Went to bed around midnight last night,within a few minutes I had this severe stabbing pain in the right side of my chest,right hand slightly tingling and shortness of breath.Just indigestion I thought.
My missus wanted to call the doctor when after twenty minutes it didn’t get any better.
Instead,she ran me down to the hospital in St.Truiden,straight round to the emergency entrance,where they admitted me straight away and hooked me up to heart monitors,a drip and took some blood for tests,as well as a chest x-ray.
It turned out that there was nothing untoward with my heart,and they said I’d probably been hyper-ventilating,which is usually brought on by stress.
However,they wanted me to stay in overnight to keep and eye on me and so that I could be seen by the cardiologist this morning.
He gave me the all-clear to go home but I have to go back on Monday for some tests.
I have to admit,it was quite worrying when you don’t actually know at the time what the problem is,straight away I thought ‘heart attack’.
This year has been pretty bad for me health-wise.
In Janurary I had a week off with severe gout,which I now have to take medication for.For the rest of my life.
Around April time I was diagnosed as type-2 diabetic.I had to lose weight and watch my diet.And take medication for the rest of my life.
In May I was off for five weeks with damaged nerves,of which they are still trying to find the cause.
Last month I was suffering with painful feet,mainly in the bottom of my heels.They said I had flat feet (there goes my police career!) and now have to wear inner-soles.
I have to admit,I am overweight,though not as much as a year ago,and although I have virtually cut out alcohol,I do like my food.
I walk quite a bit at the weekends thanks to having a labrador but need to do more.
KW:
Went to bed around midnight last night,within a few minutes I had this severe stabbing pain in the right side of my chest,right hand slightly tingling and shortness of breath.Just indigestion I thought.
My missus wanted to call the doctor when after twenty minutes it didn’t get any better.
Instead,she ran me down to the hospital in St.Truiden,straight round to the emergency entrance,where they admitted me straight away and hooked me up to heart monitors,a drip and took some blood for tests,as well as a chest x-ray.
It turned out that there was nothing untoward with my heart,and they said I’d probably been hyper-ventilating,which is usually brought on by stress.
However,they wanted me to stay in overnight to keep and eye on me and so that I could be seen by the cardiologist this morning.
He gave me the all-clear to go home but I have to go back on Monday for some tests.
I have to admit,it was quite worrying when you don’t actually know at the time what the problem is,straight away I thought ‘heart attack’.
This year has been pretty bad for me health-wise.
In Janurary I had a week off with severe gout,which I now have to take medication for.For the rest of my life.
Around April time I was diagnosed as type-2 diabetic.I had to lose weight and watch my diet.And take medication for the rest of my life.
In May I was off for five weeks with damaged nerves,of which they are still trying to find the cause.
Last month I was suffering with painful feet,mainly in the bottom of my heels.They said I had flat feet (there goes my police career!) and now have to wear inner-soles.
I have to admit,I am overweight,though not as much as a year ago,and although I have virtually cut out alcohol,I do like my food.
I walk quite a bit at the weekends thanks to having a labrador but need to do more.
So,are you as fit and healthy as you think?
All the things you mention mate are symptoms of the job along with stomach ulcers and the old “farmer Giles” , I had a scare last year when it looked like I was gonna fail my medical due to high blood pressure, to get around it I cut out cooked breakfasts, and done regular excercise on a treadmill, and felt better for it. Anyway good to hear you got the all clear on the heart side, and good luck with the rest of it.
harry:
You are still in trauma over the broken sign. God sent you a sign - take a holiday.
Not sure about the God bit , but your body has certainly sent you a sign that it ain’t happy with the way you’re treating it and wants a break/some pampering, so take heed because next time it’ll do a lot more than just send you a ‘warning’ sign.
You may remember reading my old diaries on here from the early/mid ‘noughties’ and I used to so ridiculously stressed with the job that I was nearly bursting vessels. I used to stuff my face with [zb] food as a sort of comfort thing after a stressful day and the end result was that I went from 12st 10 to 16st 10 in the space of 2 years and my BP was climbing off the end of the dial. I had a couple of ‘intense stabbing chest pain’ moments like you’ve had and that was the wake-up call for me to do something about it.
My ‘solution’ was to knock the full-time 70hr weeks of tramping on the head as I was finding just the weekly routine of the job stressful on its own. I went back on agency and then later s/e where I could pick and choose my work and that made a huge difference just on its own. The next step was the remove myself from the rat race of automatically driving everywhere on the limiter because, well, that’s what everyone does, right? Just setting the cruise 5mph less and adopting a “it’ll get there when it gets there” attitude worked wonders for me, instead of constantly stressing about meeting delivery times.
I tried a few times to alter my diet but it’s easier said than done when you’re out of the house for up to 15hrs a day and the temptation of a fried breakfast or BK/McD usually wins in the end, but instead I spent a few hundred quid on a nice lightweight alloy mountain bike and went out to the cycle track every day and did a minimum of 5 miles. Hard work at first but if you stick at it it gets easier on legs and lungs every day and you soon start to enjoy it and cycle further simply because you don’t feel knackered like you did when you first started.
I’m in a different line of work altogether now and only very occasionally do any driving work, but I don’t miss it now. All the red tape, H&S BS, traffic, hours, pay and generally being treated like a simpleton/scum (delete as appropriate) wherever you go is enough hassle to send even the sanest person into an early grave.
I thought that having appendicitis and gout were zb painful until I recently had pancreatitis.Then to add insult to injury the hospital blamed it on booze although I’ve always drunk less than the figure they say is reasonable and now I can’t even have a zb pint down the local for life .I don’t know what’s worse that or the fact that they said this time I was lucky to still be here and the next time I might not be.
harry:
You are still in trauma over the broken sign. God sent you a sign - take a holiday.
I was just thinking the same thing harry,I was looking through this year’s diary last week and found I’d only had four days holiday this year.And six weeks on the sick!
Think it’s gonna be a three week Christmas break this year
harry:
You are still in trauma over the broken sign. God sent you a sign - take a holiday.
Not sure about the God bit , but your body has certainly sent you a sign that it ain’t happy with the way you’re treating it and wants a break/some pampering, so take heed because next time it’ll do a lot more than just send you a ‘warning’ sign.
You may remember reading my old diaries on here from the early/mid ‘noughties’ and I used to so ridiculously stressed with the job that I was nearly bursting vessels. I used to stuff my face with [zb] food as a sort of comfort thing after a stressful day and the end result was that I went from 12st 10 to 16st 10 in the space of 2 years and my BP was climbing off the end of the dial. I had a couple of ‘intense stabbing chest pain’ moments like you’ve had and that was the wake-up call for me to do something about it.
My ‘solution’ was to knock the full-time 70hr weeks of tramping on the head as I was finding just the weekly routine of the job stressful on its own. I went back on agency and then later s/e where I could pick and choose my work and that made a huge difference just on its own. The next step was the remove myself from the rat race of automatically driving everywhere on the limiter because, well, that’s what everyone does, right? Just setting the cruise 5mph less and adopting a “it’ll get there when it gets there” attitude worked wonders for me, instead of constantly stressing about meeting delivery times.
I tried a few times to alter my diet but it’s easier said than done when you’re out of the house for up to 15hrs a day and the temptation of a fried breakfast or BK/McD usually wins in the end, but instead I spent a few hundred quid on a nice lightweight alloy mountain bike and went out to the cycle track every day and did a minimum of 5 miles. Hard work at first but if you stick at it it gets easier on legs and lungs every day and you soon start to enjoy it and cycle further simply because you don’t feel knackered like you did when you first started.
I’m in a different line of work altogether now and only very occasionally do any driving work, but I don’t miss it now. All the red tape, H&S BS, traffic, hours, pay and generally being treated like a simpleton/scum (delete as appropriate) wherever you go is enough hassle to send even the sanest person into an early grave.
Oh! you’re so right Rob.
I normally drive with the cruise set to 85k/ph and let the flyer’s come past and do their thing.
I get there when I get there,there’s always another day tomorrow.
I very rarely eat out,I try to buy the healthiest microwave meals I can,and they are a lot smaller portions than you’d get in a restaurant/truckstop.
I used to drink.A lot.Now I may have a can of beer with my dinner on a Saturday,or not.It doesn’t bother me.
The last few weeks I’ve felt tired and hungry.I went to my GP last Friday and it turns out that my blood sugar level is now too low,so she has changed my medication to a lower dose.That’s also the reason I’ve gained 4kg in two weeks!
This job is the the only thing I ever wanted to do,but over the last couple of years the stress and long hours have made me think again.
If I could get out and walk into a different career tomorrow I would.But I don’t know anything else.
And working in a factory or something would drive me nuts.Or even more nuts anyway.
I normally drive with the cruise set to 85k/ph and let the flyer’s come past and do their thing.
I get there when I get there,there’s always another day tomorrow.
I very rarely eat out,I try to buy the healthiest microwave meals I can,and they are a lot smaller portions than you’d get in a restaurant/truckstop.
I used to drink.A lot.Now I may have a can of beer with my dinner on a Saturday,or not.It doesn’t bother me.
The last few weeks I’ve felt tired and hungry.I went to my GP last Friday and it turns out that my blood sugar level is now too low,so she has changed my medication to a lower dose.That’s also the reason I’ve gained 4kg in two weeks!
This job is the the only thing I ever wanted to do,but over the last couple of years the stress and long hours have made me think again.
If I could get out and walk into a different career tomorrow I would.But I don’t know anything else.
And working in a factory or something would drive me nuts.Or even more nuts anyway.
You can stay with what you’re doing but you need to have will-power and discipline to make the changes that your body is asking for. It sounds like you’ve already identified what the problems are so that’s the biggest part of it sorted. You’ve just got to concentrate on your diet and fitting some exercise in somewhere.
Re : Gout. I was told to take those pills everyday for the rest of my life also. I was told they take 3 months before they kick in. They didn’t work so i stopped. I tried all the diets ,cutting out booze,red meat, dairy products ect. That doesn’t work either. The only thing that works for me is when I feel the slightest twinge take Indometacin capsules 3 times a day & it cures it. It also cures toothache - so its a bonus if you get gout & toothache at the same time.These days I can take 1 a day or 2, depending on the severity of the attack. But be warned Indo has side effects like ‘shouting at strangers’ - no prob there for a trucker but can be awkward on a plane.What causes gout for me is the change in the weather & in UK it will change 4 times a day. If I go to Thailand where the climate is the same 12 months of the year I get it maybe once or twice. Altho I have a comfortable life the UK I might have to end up living in the Land Of Smiles , instead of dying slowly in the good old UKAY Ltd.
Never even took aspirin my whole life but when you enter the Zone your body gives you warnings that that you would be foolish to ignore.
PS. I have given up the booze that’s why I spend hours on here without having a rant. Indomet & booze make for interesting thought patterns & behavior. But you don’t make many friends…
Sorry to hear your tales of woe Keith, good job you ain’t a horse, you’d be in the glue factory by now At least you’re sorting things out now, better late than never
I recently went into the Doctors as I kept getting pins and needles in the ring and little finger of my left hand, 2 mins later I was in the hospital next door hooked up to an EKG, had a shot of Nitro Glycerine etc etc, it scared the living daylights out of me, luckily everything came back fine, it’s standard practice to do this with middle aged men showing any kind of pain or blood restriction in the arm, not just the left one either, evidently I have the blood pressure of a teenager, which is comforting news, the pins and needles turned out to be Cubital Tunnel syndrome, that’s a trapped nerve in the elbow, caused by having my left arm on the arm rest all day which means the elbow is bent, we’re not designed to be bent, we’re made to stand up straight with our arms down by our sides, that’s why we get back problems too.
KW have just read this after a short stay in Gods country Great Britain
I am glad to hear that the doctor said you are okay, all I can say is take it easy mate
life is for living not working ones self to the bone, @wheelnut mate there is a life after driving you will love it and then enjoy the thrill
of driving the car or bike on the roads checking the driving skill of those truckers on the road
and moaning when they act in a unprofessional way that you would have never done,
take it easy, folks ,
May I thank everyone for their kind words and consideration.
Went to see cardiologist on Monday,hooked up to ECG again and then on the echo-gram.Everything okay,no heart problems and nothing untoward showed up on the chest x-ray.
Then he gets me on the exercise bike for ten minutes,which gradually gets harder and harder to pedal,but I manage it even though my legs are killing me!
So,I have to lose 19kg!!! to get down to my BMI weight.I told him,there’s nothing wrong with my weight,it’s just that I’m two feet too short.He didn’t appreciate the humour.
What he did say is,that if I lose enough weight,the diabetes will dissappear! I didn’t realise that.
Anyway,I then went to see the neurologist who’s looking into my damaged nerve problem.
He did the same tests as last time which came out the same,so I’m off for an MRI scan on 22/10 where they will scan my lower back,as he suspects that’s where the problem could lie.
Then,Monday evening I go to see my GP (She’s gorgeous by the way!) and report to her what the other’s said.
I also tell her about my short term memory,which is getting worse.I can recall stuff that happened 30 odd years ago,and even stuff from when I was a toddler,but if you ask me where I went last week or the week before…well I haven’t got a clue,I’d have to look in my diary.
I also have a problem listening to someone if there is a crowd of people around,I seem to hear loads of voices but can’t concentrate on the one that’s talking directly in front of me.
GP (the gorgeous one) is quite worried as she said that’s the symptoms of someone developing alzheimers,but she say’s I’m much too young for that (I may have lied about my age to impress her ) so it’ll be yet another trip to the neurologist.
I wouldn’t mind,but I was only in there with the neurologist 20mins last Monday and came out €158 poorer!
Good job the health insurance picks up most of it!
Kieth mate have the GP do a check as regards the sleeping illness as
it is one of the problems that occur I know as I suffer from this as well
and my short term memory is effluent , what’s even better is the answer
my expert specialist gave me,WRITE IT all down before you forget it
was even better,
KW:
Went to bed around midnight last night,within a few minutes I had this severe stabbing pain in the right side of my chest,right hand slightly tingling and shortness of breath.Just indigestion I thought.
I had exactly the same symptons about 4 years ago (only 33 at the time). Blood tests, ECG, chest x-rays and an overnight stay in hospital. Result, not stress, but Pericarditis (don’t know if it spelled right), Few days of work and some anti-inflammatory pills later am right as rain, so that might be a route to check.
The pain in the chest & having to rush to hospital must have been frightening for you. I think a lot of us need to take a look at how fit we are, I know a lot of drivers, me included who are overweight & need to alter how I do things. I now exercise daily & I do my best to reduce my fat, sugar & sugar intake. I add nothing to my food so what’s in it is all I have. I don’t drink or smoke & things are getting better slowly. I certainly want to avoid having the fright you had.
In your thread you mention suffering from Gout. I may be able to suggest something that could avoid you being on medication for it for the rest of your life. I woke up one morning feeling like my big toe was in a pair of bolt croppers, prior to this I’d laughed at a workmate for taking time off because he couldn’t get his workboots on. I certainly knew why that morning. I surfed the net searching for some relief from it & I came across a website for Cherryactive, I gave them a call & spoke to a chap called John Carey, I explained my situation & asked his if he felt his product would help me. He assured me it would so I bought some of the Concentrate which arrive mail order the following morning. I’ve taken it daily ever since, it does exactly what it claims to do as far as gout is concerned. It’s also said to detox your body & improve your sleep quality, I’m sure this is true too. cherryactive.co.uk It’s well worth a look at their website for anyone who suffers with the pain gout brings. I guess you can buy it in Belgium too if you wished to try it in place of gout tablets. They sell capsules as well as Concentate but I don’t get on with the capsules & therefore I only take the concentrate & I think it’s brilliant stuff.
looking for bit of advice from anyone my best friend at work collapsed at home been diagnosed as having irregular heart beat appears to be missing a beat hence collapse not allowed to drive anything at the moment what do they do to sort that and whats his chance of keeping his hgv if he does how long will that be before he can drive again is there a time scale involved
huggy:
looking for bit of advice from anyone my best friend at work collapsed at home been diagnosed as having irregular heart beat appears to be missing a beat hence collapse not allowed to drive anything at the moment what do they do to sort that and whats his chance of keeping his hgv if he does how long will that be before he can drive again is there a time scale involved
1st he should be sent for test by his GP then it is wait & see until he had some of the test done ECG or an extended ECG this may be at Dr or local hospital then wait for results then depends on that
Sorry if not the answer you were looking for but that is best I can give
At least you’ll know what you’re letting yourself in for.
thats nasty stuff loli had it also in both elbows alongside carpel tunnel (both wrists) its heredetery generaly more common in women thoughnone of the women in my family have suffered my father had it in both elbows and one wrist so i had it worse but was lucky to have all 4 ops done the same day and now fully cured and no more probs
, I had a scare last year when it looked like I was gonna fail my medical due to high blood pressure, to get around it I cut out cooked breakfasts, and done regular excercise on a treadmill, and felt better for it. Anyway good to hear you got the all clear on the heart side, and good luck with the rest of it.
, but your body has certainly sent you a sign that it ain’t happy with the way you’re treating it and wants a break/some pampering, so take heed because next time it’ll do a lot more than just send you a ‘warning’ sign. 
.I don’t know what’s worse that or the fact that they said this time I was lucky to still be here and the next time I might not be. 
