An inspirational story by Ollie Edmunds

Posted at 16:7 on Aug 31, 2010 by Muscle Blog

Dear Maximuscle,

I am writing this on the off chance that you would like to feature my story which relates very closely to what your whole business model stands for – the pursuit of peak physical fitness.

I have always been a very fit and healthy person, from the age of 16 I was introduced to weight training by my older brother who at this point had been training for well over 6 years. I began to build the body I had always dreamt of and within a couple of years I had gone from a skinny teenager to a more ripped and larger version!

This pursuit continued, training hard and eating well and I always got the gains I wanted whilst lean and not too bulky.

However, in March 2010, after 5 years of training hard, I was admitted to hospital with possible appendicitis. It turned out that a layer of fat on the end of my appendix had gone gangrenous and as a precaution during surgery the layer of fat was removed along with my appendix.

48 hours after surgery I was sent home with strict instructions to rest and recoup which is exactly what I did. 2 weeks passed, 6.3kgs of muscle had gone and I was feeling worse than I had done before going to hospital! I decided to take myself back to the doctors, upon which he urgently sent me back to hospital. After 2 days of investigations in hospital it turned out I had contracted a post operative infection and consequently I had a stomach full of puss as well as sepsis (Sepsis is a life-threatening illness caused by the body overreacting to an infection. The body’s immune system goes into overdrive, setting off a series of reactions that can lead to widespread inflammation (swelling) and blood clotting in the body).

I was too ill to be operated on so I had to spend a total of 3 days on 6 different forms of antibiotics in order to prepare me for surgery, during these 3 days I was unable to keep food down and also unable to sleep due to having to take various medication 24/7. I was eventually strong enough to go for surgery where I had a complete abdomen wash out and had two drains fitted, one on my left side and one on my right side to collect all the discharge. This made moving very difficult! After surgery I was told I was not allowed food or liquids until the drains were removed which turned out to be 3 days later.
7 days had passed after being admitted to hospital for the second time and I was beginning to feel stronger and insisted I was allowed to go home to recover (sleep and eat!). I returned home with nothing more than pain killers from the hospital and was told to rest, another 3 days passed and was in pain once again so took myself back to hospital – the infection had returned.

I spent a further 4 days in hospital back on 6 different types of antibiotics once again. This time I suggested I was allowed to go home but with my own antibiotics to take so I could rest, eat and sleep and build up my immune system the natural way. At this point I had lost 12kgs of muscle and was looking more like the skinny teenager I used to know.

This time I was determined not to go back. I spent until the end of April resting and recovering, during this time I insisted on regular blood tests to ensure my progress was going the right way and it was! At the beginning of May I went back to work (from home) and was put in touch with a specialist who I now have to see at various intervals, he advised I could go back to the gym at the beginning of June.

June came around and I began training again, harder than ever! I found an excellent diet plan consuming around 3500 cals per day (balancing your supplements Cyclone, Promax, Progain and Promax Meal Bars with great food) and drew up a great training program with the help of my older brother. I was training 5 times per week and putting 2.5lbs on per week, by the beginning of August I was back to the weight I used to be. I am now feeling stronger, fitter and healthier than before and with ongoing checkups I hope this continues.

I would love for you to use this story as I feel it may help others who are ill / have a medical condition and need some inspiration to get themselves back in the gym.

Many thanks again,

Ollie Edmunds

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Maximuscle is Europe's Number 1 sports nutrition company and offer a complete range of products that are tested and safe, incredibly effective, and designed to work and get results fast. With the UK's best selling and research proven all in one muscle-growth range in Cyclone, and the UK's Number 1 selling Protein range in Promax, Maximuscle offers many award winning products, as well as expert information and advice on everything from training tips to dietary advice and how to get the very best out of your training.