I’d had atrial fibrillation for diagnosed two years ago which was an erratic heartbeat and, and for that I’d been taking aspirin and Sotolon I think it’s called. And I, it’s a possible factor that when, I’d run out of aspirin during this holiday that I’d had previously in Centre Parcs and I’d also, because of a knee injury had only just started heavy exercise. And, and I’d put a lot into, in search round for reasons for this happening. And it may be that it was extra exercise, it may be that I’d missed the aspirin for a few days, which is, which I had and, and that obviously, that might have caused the blood clot that caused the minor stroke.

Did he immediately say it was, he thought that it was TIAs?

Yeah. And put me straight on aspirin which was 300 mgs. I was on that for six weeks, [noise] and then reduced the dosage. And now as I say I’m in the hospital now for warfarin to come off the aspirin.

And why did you have to come off the aspirin then was it, was it disagreeing with you?

Well the it’s no.

Right.

They feel that warfarin is going to be better for me.

Right.

And stop the blood clots which I’ve got in the heart, top part of the heart, they say.

I was on medication before because I had experienced heart troubles so I was, I was on medication but it was obviously boosted up when I went into hospital, hospital with, with the stroke. And that’s continued to this day.

So you know what medication?

I do know what medication is, I can give you a list a piece of paper with them all on.

Right.

But I can’t recite it.

Does it include aspirin?

Yes, it does. It does. And I had a, when I had the blip, the mini
The mini-stroke.

Stroke, it, that it, dose of aspirin was, was increased, quite a lot.

Right, OK. So from the time you had the stroke you’ve been taking aspirin ever since

Yes.

And
Yes.

lood thinners and cholesterol tablets or something, statins?

Well, I can hand you the list.

OK, right.

And you can, you can interpret
Yeah.

that, that in there.

So, and when you say that you can hand me the list, does that mean that you kind of know what you’re taking but it’s not really that clear in your mind, about the name ?

Memory.

…just the names.

I the, well that you’re, it’s the Latin, I couldn’t recite.

Yes.

Recite it off but I certainly have got it prepared and also I’ve it around my neck. That’s contained in, in, in, in the, what, if I was taken ill out that wouldn’t be my medication.

I think they, well I, I think, if I can remember correctly, obviously they were giving me some medication but I don’t know what, probably aspirin and, which is what I’ve been on ever since.

Hmhm. OK.

And possibly something else and that, but aspirin and also they started me on medication, I think it was from that time for cholesterol as well. And for, what was it, for heart. ValstatinsIs another fact, is another medic, another they give me.

And had you been on any of those kind of meds before or is that new for you?

No, that’s when they started.

And are you aware about, you know, what the aspirin is for and why you’re taking it?

Well it’s, it’s basically as far as I can believe is that it aids to the flow of the blood. And simple as that. Yeah.

And
I mean, every time, any time I scratch myself now the blood pours out.

Does it?

Yes.

Of course, it’s thinner.

it’s much thinner, you see, and the, I mean, I scratched myself the other day, I didn’t even realise it, and next thing I knew, I looked down and I’m dripping blood on the floor.

So you’re on warfarin which thins the blood, doesn’t it? Are you on any other medication?

Enid’ Oh yes.

Geoff’ Yes.

For the T, for the TIA I mean?

Geoff’ Yes..

Did you just, did you get given aspirin?

Geoff’ Well I was on aspirin but because I’m now on warfarin, I mean, I mean, they say you don’t need aspirin if you’re on warfarin.

And did they change it for a particular reason?

Enid’ Just a moment. They kept you on, they said when we went about the warfarin that if he were on a small dosage of aspirin it would be all right to stay on it.

And then she told us that as a group, did this lady. And then she wasn’t a nurse, and then she took us in individual, she took us in individually and I asked, Well, my husband forgets things so is it all right if I come in with him So she said, Yes So I went in. So I said, Now let’s get to the bottom of this aspirin I said, He’s on a 75mg Oh, that’ll be fine, that’ll be fine So he went on the warfarin. So when they said he was losing blood in his tummy they thought it was the aspirin and the warfarin that were causing it between them and the doctor rang me, when he’d had your blood test and he said, Take him off the aspirin straight away

Right. So it was, it was having an affect on
Enid’ An affect on that, yeah.

… his health. Right.

Enid’ OK..

So, you’re now on warfarin. Any other medication for the TIA side of things? Any cholesterol
Enid’ Yes, cholesterol
Statins, is it?

Enid’ You’re on blood pressure tablets, aren’t you? Two blood pressure tablets
Geoff’ Yeah,

Enid’ And a heart tablet. Right. Well you take a tablet for your stomach. Nothing else for your, concerning your TIA.

And so how does, how does that make you feel? Have you, have you got any other side effects from the medications that you’ve had to take or do you generally tolerate them reasonably well?

Geoff’ I seem to tolerate all the medication.

Enid’ Well, the other week, a few weeks ago you said you were going dizzy when you bent down. And it was me that spotted it because I, and I said, Are you dizzy He said, Yes I said, Right, the doctor’s So the doctor looked at his prescriptions and he said, Well, I will take you off this straight away and put you on another one And he said, I’ve been on that since I had my heart by-pass He said, Yes, you probably have He said, Because then in 2001 that was the gold star He said, Now what I’m going to put you on now is the gold star

Ah, so they’ve updated it?

Enid’ So they’ve altered that, yes.

The medication, you said the simvastatins you’d had some side effects with that. What, how did it affect you?

Oh, it affected my digestive system. Yes, I had quite bad diarrhoea. And this was happening, well, the medication was prescribed at the end of October, and towards Christmas, in December, things were starting to happen uncomfortably, and so Christmas was pretty miserable, [laughs] complicated by the fact that we had visitors at New Year who brought the Norovirus with them, so I got that on top. It was a double whammy [laughs].

Not nice.

So, no, I went back to my doctor and told him what had happened, and so – well, of course we didn’t know then that it was the simvastatins that was the problem. I had to cut them all out to eliminate the possibilities one by one. But that was the first one he eliminated. And once that was done, things quietened down. And so I was then prescribed atorvastatins.

And you’ll take that indefinitely, or is it time-limited?

I assume so. I assume I will have to take all these forever, because I haven’t been told to knock any of them off.

What else are you taking?

Aspirin. Coversyl, persantin, twice a day. And atorvastatins.

And no problems with any of the others? They haven’t-?

No.

No?

No. No.

Well tell me what you’re taking. What are they giving you?

Yes, there’s, I’m taking various things, simply things like from an aspirin for thinning your blood – and it’s no use asking me for names of them all! There’s about six of them and they, they’re all related to the – no one’s actually told me about cholesterol level. My cholesterol level’s quite good, I don’t know what it is, but it’s quite good, but I’m still taking simvastatins to get it even lower, because that may be a contributing factor to it as well. But yeah, I take about six different types of medicine, and two of them, one’s simvastatins for the cholesterol, aspirin for the blood, and the rest is just for lowering my blood pressure.

And before that you were just having the one blood pressure tablet?

Yes.

Are you still on that same one?

I am, but instead of two and a half milligrams it’s now ten.

Right. Have you had side effects from that?

Well I did have side effects – not from that one, I had it from one of the other tablets, when my ankles swelled up, and really did swell up, so much so that your socks sort of cut your blood supply off [laughs], because it swells your feet up that much, you know, and hard to put your shoes on. But that’s the only side effect I have had, from all the tablets, and they just changed the tablet and its fine now.

Yes.

They just changed that particular one and its fine.

I was advised to take simvastatins by the consultant and because I’d had a very, a lot of side effects I didn’t take the simstatins. So maybe
No.

…that was the cause of my mini-stroke.

Were you ever given aspirin? Or told to take aspirin?

I can’t take aspirin.

OK.

Yes, they did mention that and they gave it to me in the hospital and I was vomiting so they took it off me.

And, so then there wasn’t an alternative that they could give instead?

No. No.

Right.

I was on medication, I was on blood pressure tablets, a stomach tablet and something to help me with the, the stroke but they, the one that they wanted me to take I didn’t take.

Right.

So now of course [laughs]

What do you feel about that now then?

Well, maybe if I’d have taken the simvastatins, maybe it wouldn’t have happened.

Right. But you won’t, you don’t know that though, do you?

We don’t know that, no. We don’t know that. But since the first stroke I’ve lost four stone, my life is more healthy now because I think that you can’t depend on drugs, you have to help yourself, you have to do things even if you don’t want. I’m not a walker but I made myself go walking after that major stroke.

So when you said you lost a lot of weight after the stroke
Yes.

… was that a deliberate attempt
Yes.

…to ..

Absolutely.

.. change things?

Absolutely.

And was that dieting and exercise? How
Yes, walking and giving up red meat biscuits, anything that I thought was bad for me I gave up.

And was that your own, at your own volition or did the doctors, is that what you were advised?

No, that’s what I did off my own bat. Because you have to help yourself. You can’t, you can’t rely on the drugs. You have to help the drugs. And at that stage I wasn’t on the simvastatin but I did everything in my power to make myself more healthy.

Have you had side effects with the medication?

Small. The strangest thing that’s happened since the incident is that for the first time in my life I’ve felt the cold. I’ve led a life which has taken me to all sorts of parts of the world, and I’ve worked at extreme temperatures, and fine. And throughout this winter, which I appreciate has been cold by British terms, I’ve felt cold. And that’s really very, very strange, that’s quite disturbing. So even inside I’ve got to wear a sweater. And I’m assuming that’s medication. I can’t think of any other reason. There’s, that’s the only change that’s occurred. I sometimes feel that there’s a little bit of indigestion with, with the medication, but no – and slight change in skin. I think the skin has become dryer. But it’s minor, it’s not a problem.

No. And the medication. You’ve got a, an anti-hypertensive. What else have you got?

I, since the incident I take five different tablets a day. They are aspirin, which is blood, blood-thinning. I think there are a couple of hypertensive drugs. There’s a platelet-reducing drug, and there’s an anti-cholesterol. Yes, so it’s five tablets a day.

Quite a cocktail, isn’t it, to remember?

It is.

How do you remember? Do you have one of those boxes with times of day?

Well, I put –[laughs]. To remember to take all the medications, I keep three at the breakfast table, so that I make sure that I take the one that’s supposed to be taken before breakfast as I prepare breakfast. Two with breakfast, that’s pretty simple. So they’re always at the breakfast table. I need to take one during the day, so I carry those in a trouser pocket, which normally helps me to remember. I’m scoring about 95 per cent on that. And then the evening tablet is by my bedside table. So that – reasonably good. But because I travel a lot I need to pack tablets and a huge quantity of pills to wander around with. And that does get difficult, especially on long-haul flights and overnights and all that sort of stuff, where you’re losing track of time. And then there’s confusion of what time of day you’re supposed to take these things. But it’s minor.

And a different schedule as well I guess when you’re out filming?

Yes, yes. My schedule changes regularly, – sorry, irregularly [laughs]. No two days are the same. So it’s pretty difficult to remember to take all the pills at the right time.

I worry much more than I used to. I worry more than is good for me, but I don’t know how to stop that.

I, they did give me some antidepressants but they sent me into such a spin and enough.

What they just made you feel funny?

It made me, well, it was like I mean, like I imagined you would feel if you take an overdose of cannabis or something. Things were, I mean I say imagineiterally. things were going in and out. I felt worse. And I, that was it.

Right.

I mean, I was told by the doctor, by the nurse, by the pharmacist, to be, not to be worried because they wouldn’t work for at least seven, maybe twelve, maybe fourteen days.

I took one and within an hour I was in a terrible state.

So you just, you didn’t bother with those after that?

I didn’t bother with any more.

In terms of kind of feeling a bit low about things have you seen the doctor about that? Have you spoken to any of the medical professionals about that?

No. No.

Is that not something that you would go down that road?

No.

Is that something you’d keep
Because I don’t
… with, is that a
I don’t
… macho thing again?

I keep that to myself, I don’t want know what they call it? Pick me ups or anything like that.

I think my cholesterol was six point something which is higher than the average, it’s what they want I know, but it’s not extortionate really.

Did you get put on any drugs ..

Yes I did.

anti-cholesterol?

Ah, yes, I got put on simvastatins. Statins. And they gave me terrible headaches.

And did you carry on taking the tablets or did you stop?

I’ve stopped.

Right.

And then the doctor went mad with me because I stopped. Because they were just giving me really bad headaches.

Were they able to provide you with an alternative or not?

The one doctor didn’t. The other doctor did. They lowered the dosage.

These drugs, I mean they’re magic, but they do have the most frightening side effects. You’re on statins, and you become depressed and you’re permanently fatigued, and your libido goes to the dogs, and you’re on these other drugs and they all have similar side effects, and gastric problems. I mean, it really doesn’t do to read all of this stuff.

And I’m on them all. And, you know, I mean I get depressed and I get completely tired. And I claim it’s because of my age, but, you know, it’s not, I don’t think it’s really. I became sufficiently worried about this that about a year ago I decided to take myself off the drugs. A self, n=1 test it’s called, where I take myself off the drugs. And I talked with my GP about this and she reckoned if I wanted to do this it was okay and she was happy to advise me about it. And she reckoned I needed to stop each drug for at least six weeks, because that’s how long for you to recover your normal condition. And so progressively over the six or nine months I stopped each drug And I got bored with this and I dropped them two at a time and to see whether, if that showed an improvement, I could then go back and work out which one of these two was it. And the answer was kind of, interestingly the answer was indeterminate. Because one’s mood changes, the weather changes, what you’re doing changes. And so there’s so many changes in one’s normal lifestyle that to try and separate from this fact whether I’m on or off the drug, I, the results were never conclusive. But certainly by the end of it – maybe it was just simply psychological, you know, you can, bootstrap is the most powerful thing of all – maybe by the end of it my symptoms were much less.

And in terms of, you know, your future health and the risk of further TIAs or minor strokes, I mean what have you been told about that, how do you think about it?

Nothing at all really. And it seems as long as I keep taking the tablets as they say. Yes. Hm. [shrugs]

So your expectation is that you keeping taken your medication and things should remain stable?

Yes, because, I actually asked some, until things…yes. I’ve actually asked if I can stop the tablets and I think the implication is that you don’t, you know, you keep taking them. But I did wonder about it. Then I had a friend who does the alternative therapy. She seems to be very into not taking them. But she’s not pressed me on that lately so

So was it her influence that led you to think about may be stopping taking your medication? Or was it your ?

Connected. Connected. But it was something that I’d, because I’d managed with Bendrofluazide, but seeing what happened with just the Bendrofluazide and not having other tablets. Or maybe it was just the stress kicking in.

Was there a side effect from that?

Bendrofluazide? – unsure really. I’ve had various things like rhinitis or sinusitis rhinitis generally, swallowing a bit. Just generally the rhinitis I think, the what do they do call it post nasal.

Blocked?

Yes, blocked and you feel all the time you can sort of

Can’t clear your nose…?But that’s something you don’t know if that’s linked?

No, I don’t. Because I had a deviated septum, but I did go to sorry to the hospital, and they said they looked, and I said about an operation for a deviated septum and she said, Well its relatively clear to be honest because of the tablets you’re taking and the risk factor and we wouldn’t, it wouldn’t be a logical step. or whatever they

So what was it that made you want to stop taking some of the medication?

I just felt perhaps I felt, well I feel well at times, you know, I feel if I’m carefully eating watching my dietary considerations, exercising, perhaps I don’t need them?

But the medics have said keep taking the tablets?

They said, yes, they did yes. I mean psychologically I do wonder about it, psychologically. And I think sometimes there are other factors that work looking after you, I suppose thinking from a spiritual background…

Yes, I mean, that’s interesting, because some people do, you know, kind of relate to that in, when they go through an illness or something like that. Is that something that’s been.

Yes, for me.

Is that since the illness or?

It’s always been that way. Always been there. And I’m not sure about the tablets. And I know the alternative therapy lady said, It’s a shame to see you going down that road. She said that about five years ago.

And is that to do with not kind of wanting to pollute your body with

Yes. I think it is actually.

drugs?

Yes, yes.

And what sort of alternative, have you looked into any kind of alternative therapies that you might take on?

Some of them yes. Then others – people say, oh they’re untested and they unproven. So, yes, I have looked. Obviously they’re not on the NHS. You have to pay for them privately or whatever, so

What kind of things have you thought about?

Oh. I’ve heard the names of them, but usually they look to me as a small white tablet, that this particular lady has. She sometimes she gets them from Tunbridge Wells.

Are they herbal things like that?

Yes, herbal thing, herbal homeopathic. Hm. And there’s Chinese medicine and all sorts. I’m looking into things and perhaps I’ll go along those lines.

You’re thinking about that for the future may be?

Yes, the future. Although I feel the GP service would be totally, well unhappy about it.

And would that make you think again about it, you know, if you wanted to do something that wasn’t advised by the medical profession is that something you would take. How would you feel about that?

I feel you would have to weigh all the factors up. And also when one’s close what’s it….partner, relative, seems to be against it. Because you have to go by, well you have to go by what you feel personally, and their experience is something that they’ve had a lot of experience perhaps in a certain field, and plus my wife is very against alternative, I think more or less alternative, because she’s worked in the mainstream medical.

So you wouldn’t necessarily rule it out?

No I wouldn’t.

Part of the diagnostics on the first afternoon included an ultrasonic scan. And the ultrasonic scan is a device that uses ultrasonics, very, very impressive technology, to measure the flow rate and to image the artery. And looking at the flow rate, they could see that there was some slight obstruction, it was about a 50 per cent obstruction, to my blood flow. Well, to me that’s a bit scary. That means only half the blood’s getting to the brain that should. And I think I need it all. And I wonder whether that’s a cause of some of this memory loss that people have, simply partial blockage. I’m sure this has been intensively researched. I haven’t looked into this. The thought just popped up right now. And the other part was that they could find that there was about a 40 per cent blockage on my left artery, and there was this 60 per cent furry blockage on my right artery. These furry blockages grow very quickly, and because it’s kind of furry they’re likely to be unstable and to have pieces, fragments that separate and they’re entrained in the bloodstream and into the capillaries of the brain. And so it was as a consequence of the ultrasonic scan. And in fact, looking at this now with hindsight and my picture, this is the magic diagnostic. Of course I’m only pointing at the carotid and I don’t know whether the other arteries have similar breakaways. But I wouldn’t have thought so, because – I’m not too sure on the physiology of this – but my understanding is that the carotid directly connects the heart, presumably comes off the aortic artery and then – so the only, it would either be a blockage in the aorta or – I think that’s the artery – or it would be a blockage in the carotid. So maybe all of these problems are caused by blockages in the carotid artery. And if this is the case, then to find out you just have to run this scan.

But the odds looked like, they claimed that there was about, possibly about a 3 per cent likelihood of my having a second TIA following this. Or I could have the surgery, this endarterectomy, where they cut open my carotid, carefully scrape out the clot and sew, stitch everything back up together again. And we investigated that. And the national average of having an episode during surgery or close, caused by surgery, is about 5 per cent.

So, however, I was at [city] and at the [hospital], and their track record is very, very much better. The very best that the nation has is about 2Ω per cent, the very best surgeon. And it’s a very dubious paper, this, because I have the feeling there was some cherry-picking in that hospital and this surgeon only did the cases that he knew wouldn’t go bad. And the surgeon who was doing mine, she was about 3 per cent, which I realised was pretty outstanding for the operation. But on the other hand it was exactly the same risk as leaving the clot there and not getting any worse. This is a nightmarish decision because you really, the data you have really isn’t statistically sound enough to make a decision. But you do know that frankly you’re going to close your eyes and blindly make a random choice. And it’s terrifying. Because if you actually went into surgery and came out and you’d had another stroke, which is the most common problem, that another clot breaks out during the trauma of the surgery, or just you have a, surgery is risky under its own account, and so you suddenly find yourself frankly semi-vegetative, you’d really hate yourself for the operation. But the thought of living for the rest of my life with this sword hanging over me waiting for the chunk to break off and get caught up in my brain capillaries – so I finally decided to go with the operation. But it was with most serious misgivings.

So, okay, two weeks later you realise the symptoms have completely vanished now. So it’s very hard to face surgery when as far as I’m concerned I’m cured. And it’s a hard decision. And it’s really terribly important to find people who can help you with making this correct answer. I was very lucky. My wife is unbelievably supportive and we have access to all of this material.

But anyhow, so I had these doubts about having the surgery. And the anaesthetist was really tremendously supportive and even whilst he was prepping me for the operation he was explaining that, If you really don’t want to go with this, you can still pull out And I felt that the fact that the hospital maintained this position that it was my choice till the last minute, if – that was to me a very encouraging sign that these people were really up, right up there.

The operation’s a bit peculiar and I don’t think I’ll go into the details here. But because they want to make sure that you don’t lose blood circulation to the brain, when they cut the carotid open, of course, there’s no circulation to the left side of the brain because peculiarly [pause] – to the right side of the brain, there’s no circulation to the right side of the brain, because peculiarly the right side of the brain is what operates the left hand. So far. And because they want to make sure that the right side of my brain is still functioning, they don’t actually give me an anaesthetic. I’m not unconscious. In fact they want me to talk to them, they want me to describe my condition. They keep asking me, Who is the Prime Minister and Where is the operation happening and Which county are you in and Would you tell us little stories And, well, I’d just recently had a wonderful adventure, so I told them all about this wonderful adventure. I do hope they were entertained. And it’s a bit scary because you can feel your life symptoms getting better and getting worse as these operations proceed. You know, your blood pressure varies and things like this happen, and suddenly you have this terrible feeling that you’re sinking.

But, but also it’s a very great advantage to have not had an anaesthetic, because as soon as you’re all out of the operating room, you’re essentially well. And within ten minutes I was sitting up and hungry, but they wouldn’t feed me, and chatting to people and, within an hour or so – my memory of the times might be wrong. Other people say I was, it seemed like I was gone forever. But as they were sitting in the ward waiting for me, wondering whether I’d come back on alive or dead, they probably felt it took a long time too. Recovery was complete. I didn’t have any symptoms before. I don’t have any symptoms after. The surgeon very carefully laid the scar in a crease in my neck, of which I’m getting too many, and so you can’t even see the scar. And so when I explain to miscellaneous doctors that I’ve had this operation and it was on the right-hand side, they look and they say, No, no, it must have been the other sid, as if I didn’t know.