If anyone has asked me this last year or even a couple of months ago, I would have struggled to answer. Was I definable by my relationship? My role as a friend, a daughter, a sister, a cousin? My likes and dislikes? My invisible illness, even? I don’t hide the fact that I have Crohn’s Disease, a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and it has defined my life –…
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Double Check Up – 22.09.16
We spent the morning traveling across the city to Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QE) for my liver check-up. I’ve been attending this particular clinic for almost three years since some routine blood tests revealed very high liver function results. Given my complicated IBD history, I’ve been seeing the head of the department, a Professor; and had lots more blood work done and specialised testing to give me a diagnosis. Not that…
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One month post op
“Time moves slowly but passes quickly.” That can be said for my recovery from surgery. I can’t quite believe its been a month already but in the same thought I can believe it. I’ve been experiencing recovery in real time and taken each day as it comes. It hasn’t been easy – but I knew it wouldn’t be – but its been better than my last experience of recovering…
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To new beginnings…
Tuesday 23rd August (cont’d) “I’ve got a space for you on the end of the emergency list today, could be this afternoon, probably this evening though.” Ward round this morning and surgeon is keen to remove my colon today. Despite being busy, he will stay and do my surgery when his list is complete. Turned out that meant waiting all day – still experiencing more blood than I’ve ever known…
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Nottingham GI Clinic – 14.09.16
It’s always abit weird to see how another hospital organise their clinics. This was our second visit to see Dr Moran – head of Digestive Disorders, specialising in clinical trials for IBD – to discuss my case. Since we last came in January, I’ve had two surgeries, three admissions, two MRI and a CT scan and a colonoscopy. Explaining the last six months was going to be fun. I took…
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In for the long haul
Thursday, August 11th “I feel absolutely awful. If I’m honest, I’ve felt awful for weeks and I’m at the end of my tether. Please help me.” I was on the phone to my IBD nurse, begging for help. I’ve never begging for an admission but that is what came out of my mouth next; “I’d really like to be admitted.” She wasn’t shocked, just said she’d need to speak to…
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A Spiral of Set Backs
I last wrote anything about my Crohn’s disease back at the end of June. That is almost six weeks ago but feels so much longer ago. And in retrospect, so much but so little has happened. It’s just been one thing after another; without the last problem really going away. So I was being discharged in my last post after my bowel infection from surgery. That problem resolved itself a…
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‘Recovery’ and Bowel Infection Adventures [15.06.16]
I was never given any real information on how to recover from surgery. Sure, I got details on what had happened to my body, what I was now missing and how to best adapt going forward but I never expected ‘complications’; even though they were there, in black and white, at the end of the procedure paperwork, to happen to me. Complications included: Chest infection. Illeus (temporary stoppage in bowels). Damage to…
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Right Hemicolectomy with Cystectomy [12.05.16] – Pt II
The weekend after surgery saw the most activity. This would be the removal of my catheter, getting out of bed for the first time and finally being able to eat. Having not been awake for the insertion of the catheter, the removal was pretty painless. It was more uncomfortable than anything and it did mean I would now have to get up and find the female toilet at some point;…