Thank you to the whole of the ICU ward including Nicole, Sarah and Shelly who looked after me while I was in ICU (say my parents because I was obviously sleeping) They explained to my parents exactly what was going on and with such compassion plus they sympathize with there position unlike nurses later on the stroke ward. I was out of it but you made a dent in my parents memory that they remember you all. But I would be wrong to just rule out all the nurses on the stroke ward, there were some good apples mixed in with the bad ones. Ginger was great, there was also a bunch of male nurses which were excellent and ever so witty. I will never forget the male nurse who ran half way to somewhere to get my pills for the last night. He was totally out of breath by the time he returned. Oh and how could I forget the dinner ladies, good fun and always got a hi from them.

Thanks to everyone who wrote to me on Facebook, you all know how much I hate facebook but these were worthy of a mention and a thanks.

Claire Phillips (sorry for the scare, hope it didn’t ruin your holiday in vegas), Waheed Rehman (we need to go to a real imax soon, no better place that manchester), Matt Pass (sorry for not being in touch, my parents moved from Fishponds to whirl near weston), Tim Cowlishaw, Jennifer O’Grady (I don’t think I’ll be going for a drink anytime soon sorry), Louise Ferguson, Frank Wales, Imran Ali (Not quite marked all as read and delete but almost), Tasha Fear (thanks!), Gia Milinovich, the mythical dot (good to hear from you), Marissa Mulvena (newcastle will have to wait sorry), Tim Cowlishaw, Anders Lewis, Vikki Leaney, Ivan Pope, Kate Norman, Tom Leitch, Sarah Khan-Wuttka (you have two children now?), deena denaro-bickerstaffe, eileen jones, sheila farrell, ryan alexander, Ashley Angail,, Tim dobson (again), dave crossland, deborah cawkwell, Joanna Rodriguez, Herb Kim, and Stephanie Kit Kat Lease, Maz Hardey (yes theres more that lost but lost was extremely good TV, better that the average american stuff), Roberto Beto, Ann Michael,
Of course I forgot to look at my private twitter messages, so thanks to @Fidothe, @leeky, @imran (didn’t know you did a shout out to me at ignite, thanks! would have preferred to have been there), @kidhelios, @mike_lott, @vickyjo (thanks for the hugs) @sheiliaellen (again and thanks for visiting me). Those on Identica also get a mention too. @rajmarshall, @methoddan.
Thanks to everyone who sent me a card incluing Amy, Claire,  Paul & Ann, Birch and Suzie (all the way from the states) Paul Chessbrough and the telegraph dev team, Chris Tasha and family, Antie Melrose, Antie Kathleen, Uncle danny, Cousin Patrick. My old Neighbours in Lodge Causeway, Kellie Hancock, Waheed, Most of Worldservice new media, Suw and Kevin, Herm B + Tom (thanks for the magazine), the rest of World service new new media, Interaction 05 (the last class I taught before leaving Ravensbourne), everyone at Clearleft, dave crossland with the biggest card of them all, Jo and family, david marks (thanks for the pages), Bryan and Michaela (not seen you guys in ages hope your well), Rain, Beryl + Lockley + debbie + tony + amanda + lewis, Social media cafe manchester, deslyn and mike. Suw & Kevin,  Waheed, Kelly hancock, my old neighbours from lodge causeway, Antie Melrose + Patrick + Uncle danny + antie Kathleen, Paul + Ann Ross’s parents, Birch + Suzie (all the way from america believe it or not), Chris + Tasha, + family, Waheed
And I came home today to find even more cards that my parents kept for me because it would have caused a problem having so many cards at the hospital.
Carl (germany), Sarah + Steve, lucy briges, Emily, Anty Halline + family, melrose + patick,, megan + billy (home made card from the kids awwwww), bert + joen, harry + tiffany (thanks for the snippits of news, really helped in ICU), Adam + Helen, dj adams (@qmacro), Rachael Neagle + Neil, Oli (@cdddimate) (nice to hear you bashing out some trance), Marissa + @herbkim, rachel, Samantha, the project north team at work, tim + funmi + andre, + Otis (Otis? Really another little one?). Andrew + Kerry from geekup, Glyn + Sheila from London, BBC r&d, Nicky Smyth + Sal (work mates), Adia & Amari (cousin), Ross + Carley + Megan + Billy (how many more times shall I thank them).
Most of the people I know at BBC Manchester including derek, andras, Toni, Bruce, Binh, Kev, Nik, Paul, Matt, Andy, Leanne, Alice, Angus, Tony, Minesy, Heather, Paul (and more), Alphonsa, Andras.  Laura, Jon Paul and Geeks of the world! (can’t work out who this one came from but its a touching end to the long list).
Told you my memory isn’t so great, I almost forgot the caring bridge site,  which my ex-wife sarah helped setup with help from my sister and mother (the mystery blogger, wasn’t she good?)
Trish Veale (Hanrahan), Rachael Neagle, Mike Lott (Singapore), Kellie Thatcher, Mo McRoberts, Pauline Randall, carl rauth (germany), Maz Hardey, Funmi Alexander (how many kids do you have now), Antie Millicent (thank the lord, Jamaica), Waheed Rehman, Samantha Chadwick (nice story about thick and easy), Bruce Weir (lost was good and you know it), Vanessa Westwood, Rachael Neagle (facebook still sucks), Jason Legget, Glen Ford, Steve J, Sheila Thomson (thanks for visiting me again), Jay Caines-Gooby (a what plot?), John Dodds, Bahi P (yep I really put my personally in those posts), Lucas Gramajo (Toronto), Trish Veale (Hanrahan), Deena DeNaro-Bickerstaffe, Carley & Ross (again), Stephen Knights (6k gosh really!), Kellie Thatcher, Herb Kim, Andy Goodwin, Brian Butterworth, Dave Brooks, Kat Pattison (still hope to make that box), Melinda & Cristiano (my newsreader certainly kept me busy for a while), Hayley Showering, Sarah blow & Steve, Rick Curran, Ben Metcalfe, Sarah Wuttke (baby zac?), Peter Mills, Deena DeNaro-Bickerstaffe, Peter Schübel, Chilon Forrester (new york), Cristiano & Melinda, Dan Lynch, vanessa westwood, Sandra Haines (antie), Kellie Thatcher, Brendan Quinn, Nigel Crawley, Mark Tanner, Vikki Leaney (you got married), Simon Alexander, Justin Souter, Lisa Connolly (would you have come to manchester?), Dave Brooks (New Haven, CT, USA), Lola White (Jamaica),  Melrose forrester (antie), Harry Lo (Pepsi is better, Hong Kong SAR China), Dan Oliver (.net magazine), Jack Murray (enjoyed media 2020), Sabina Bhugun, Rachael Neagle (more cryptic status to come), Dave Mee, Chi-chi Ekweozor, Nisha Ray, richard Tank (sorry to hear about your dad), carl rauth (Switzerland), Hemmy Cho, Ross Michael, Ant Miller, Philip Trippenbach, Matt Locke, Bruce Weir, Rowan de Pomerai (the iphone put me in hospital), Marc Price, Sarah Blow, Samantha Chadwick, Julian Tait, Pukul Rana, Rachael Turner, Pauline Randall, Delia Stearnes, Bahi P, Herb Kim, Thelma Jones (racine, USA, sarahs mum), Jon Jacob, Farooq Ansari, David Marks, Harold Cattron, and Sheila Farrell.
If I missed you in either thank you’s, I’m very sorry I only checked a few places and couldn’t put down all the text messages, emails and voicemails I got over the last few weeks. The cards were slightly special because the nurses and my parents was able to read them out to me when I was sleeping.
I want everyone to know this is a very serious condition but I’m doing alright now. I do have memory lost which is really ignoying but I honestly its not that bad (only forget the rarest things like ex-girlfriends names – whoops!). It could have been a hell of a lot worst.
People have been asking me could it happen again? No honestly it can’t. Why do I know? It was all down to the amount of work and the fact that I have High Blood Pressure but never did anything about it. Hence the bleed in the brain which was the brain releasing some pressure. However this manfest its self with a bleed on the brain which is deeply worrying. So as I said I could have been a veggie with a ventilator for company but I got away lightly with some memory lost and a slightly weak body. The body will get stronger and my brain will fill in the things I can’t remember. Generally I think I got away with murder. People still can’t believe the time to recovery from waking up to being ready to leave (about a week or so) I was in hospital for about 3 weeks before that. A very short period of time going by what the nurses was saying to my parents.
So I’m one of the lucky ones and I know it. Thanks to everyone and I really mean it… I might not have been here if it wasn’t for the great thinking of a few people and the contuning support of people around me like the ones mentioned above and in part 1.
People always ask me what I remember, so here’s what I remember
The only thing I really remember about that time was waking up on Saturday when the cleaner was banging on the door trying to get in on Saturday morning to clean the flat. I woke up and thought Tim will wake up and let her in because I got a headache and couldn’t be frankly be bothered to get up and let her in. That was the last thing I remember, I don’t remember anything else till I woke up in hospital with my parents and sister standing over me. My mums voice willing me to open my eyes. I don’t remember going for a meal or anything like what happened in my bathroom let alone my bedroom. I don’t remember going for a meal or eating hob nobs or anything, the whole time from the UK elections to a week ago is blank. I’m surprised the iphone 4 came out today, before this all happened gizmodo just landed a scoop of the year finding a iphone4 in a bar
Thank you to you all…from the very bottom of my heart….