Monday 21 December 2009
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Who is Lucky Oceans and why is his story featured on The Health Report?
Hello and welcome to the Health Report with me, Norman Swan. This week, something that we do from time to time. It's to let a person who's had an interesting experience with the healthcare system tell their story. The thing about this person is that you probably know him. It's Lucky Oceans who presents the Daily Planet on Radio National Afternoons. Lucky, who's actually an accomplished guitar player, well-known in the band scene, hosts the planet from his hometown of Perth. But his original hometown is Philadelphia. And this unlucky story happened to him in the United States. It's the medical problem that could be financially catastrophic that anyone who travels to the United States fears.
I was in New York City. I was on a family visit with my brothers and sisters, my mom, my wife, and my son. And I woke up one morning with an unusual headache, because I don't usually get headaches. And that developed through the day into a numbness and tingling, first in my hands and then in my feet. Did you do anything about it? Not on that day. We drove back to my mom's place in Philadelphia. It was about an hour and a half drive. And I sort of had misgivings about driving because I knew I didn't feel well. I knew something was wrong. And I kept extending my fingers on the steering wheel, trying to get this tingling out. But to have it in my feet as well was really strange. Was there any weakness? At that point, there wasn't weakness.
There was just a feeling being a bit out of sorts. And I did a yoga class in Philadelphia that night. And I felt, once again, a bit weak, a bit overheated. I was able to do the postures, but I really felt that something was wrong. So I went to sleep that night. No problem. I thought I'll see how I felt in the morning. And when I woke up in the morning, I was radically worse. You know, I couldn't feel with my feet like I normally did. So if I walked down the stairs, I wasn't getting the feedback quick enough from my soles hitting the stairs. How terrifying. It was quite unusual. Sorry, did you
say quite unusual?
Is this the master of understatement here, or
were you pooping your
pants? I don't know. I mean, my story, as I like to tell it, was I wasn't really that scared. But of course I was frightened.
What early symptoms did Lucky experience that hinted at a serious neurological problem?
But I knew that it was serious. Something in me told me it was serious. And I think that's a very good thing because I've read other diaries of people who have had this experience. And a lot of them said, oh, you know, I waited a couple of weeks. I saw my chiropractor. I saw my naturopath. And then I finally went to the hospital and took them a while to figure out what it was. For me, I asked to see my mom's GP immediately. I felt sick on a Thursday. I got an appointment with another GP in her office on that Friday morning. And how were you by the time you got to the GP? Well, it was difficult driving there. I was starting to get a thing where my eyes couldn't focus on moving objects. It was kind of blurring around the periphery.
So I felt very cautious driving there. Glad I wasn't in the car with you, Lucky. Exactly. I probably shouldn't have driven myself, but you know. And I got there and I was quite frightened in the doctor's office. And he went through a whole range of, at that time, bewildering tests to me. And at this point, apart from numbness in your feet, you could actually still walk. I could walk. I was a little bit shaky. It was a little bit like being weak and drunk. You know, I had to really concentrate to walk a line. So what did he do then? He said, well, I think it might be Guillain-Barre syndrome. To me, which is a totally unknown. And you'd
say, which group does he play for? Yeah,
Guillain-Barre. My daughter says it sounds like a kind of French underwear. So I said, well, what should I do? This was a Friday morning. We were due to fly back from Philadelphia to Perth, Western Australia, on Monday night. So he said, if you feel worse, come back on Monday and I'll get you an appointment with a neurologist. And I asked him, I said, well, what else could it be? And he said, well, it might be MS.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Who is Lucky Oceans and why is his story featured on The Health Report?
0:00–2:16
2
What early symptoms did Lucky experience that hinted at a serious neurological problem?
2:16–7:40
3
Why did Lucky decide to seek medical help despite his misgivings about driving?
7:40–13:49
4
How was Guillain‑Barré syndrome diagnosed in the emergency department?
13:49–19:26
5
What treatment options were offered and why was immunoglobulin chosen?
19:26–25:25
6
How did the high cost of U.S. healthcare impact Lucky and his family?
25:25–28:55
7
What was Lucky’s recovery journey like after the immunoglobulin infusions?
28:55–29:20
Speakers
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