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About stephanie Sproule

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So far stephanie Sproule has created 3 blog entries.

Wegener’s Granulomatosis – It’s very treatable

“It’s very treatable” 

said the consultant and so it has turned out to be.

That was in 1999 when I was referred to a hospital consultant by my G.P. for an unusual array of symptoms.

These included continuous tiredness, painful leg muscles and a cold that would not go away. Fortunately my early diagnosis by the consultant that I had Wegener’s Granulomatosis, a form of Vasculitis, meant that treatment with the appropriate drugs could start right away. Of course I was sick for a while, but quickly regained most of my energy and ability to lead a fairly normal life over the last thirteen years. Naturally there have been some changes; including taking pills and having frequent hospital visits and tests, but these have been readily accepted as a slight modification to my routine. Certainly living with W.G., or as it is now known Granulomatosis with Polyangitis, has hardly curtailed my ability to go trout and salmon fishing, dabble in photography, do voluntary church work, research my family tree, attend Irish history classes and potter around the garden. So it is possible to enjoy life in all its variety while acknowledging the presence of Vasculitis. in the background. The best way of achieving this is to be involved, as far as possible, in as many interests as you can, and to welcome the opportunities of meeting and mingling with people .both at work and socially.

B.H.McC.

By |November 12th, 2015|Categories: Our Members||0 Comments

My experience of Churgg Strauss Syndrome

“You have Churg Strauss Vasculitis” the Consultant informed me.” “Can you write it down, please”

Churg Strauss meant nothing – but Vasculitis – the daughter of a friend suffered from that and she has had two kidney transplants, not good news then.
“You’ll be in hospital for four weeks. “ FOUR WEEKS – but I had so much to do with my work etc. However I had been under the weather for sometime so if I was to be fixed in four weeks then I could live with that.
The previous week I had severe back pains, a new ill-health acquisition for someone who had many years of suffering from asthma and nasal polyps. My GP informed me that I had a trapped nerve in my spine and I accepted that until on Saturday night the pain which had moved to my legs became so severe that i sent for the out of hours doctor who gave me strong painkillers and advised me to see my GP on Monday. The painkillers worked – I slept soundly and awoke to find my legs didn’t work, they were rubber. I thought I had CJD as I walked like the ailing cows i had seen on TV.
Off to the A&E in the City Hospital (it existed then 2004) and after a very long day, cursory attention from the triage nurse, many repetitions of my symptoms to a trainee/very young doctor, I eventually saw a competent doctor who admitted me and even found me a bed, all be it in a geriatric ward – I was fifty-one at the time.
I was wired to a heart monitor and during the night it went into explosive activity and […]

By |November 12th, 2015|Categories: Our Members||7 Comments

Takyasu and Me

I am a 52 year old married woman who up to the summer of 2011 was working as a special needs teacher in a primary school, I had helped my brother and sister care for my elderly dad who had a stroke 2 years previously and for my Mam who has Alzheimer’s and is now in a nursing home. I have two aunts in their 90’s who live locally. My life was busy and I wasn’t surprised when I began to feel extremely tired, had some fairly bad headaches and had what I thought was a stress pain in my chest, towards the end of June 2011, the final week of the school year.

The previous week I noticed a lump on my neck but thought I had bruised it with the car seatbelt and didn’t do anything about it. That is until I woke up one morning unable to smile as one side of my face seemed paralysed. I promptly went to my GP who was more worried about the lump on my neck than my face and what she diagnosed as Bell’s palsy. I subsequently spent a week in A&E where they scanned my neck and the lump I noticed was diagnosed as an aneurysm on my carotid artery.

They sent me home to wait for an out-patient appointment at the stroke clinic in the Mater Hospital in Dublin. As time ticked on (ten days later) and after my husband had made numerous phone calls I was admitted to the acute stroke unit in the Mater. My symptoms were shooting headaches, extreme exhaustion, absolutely no appetite (I hadn’t realised I had lost about 2 stones in weight and was now only 7stone), the pain in […]

By |November 12th, 2015|Categories: Our Members||0 Comments