Why do you go to hospital? Is it because you’re in so much pain and need relief and answers? Well you’re like me then, only going when it is beyond your threshold and you need help. The pain was unreal and unbelievable earlier and every time I’ve been come into hospital I’ve always experienced pain; they are forever intrinsically linked in my head. So now, it’s incredibly hard to think I can still be here without feeling…
-
-
GI Clinic 21.03.17
This has probably been the first time in forever that I haven’t really been bothered about going to see my Gastro. I haven’t really had any problems; I’m not taking any medications, my wounds are all healed, my surgeon is happy with my current progress being made and my stoma seems to be getting into a solid routine. All good on the symptoms front; nothing to report. But, I still attended…
-
“Adding scars to my body in order for a higher quality of life.”
I always wondered what sort of person wanted to have surgery. I always wondered how you could get to that point and want someone to cut you open. I always wondered, until it happened to me. My Timehop is a good reminder of what happened a year ago, or two or three years ago. It serves to remind me just how things have improved. It allows me to reflect…
-
Changing Attitudes
13.06.16 I stared down at the box of tablets in some sort of disbelief. How did it get to this, needing to take anti depressants? It’s week five of my post op recovery. I had surgery in mid- May on my bowel and to remove a cyst on my ovary. Things were going well; I was healing from my incisions and I was getting back to a normal diet. Then…
-
Painkiller Addiction – My Other Recovery
Despite being chronically ill for the past four years, I’ve never thought of myself as needing painkillers to get through the bad days. Not that my bad days weren’t bad, I was just able to manage my pain. But surgery changed all that. I had planned IBD surgery on my bowel in May 2016 and the one thing I was terrified was the pain I was going to go through. I knew…
-
Life Lately | Making Progress
Just when you think things aren’t going anywhere, life pulls you back in. If you’ve been following me for a while now, you’ll probably know that I haven’t work since before my first surgery in May last year. In fact, loosing my job was a big factor is why I finally chose to have surgery when I did. There was a plan to retrain after I had recovered from my Right…
-
A Day in the Life – The ROManTIC Trial
Two weeks ago, I was invited to the Royal College of Surgeons in London for discussions of a new trial for Ileocecal Crohn’s patients. This has been the first time I’d been invited – well, I had sought out this day for my own medical geeky-ness – to participate in something so formal and important as a possible trial. Its objective was to gain the perspectives of both patients and…
-
Stoma Nurses; What makes them so important?
A couple weeks ago I got the chance to interview my stoma nurse about her job role; this is Q & A with Nicola Jennings: Stoma Care Nurse at Good Hope Hospital in the Heart of England NHS Trust. What is a stoma nurse? The title for the role at the hospital I work is ‘Colorectal Specialist Nurse’, this incorporates stoma care. They are specialist’s registered nurses wo have gained additional…
-
When Will My Life Begin?
Last week, I had seberal rough days when I was full of self doubt and getting utterly frustrated with many aspects of my life. I wasn’t going to share how upset and angry I had been feeling but I thought, no, I am not going to deny myself this part of recovering and having a chronic illness. Here is the note I wrote to myself in the depths of feeling…