Picc A Boo Diary entry #1
In 2018 my dad went to the doctors for a number of small but minor reasons, whilst he was there, he saw an advert on the tv about getting a check-up for prostate cancer done. So, he asked the doctor if he could do it whilst he was there. The doctor tested him and told him that unfortunately he has prostate cancer. The doctor booked my dad in to see a specialist who did a biopsy and the result came back that it was too far gone to do radiotherapy or chemotherapy so he had to have surgery. At the moment he is in remission of the cancer. Whilst recovering at home, he was sat in the garden and he got bitten by something, it drew blood but he didn’t feel anything. The doctors think it may have been a spider. Within a short period of time, he was Ill. He was rushed down to Gloucester hospital and then Southmead hospital and they contacted doctors in London and Birmingham and a specialist in Newcastle. The specialist in Newcastle said he has aHUS. aHUS (atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome) is a very rare genetic disease that causes tiny blood clots to form in your blood vessels, blocking blood flow to important organs. A cold or any minor illness makes him extremely poorly and generally affects his kidneys the most. aHUS effects 1 in 1.2million people worldwide. Due to his kidneys quite often shutting down when he gets poorly he has been on and off dialysis for the past 4 years. To sum it up, he’s gone from being well and healthy to having cancer, kidney failure/disease and aHUS. He has shown an unbelievable amount of strength and continues to make us proud every day