Gabrielle's story

Maybe you wonder ‘why bother going to the WELL Events?’. 

WELL if it not been for them I don’t know what might have happened.

After trips to Paris and England in June 2011 I noticed that my ankles were swollen. I put this down to the flights, and a lot of walking.  When in England I had also woken up one morning swelling around my eyes.  I thought it was an allergic reaction to something in the air.  From England I then flew to Dublin to see a Take That (yeah) concert.  Back home next day I was very ill but just put it down to food poisoning from the very garlic mayo chip I had eaten in Dublin!  But the queasiness did not go away and so I made an appointment with the doctor.

I got a locum who grudging let me get blood tests.  A urine test done by the nurse showed blood and protein it, and the blood test results showed high cholesterol (9).

Over the next few months I kept going to my doctor who could not understand why my cholesterol was so high despite tablets for this, the continuing sickness, dreadful headaches, and swollen legs.  They were so swollen I had to wear unlaced trainers, and I found walking difficult - my feet looked as if they might burst by evening times.

I was even sent to a dietician who could not see what in my diet could make my cholesterol so high.

My blood pressure was always fine making it all a mystery to the Doctor who I felt did not believe I was genuine which was depressing.  By now my diet consisted of bananas and dry toast as I could not stand any food smells. 

When the Doctor finally decided to refer me to the City Hospital I contacted Benenden to speed this up and they were able to give me an appointment for the following week.

This sounds like I am a drama Queen, but I think had I waited that extra week I could have been in a very bad situation.

Luckily I attended the Well Health Event in Clarence Court a day or so later. 

I had not planned to but decided to go and see what my current cholesterol level was.  While I waited in the queue my friend got her blood pressure taken and so I decided to do that first too.

And Joyce the WELL nurse saved the day, or certainly me.  She took my blood pressure and it was at a crazy level.   She advised me to go speak to my Doctor but when I told her my other symptoms, and she saw my feet she told me to go to A&E at the City Hospital. 

I just went back to the office as I had convinced myself my bad health was all down to hypochondria.  Then Joyce got me back to retest and confirmed it was sky high - she told colleagues later she was concerned I was on the verge of a heart attack or stroke – and told me it looked like a kidney problem as she worked normally with kidney patients. 

I was driven quickly to the A&E, and rang my family who all thought I had some fatal disease and was about to die! 

At A&E they took blood pressure, blood tests and did an ECG.  My cholesterol was 14+ by now.  A doctor from the kidney unit came to see me and I was told they suspected that I had Nephrotic Syndrome.  

My family turned up worried about me and could not understand why I was so calm but, apart from being sapped of energy anyway, it was the fact that finally someone was telling me I was not mad but very ill.

I was admitted immediately and spent a week in hospital losing about 2 stone in fluid weight.  I do not recommend this as a diet !

A biopsy of my kidney confirmed I had IGM Nephrotic Syndrome and all the health problems  I had put up with since June were standard symptoms of this condition i.e. high cholesterol, facial swelling, swollen ankles, blood and protein in urine, and high blood pressure.

Joyce visited me in the ward and my family were delighted to meet her.  My mum was, and still is emotional when she thinks about how through WELL, Joyce saved my life!!

Since then I attend hospital regularly and am on various medications but it could have been so much worse. 

I therefore make the effort to always attend the Well events in Clarence Court to check my current cholesterol (6.56 last week), and blood pressure level and say hi to Joyce.

I recommend to everyone that you attend your local Well event as it only takes about 10- 15 minutes away from your desk and could literally be the most important minutes you will ever spend.  If you catch a health issue early on then you can take steps to ensure you won’t be away from your desk for a lot longer, or forever....

Gabrielle Kerr