At this juncture, my story is almost up-to-date. This seventh post will bring readers pretty much up to exactly the stage at which I now find myself - today is 5th August 2021 - after almost four months of rigorous diet and supplements. My next progress analysis with the Naturopath is scheduled for 24th August and my next appointment with Lung Consultant (B) is quite a way away as stated later in this post. For the sake of completeness therefore I'll tell you how my last appointment (my second with Lung Consultant (B)), played out. As for future posts, I shall dedicate some space to keeping readers up to date with my progress on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and I'll share some ideas in terms of more foods and recipes which sufferers could find useful. So without further ado...
My second appointment with Lung Consultant (B) at Hospital (B) occurred on Monday 19th July. I took a Breathing Analysis Test (you know, the one I hate because I find the equipment so uncomfortable to use) and if I am totally honest, I wasn't looking forward to the test itself. I was confident that my breathing had improved, and indeed I had even proved that to myself, but on this occasion, I had to prove it to the medics via this horrible apparatus and computer data resulting from my efforts. I knew that immediately after the Breathing Analysis Test I, together with my results, would be whisked along the corridor to see Lung Consultant (B).
But let me set the scene...and remind readers of the previous findings. On my first appointment with Lung Consultant (B), I was pretty much told "You have Idopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, and it's incurable, irreversible and life shortening and that most people die after about 2-3 years. We can slow it down by prescribing one of two medications, one of which will give you 'the runs' and the other will 'screw up your skin and you'll need Factor 50 sun block if you go out in the sun! Your previous Breathing Analysis Test reading was 74% - i.e. you have 74% lung capacity and you have crept in to the zone for prescribing medication. But I'd prefer to delay the medication for 3 months to monitor the deterioration." Some choice eh? This appointment was therefore to assess how far my condition had deteriorated in the past 3 months and to ask me which of the two treatments I wished to 'suffer'.
The Breathing Analysis Test
For those who have never attended such a test, the patient enters a glass booth and attaches himself/herself to a mouth piece akin to a rugby player's gum shield, but the gum shield itself is attached to an unwieldly arm which itself is linked to a breathing machine and also to a laptop. The test consists of breathing, in, out and holding expulsion of air or holding breath for a given time (10 seconds) whilst listening to the simultaneous timed instructions from the physiologist, who is watching on. It's akin to rubbing your tummy in a clockwise direction whilst you circle the top of your head with the other hand in an anti-clockwise direction, whilst listening to timed instructions which state, "change directions!". This time I had a different physiologist and a trainee, both of whom were excellent and very clear in their instructions and encouragement. There are two tests...
Test One - the physiologist made me do the first test and then repeat it twice further for consistency. All three were perfectly consistent with each other. I asked if they were consistently good or consistently bad. He checked against my previous test. There was improvement. However the previous overall 74% was a result of combined Tests 1 & 2, and Test 2 was my weakest link.
Test Two - once again for the sake of consistency I was asked to repeat this test and on one of the occasions I had a dispute with the mouth piece and the test had to be reset. However having undertaken sufficient tests a useful result was available and again, the results were consistent, but this time when reviewed against my previous results there was a 2% deterioration. I was told that my previous reading of 65% had fallen to 63%. This wasn't of concern to the physiologist.
The test results were printed out and I went 'print in hand' to see Lung Consultant (B). However, as this was merely to review the test results and then decide on the medication, I was greeted by the Senior Nurse of the department who was to conduct the review. That was fine by me.
The Consultancy
The Senior Nurse entered the test data in to the computer. "Oh!" she said "That's unusual. That's not supposed to happen" (These are the words I'd heard from the Test Physiologist in the test room who was equally baffled when he compared my current results with my previous result for Test 1.) "Is there a problem?" I asked. The Senior Nurse re-entered the test data into the computer. She had the same result. "Well, your test results are showing overall improvement. That's most unusual. We don't ever see that. We were expecting your test to show deterioration." I sort of feigned surprise. "Oh really?" was my retort. "I seem to recall it was previously 74% so what is it now?" I enquired... The Senior Nurse replied with some surprise in her voice "It's now 81%!" (If you have been following the story from the start you'll be aware that the zone for prescription of medication according to the NHS is a range between 50% to 80%) "But", said the Senior Nurse, "I'm not sure why the results have reversed. This is highly unusual." I remained silent, and awaited the next comment from the Senior Nurse. (That's down to business training re communication, I used to conduct for corporates - sometimes you need to just shut up.)
"Oh!" she said "I see now, you've lost weight. That will be the reason"
"Actually, yes I have lost weight but to be honest, that's only part of the reason my lungs have improved." I replied.
"Really? So what else could it be?" asked the Senior Nurse
"Well, I have lost weight as I say, but more so I have changed my dietary lifestyle...this improvement in my lungs is down to combination of a) loss of weight, b) a very rigorous healthy diet and c) I have taken myself off my heart medication."
No mention was made by me of the Naturopath, nor of my supplements. (Remember my weight loss regime? As I sat in the hospital my weight loss had just tipped 3 stones [19kilos] from Christmas.)
"What do you mean by a rigorous diet?" I was asked.
"No grains, no dairy, no tea, coffee, alcohol, no sugars/sweeteners, and no vinegar. I eat only fresh vegetables, fruits a little meat/poultry/and plenty of oily fish and have cut out all processed foods, where possible. As for the heart medication, you were in attendance with Lung Consultant (B) when I raised the subject of side effects of the heart medication and how it could be either the cause or at least exacerbating my IPF condition, and so I took it upon myself to monitor the Bisoprolol both before I came off and after I came off. I have three appliances with which to monitor my heart rate, and I cross check all three once a week and two of the appliances daily. The results are all consistent...so either they are all wrong or they are all accurate - either way they are consistent. And what's more the readings are exactly the same after coming off the Bisoprolol as they were when I was on them for 2.5 years. But... what I have found since coming off them is my wheezing almost entirely stopped overnight! And my dizziness had become less severe and much less frequent. Those were clearly two of the side effects from which I was suffering. As for the Simvistatin I believe that this is to keep my cholesterol in check, right?"
"Right" confirmed the Senior Nurse
"Well, as I explained my diet has drastically changed" I said, "and the Simvistatin is now redundant as I'm keeping my own cholesterol in check entirely by my rigorous diet...I'm eating all the correct foods to control my cholesterol."
The Senior Nurse and her female colleague were amazed by my comments. They were almost speechless and couldn't counter the logic of my statement. (In truth, they don't know because they aren't trained in nutrition nor Naturopathy.)
"I guess that you were expecting me to come in this morning and that the (Breathing Analysis) Test results would have shown a marked deterioration and that I was going to choose which medication I was going to start, right?" I stated
"Yes exactly right - that's what we were expecting. I'm not sure what we should do now." stated the Senior Nurse
"Well, I have a suggestion - how about if I return in another 3 or even 6 months, and I do the test again and we see if it was a fluke or whether I have deteriorated then, and depending upon the results we'll decide what's best?" I asked.
"Yes, that's a great idea but how about if we make it 4 months from now rather than 3 or 6 months?" replied the Senior Nurse.
"Four months is fine with me" was my response. And I went on to make a promise to the Senior Nurse and her colleague. I stated "I'll promise you that when I return in 4 months time, I guarantee I will have lost either a further stone or maybe a stone and a half! Please make a note of that in my records and check it out when I next return!"
"But one question" the colleague nurse wished to ask "How do you know and understand so much about food and its benefits to think that this would make a difference?"
(This was where I was most likely to come unstuck and I hadn't rehearsed this prior to attending the meeting, and as I stated previously Naturopaths are a very dirty word in the medical profession - I had to think on my feet on the spur of the moment)
"Oh, that's easy", I responded "I have owned/own two food magazines, one in Spain and one here locally, and having lived abroad for many years including 7 or 8 years in Spain, and other parts of the world, I understand the Mediterranean Diet and have knowledge about food benefits."
My time was done in this meeting and I left.
My next appointment with Lung Consultant (B)/Senior Nurse is scheduled for mid November 2021.
An Outcome (because the story hasn't ended yet!)
I was and still am elated...I had reached my first major goal. I had successfully reversed the 'irreversible'. I had proven that my IPF condition can indeed be reversed and I am now on my quest to ensure that it is not only beaten, but indeed I will be cured long term. Much of this will be determined by my resolve to turn my rigorous dietary adjustments into an all embracing lifestyle change. Yes I will return to eating some of the things I have missed, but in much lesser quantities and much less regularly and will see them much more as 'rewards'. As I stated earlier in the story, much of my success is put down to my unabated positive goal achieving attitude. Being half hearted or not really believing in the success of this regime would have ended in failure long ago. As I write this the scales tell me that I've lost a further 5lbs taking my overall weight loss to 3 Stones 5lbs (21.3kilos)...and I know, there's still more to come!
The Next Post
As this now brings readers up-to-date, I'm going to make no promises in respect of what the next post will cover or include, as it's as much a mystery to me as anyone else. What I can do is share more recipe ideas for those who find themselves wanting to change their dietary needs and turn them into more of a new lifestyle. By all means if anyone has been inspired by this story (to date) then by all means go to the Contact page within this website and send me a message.
Until my next post - Bon appetite!
