Oct 09 2024 49 mins
My guest today is Budge who shares the incredible story of two years of unforeseen and lifechanging events. You will be shocked, surprised and moved by the rollercoaster of events that Budge, Gina and their son Sam have had to experience.
After living with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue since 2016, when Gina started to suffer with other symptoms that were affecting her, they decided to visit their GP leading up to Christmas 2022. When her symptoms worsened and further ones appeared, they visited the GP again.
Finally, a CT scan was suggested, and everything took a turn for the worse when Gina was told she had a brain tumour.
Budge talks about how once the scan had been taken everything went into overdrive, and before they knew it, Gina was on her way to John Radcliffe in Oxford.
He shares how he and his son were left in the dark when Gina was operated on and how they didn’t hear anything when expected, and it wasn’t until 10 hours later they eventually heard from the hospital, rather than the five hours they had originally been told. When Budge and Sam finally saw Gina the change in her condition was overwhelmingly shocking to them both. Due to the positioning and size of her tumour, she had lost her speech, and all movement down one side. And her condition deteriorated even more.
They had months and months of uncertainty as Gina’s recovery was by no means plain sailing. When she was finally discharged from John Radcliffe, Budge had hoped she would be able to go to a neuro rehabilitation unit in Oxford. However, despite being told that Gina was the perfect candidate for this, she was returned to GWH in Swindon, where they only have a stroke rehabilitation centre.
Gina did eventually get to the rehabilitation unit in Oxford, and should have had further surgery, but this still hasn’t happened, even now.
I’ll be talking to Budge again, to hear what has happened moving forward and the challenges that they are facing.
Budge’s story is an emotional listen, but one full of love, care and support and it needs to be heard.
You can find out more about the support offered by Shreeve Care Services at www.shreevecareservices.co.uk