday from what I’ve read of late , so doesn’t look anyway legal to me, wouldn’t suprise me if 2 cards were involved , always struck me something dodgy about rob , at Tesco livingstone one day , a farm in Cornwall the next !!!
dozy:
dave docwra:
Anyone know how many days a week Robroy is doing these days?Sat nights , Sunday from what I’ve read of late , so doesn’t look anyway legal to me, wouldn’t suprise me if 2 cards were involved , always struck me something dodgy about rob , at Tesco livingstone one day , a farm in Cornwall the next !!!
Thats a new low even for you Dozy, the mans been nothing but kind to you over the years, dishing out advice to try and help you and you come out with this pish! I shake my bloody head, I really do.
scottie0011:
dozy:
dave docwra:
Anyone know how many days a week Robroy is doing these days?Sat nights , Sunday from what I’ve read of late , so doesn’t look anyway legal to me, wouldn’t suprise me if 2 cards were involved , always struck me something dodgy about rob , at Tesco livingstone one day , a farm in Cornwall the next !!!
Thats a new low even for you Dozy, the mans been nothing but kind to you over the years, dishing out advice to try and help you and you come out with this pish! I shake my bloody head, I really do.
Cheers mate, but he loves me really.
Yep banged to rights doze, ‘Dodgy Rob’, is what they call me, runs as bent as a 9 bob note, sleep is a luxury.
I really need to slow down, running myself to a frazzle. 
(But keep it to yourself )
If anyone was planning on getting their own BP monitor, there is an approved list of models to choose from.