"I wasn't going to let it pull me down"
It began in 1973. Diethelm Meuser had just turned 26 and was in the prime of life. But a strong persistent pain in his bladder began to disrupt his everyday life - he couldn't fulfil his tasks as a business manager in the wood trade and all of his regular sporting activities had to be cancelled. "I had so much pain that I couldn't go outside anymore", says the passionate golfer.
"It was very difficult to walk. Ten minutes was okay, but after that the pain got worse and I had to take a painkiller. Later I wanted to ride a bike, but it hurt terribly. It all started a couple of years ago. The first problem was that I couldn't accompany my husband on his motorcycle. I couldn't get off. So, I thought something has to be done. I went to see the doctor and he recommended a hip replacement.
To see Magde de Cloet's experience with the hip replacement, please click here
Have you ever had an unpleasant experience on vacation? Jean Schmit has a story to rival the worst holiday nightmare... "The story started when I took my wife for a holiday in Limassol, Cyprus. It seemed like the ideal location: fine food, warm climate and friendly people.
Basically, I was imprisoned at home because I weighed 70 kilos more than I weigh now. I could only walk very short distances and I got tired very quickly. I couldn't participate in social activities. I was living a kind of partial life, prior to the operation. I couldn't go out, that was the first thing, and the second thing was my inability to live a normal life, because the pain in my back and in my knees was so bad that I was unable to move. Click here to see the whole story of Thomas Oswald.
Click here to see in video the whole story of Thomas Oswald
Our Jennifer was just seven when, nine years ago, she suddenly fell ill from diabetes type 1. It was in summer when our Jenny was examined and diagnosed by our GP. Previous to this, there had been some days when Jenny had suffered from nausea, headache and similar symptoms, but nothing which for us at that time pointed towards diabetes – not even in retrospect. We thought it was summer ’flu or sunstroke. Our GP, who knows our whole family well, very soon suspected diabetes
Twenty years ago, at age 52, Betty Long, found out she had scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine. Her doctor discovered the scoliosis during a check-up for tennis elbow, but he did not recommend surgery at the time, hoping the condition would stabilize. She continued her active lifestyle, including playing basketball and skiing.
At age 65, Betty was back at the doctor. Not knowing her scoliosis had progressively worsened, Betty had helped her husband clear 21 acres of land and had developed back pain...
Mike Robins could be forgiven for dismissing the diagnostic skills of the medical profession in the UK out of hand. Over a period of two years he consulted GPs, psychologists, stress councillors, psychiatrists, alternative medical practitioners and chiropractors for what started as a slight twitch in his shoulder and developed into a noticeable tremor in his right arm and leg. Each specialist diagnosed ‘stress' and advised a ‘change in life-style'.
It was only when Mike was recovering in a Shanghai hospital, following an appendectomy that a Chinese neurologist correctly suggested that he was suffering from Parkinson's Disease...
"About ten years ago I started gaining weight. During my puberty my weight increased rapidly. When I was 14 I started following different diets and taking pills. All these measures initially made me lose weight, but shortly after I gained even more weight.
This made me feel depressed, moreover because I did not know what was wrong with me. I experienced one anger attack after the other until I decided, back in 2001, to visit my physician. I weighed 123 kg. He confronted me with my obesity and suggested the possibility of gastric banding. Two years later, on 3 July 2003 I had my operation. In the weeks immediately following the operation I started losing weight. As I was losing weight, I felt more active, took up sports and went cycling with my children.
Before my operation, I weighed 123 kg, now I weigh 68 kg. 55 kg makes a world of difference. I can do household chores on my own, I feel like no mountain is too high, my no longer feel depressed and I look so much better. Gastric banding has truly saved my life."
For more information on obesity, please click here .
James Chaney was a sergeant in the American Forces in Berlin. At the time, he was a healthy, young man, with many plans and ideas for the future. In 1987, at the age of only 37 years, he suffered from an infarct of the front side of his heart without warning. The infarct led to the development of an aneurysma at the right coronary artery. Since then, he has been 70% disabled.
"I felt that my life was taken from me. It was a shock. Paralysed and living in a foreign country, what should you do? I could not continue to do my job. I realised that there was no other way but to accept the situation and make the best out of it."
James Chaney started to write poems and became an artist performing with jazz and classical musicians in Berlin:
"The infarct encouraged me to find a new way of expressing myself. I loved to perform. It did not matter at all if I was ill. It was a very exciting time!"
The second change in James Chaney's life was in 1996.
