What's Become of You?

[Greybeard]

Stay happy Roger.
I live in West Cornwall. What's the reg number of your old bike - I'll keep an eye out for it?

[RDfella]

Roger,

Good to hear things are looking up.
Also, there's a test to identify if the problem is actual epilepsy - If that came back all clear your licence would no longer be a problem and you'd feel so much more confident.

Best,

[BagONails]

Welcome back Roger, in more ways than one.

I too had been wondering what had become of you, somehow I'd missed that you'd had to stop driving. Sorry to hear you sold your bike but it all sounds hopeful now for a new lease of life. My father had a pacemaker fitted and it was amazing the improvement we saw in him.

I hope you've still got the little Velo LE so you can maybe still get out on two wheels at some stage?
Best of luck mate.
Ian

[RogerSB]

Neil, Reg no is 474 GHY and its new home is in Looe. I had to put the bike as SORN but I see it’s now been taxed, so at least the new owner intends to use it.

RDFella, I could’ve got my licence back if I didn’t have anymore seizures for 12 months. The neurologist told me that I could apply for it back after 10 months, but when it was returned I still couldn’t drive until the 12 months was up. I got to 10 months and on the verge of applying when I had another seizure. That meant starting to count the 10 months all over again and so forth after each one.
The ironic thing is that if it was found to be my heart causing the problem from the start and if I’d had a pacemaker fitted then I wouldn’t have had to surrender my licence and could have been back on the road after a week.
It seems the problem with my heart is the signal from the top (blood in) momentarily didn’t send the signal to the bottom to pump it out.  Hence quick starvation to brain . . . or as the surgeon very technically explained it ‘The top part can’t be bothered to talk to the bottom part occasionally and that’s when the pacemaker will decide to lend a hand to wake it up.

I survived stage 3 bowel and then liver cancer in 2011 - 13, so getting use to having to cope with this sort of thing. Losing my driving licence was a bitter pill to swallow, but . . . If you can’t take a joke you shouldn’t have joined up.

Ian, Yes, still got the LE, light and easy to move around, but don't like starting  .

Again thank you all for the encouraging comments.

Rog.

[Joolstacho]

Goodonya Roger, seems like many of us, you've gone through the hoops. (Some hoops!)
Well... what could be a better thing to do now than to get an ol' shaft-drive watercooled noddy bike going properly!

[Greybeard]

Neil, Reg no is 474 GHY and its new home is in Looe.

👍 I'll try to memorise the reg number.

[sean]

Thanks for your kind comments. With luck there may be a better outcome in the future.

The epilepsy I was diagnosed with caused me to go out like a light without any warning and I’d go down, wherever I was or whatever I was doing just like a toy soldier. Luckily in the 7 times it’s happened I’ve been sitting down at home.

This is why things may be better: In March my neurologist organised for me to be wired up to wear a heart monitor 24 hours for 5 days. And sods law (and in retrospect lucky for me) I had a seizure on the 4th day. It showed up on the trace that my heart had stopped for 21 seconds, followed by the seizure.

I then had a phone call from the cardiology unit to say get to the hospital immediately. Next day I had a pacemaker implanted and in the evening I was home again. They now think it was my heart stopping causing the seizures and it may not be epilepsy after all. The pacemaker kicks in if detects the problem and that will prevent a seizure. If it has been my heart all along and not epilepsy it means I’ve died 7 times and come back to life again (I’ve had plenty of experience, so let me know if you want to know what it’s like to die).

All this time I’ve not let it get me down and I’ve carried on with my life as normally as I can while having to follow certain restrictions for safety, such as stay off stairs and steps as much as possible, don’t go in or near any depth of water, etc.
 
Since I had to surrender my licence I’ve been starting my bike every few weeks, running it for 10 minutes or so in the garage to keep the oil flowing (and even changed the oil twice). I’ve also been moving it around now and again so its not on the same part of the tyres for too long. Even doing that was risky for me because if I’d had a seizure while moving the bike then both of us would be on the deck. At least I don’t have that chore anymore.

Anyway, when things get tough or go drastically wrong we had a saying in the marines  ‘You shouldn’t have joined if you can’t take a joke’.

Rog.

My wife had a seizure during covid and was diagnosed via a zoom meeting with a neurologist no one ever followed up to see if it was epilepsy but last year she went to see a neurologist for a second opinion and she said because my wife had been on the epilepsy medication for so long she advised her not to go off as she could have seizures from being on the medication, my wife was on 2 pills a day and has cut back to 1 with no changes and she hasn’t had a seizure since 2020 they also took her license but she wasn’t a very good driver to begin with and I very much doubt she could pass a test now….
I would go for more tests a find the cause and go from there, best of luck
Sean

[Worty]

Keep signing in Rog, you'll always be welcome on the Forum.  I understand about the bike, but bikes are in the blood and the interest never dies.  I had a 20 year hiatus from riding to sort my life out, get married and have kids, but it never left me and I've been back on two wheels for 16 years now - love it as much as I ever did.

As has been said, we'll all come to the same point eventually, but you can still enjoy the open road vicariously through our exploits.

Well done for getting through it mate - much respect.