Chadwick gets a reality check

Chadwick visits the war memorial at Heverlee (Image credit: Glen Chadwick)

Cyclingnews is fortunate to host diaries from a number of riders, all of whom have interesting stories to tell. However, it's not every day that one of our diarists writes an entry about being on the brink of the grave. Team Type I's Glen Chadwick had quite a serious illness earlier this year, from which he's fortunately recovered. He writes about it in his latest diary:

So I made it back home here in Belgium still feeling a bit ordinary, but thought the worst was over when Boom! it hit me – the head aches and fever were back and not going away this time. Isabelle my wife sent me to the doc for some blood tests and as soon as they came back, I was admitted straight into hospital. My liver had pretty much shut down which is never a good thing, along with my gall bladder and spleen.

Now its not a good idea to have these problems when you've just come back from an Asian country because immediately I was being diagnosed with hepatitis or malaria which is a great thing to hear! Especially when the Doctor says, "Its ok, you can still get a few good years in even if you have hepatitis." Kiss my ass buddy! But one by one they slowly came back negative so then it was, "hmmmm, maybe its tuberculosis?"

Belle and I were pretty scared with what was going on, as I looked pretty bad and didn't seem to be improving she thought that after saying goodbye one night that that was the last time she would do it! I also now know what its like to be afraid to close my eyes and go to sleep for fear of never waking up! I felt so terrible..But after a week of IV antibiotics I slowly improved up to the point where they came in one afternoon and just simply told me that I can go home, just like that! OK then I'm outta here...