IF he makes it through the night … was something Sandra “Sissy” McTaggart heard a lot while her husband clung to life.
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“It was just like in the movies, we would just sit in the waiting room until the surgeon walked in and told us how things went,” she said.
Sissy recalls the brilliant surgeon who worked on him saying: “Jeremy just does not want to die”.
“Seven weeks ago our lives changed forever,” she said.
“He went from being healthy to almost not being here at all.
“After four surgeries in five days and over a month in John Hunter Hospital which included eight days in intensive care, Jeremy was finally allowed to come home.”
He may be home but has a long way to go in terms of his recovery.
At present he can’t even eat food and receives essential nutrients intravenously or, in other words, directly into the bloodstream.
This process is known as Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) and is used when a gastrointestinal (GI) disorder severely limits the ability of the digestive tract.
A person may not be able to swallow food, move the food through the digestive system or, as in Jeremy’s case, absorb nutrients from the food.
“Even when my bowel has healed and I can eat, because I had so much of my small bowel removed, I won’t be able to absorb essential nutrients and will still need them directly feed into my bloodstream,” he said.
“At the moment I have a cannula in my upper arm which I attach a tube and the feeing bag to when I go to bed each night.
“Eventually they will put a Hickman line into my chest but I will still need to do it for 10 hours a day.”
So, Jeremy and Sissy are just taking it one day at a time and trying to stay positive.
Before suffering complications from the blood clot in his bowel, popular local postman Jeremy McTaggart considered himself to be a fit and healthy man.
For the past 27 years, he delivered mail to 1060 points (letterboxes) on what he calls “beat seven”, which covers most of the Singleton Heights area.
“The only time I can remember being sick is when I was 18 and my appendix burst,” he says.
So the 50-year-old admits to not taking much notice when his sister was diagnosed with factor V Leiden, a mutation of one of the clotting factors in the blood called factor V.
This mutation can increase your chance of developing abnormal blood clots (thrombophilia), usually in your veins.
“She told me it was hereditary and that I should get tested,” he explains.
“Now I wish I had listened to her.”
Most people who have factor V Leiden never develop signs or symptoms and the first indication that you have the disorder may be the development of a blood clot (thrombosis).
Some clots do no damage and disappear on their own while others can be life-threatening.
For the rest of his life, Jeremy will have to take blood thinning medication to prevent any more clots forming.
Despite their world being turned upside down, the couple would like to thank everyone from the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service and Sissy’s employer Big W to their many friends and family who have supported them.
They would even like to thank the strangers who purchased candles.
Candles her sister Sheryle Wood and Potsy Garland hand-made and sold to help ease the financial strain they are under.
“People were just offering me money but I knew Sissy and Jeremy would not feel comfortable with this,” Sheryle told The Argus.
“They are very proud, hard-working people so I came up with the idea of selling candles and giving people something in return.
“I didn’t realise how popular he was, we sold $3700 worth in about three weeks. We could have sold more if we had the time to make them.
“We just wanted Sissy not to worry about how she was going to pay the bills and cover day-to-day expenses like purchasing petrol to travel to John Hunter to be with Jeremy.
“I would like to thank Donna Moreby, Karren Olive and Brian Moore for selling the candles at their businesses and Vicki Taylor for donating the stickers we put on the candles.”
The stickers read: Friendship – it’s not a big thing; it’s a million little things.
“We will never forget all the kindness and help our families and friends and the Singleton community as a whole and even strangers have given us,” Sissy said.
“It has made this life-changing journey that little bit easier.
“We have got the best outcome and are already looking forward to our future with our amazing family and friends.”
The couple are expecting a new - grandchild and are already proud grandparents of three-year-old Axle.