I have been asked through the comments page to give a bit of a profile of my journey from when I was introduced to BTD through to the present day.

So Dear reader settle back and I will begin the tale…………..

I was ill in 1999, I’d been ill for quite some time but I just didn’t know it. I’ve had all the normal life illnesses that a 50 + year old can expect from Tonsillitis and Conjunctivitis through to Appendicitis as a child, on through broken bones and sporting injuries from competitive sports, normal colds and flu including varying degrees of hay fever. But I’d never been seriously ill.

For some time I had been complaining of a recurring chest pain on my left hand side approx. two ribs up from the bottom of the rib cage under the heart. It usually coincided with serious indigestion and I was convinced it was heartburn. It had the effect though of making me feel lethargic and in my Wife’s words fretful or agitated.

I had felt tired all the time and basically just put it down to getting old, my legs were weary and always felt heavy, I would go out with my Wife shopping or similar and come home sit down and that would be it for the day. I was too tired to garden [ which I loved] and as I said put it down to age and being exhausted after a week at work.

I went to my Doctor [GP or MD depending where you are from] and after the usual consultation he suggested I go to Hospital for a scan. They inserted an optical tube down my throat to inspect the Oesophagus. I’m sorry but I can’t remember the name of the procedure. Result – Negative. This occurred just prior to Christmas 1999 so we were going no further until the New Year. On Boxing Day 1999 [Dec 26th] I was sitting talking to my Wife when my neck literally exploded. I had huge swellings on both sides of the neck just under the jaw bone. I was able to get in and see an on call GP on the same day, diagnoses swelling in the Lymph glands, treatment – Take these and come back and see me in 2 weeks.

Two weeks later I returned to discuss both problems and was told to continue on the treatment and we would wait and see what happened about the chest pain. By the end of January 2000 I still had some swelling and slight discomfort in the throat when swallowing. I was told that the swelling was clearing up and to continue the pills, my response was well I still have a sore throat and the pain in the chest. I was offered Antacid for the chest pain and told that they could see nothing wrong with my throat.

OK Dummy spit !!!!!. I walked out vowing to find another way to treat myself. I follow a fairly healthy lifestyle as a Vegetarian anyway and for a while had been considering going to a Naturopath, this fixed it, I went home and made the appointment that same day to see a Naturopath.

To be continued………………………………