consultant to write letter for emergency services...

Well, following the first obstructive episode, I suffered another two before seeing my consultant again.  On neither occasion was I actually sick, but there was the same waves of pain, nausea, and then eventually, and each time to my relief, persistent and uncontrollable diarrhoea!!

I was actually at the tale end of the diarrhoea stage during my appointment. My appointment wasn't actually very much help. The. consultant didn't actually say very much more than the nurse had told me on the phone. He explained where the strictures were, and told me that it was likely that surgery was the answer. I asked if there was a chance that humira would improve things. He told me it was best to start the wheels turning for surgery as first I would have an appointment with a surgeon and then I would be on a waiting list. If at any point it seemed that things had improved dramatically, thin I could always put my foot on the break.

I had a lot of questions about surgery, like how long was the waiting list, what did the procedure involve, what was the recovery time likely to be and so on.  He wasn't willing to answer any of these however as he isn't the surgeon and he thought it better I wait and get the answers from a surgeon when I see one.

The one thing the consultant did say however, which gave an idea as to how serious things had potentially become, was this. He said if I did suffer an episode where I was being sick, and I hadn't been able to keep anything down for 24 hours, then I was to call an ambulance.
He said not to worry about if I think it's an emergency. He said it is an emergency, and "don't let them (a and e) try and fob you off with ibs. Cut through the crap. Tell them you have Crohn 's, you have strictures and an obstruction and to get you down to derriford(his hospital), and get some fluids in you" he also said he would write me a letter to this effect that I could give to emergency services should the need arise. I was very pleased he told me this, as that first time I was scared, and yet I still want sure if it warranted calling an ambulance.

So now it's a case of waiting for a surgeon, and praying I don't have an emergency situation on the mean time!

I have suffered an 'obstructive episode' it would seem

So I gave my IBD nurse a call the day after my rather scary episode.  She agreed that it would seem that I had suffered what she termed an obstructive episode.  She said that if it had got to the point of vomitting, then this was cause for concern, and suggested that the disease had probably progressed.  She advised that I stick to a 'sloppy' diet for the next five or six days.  She suggested soups and jellies. I thought that's what I had been doing.

She apologised that I hadnt recieved a sooner consultants appointment, and said she would try and get me an earlier appointment.

The next day, I was rather surprised to hear from her again.  She told me that she had just come out of the radiology meeting with the consultant and the radiologist, and they had been reviewing my small bowel MRI.

The news she had was actually a bit of  shock.  She told me that the small bowel was free of disease as we were aleady aware, but the scan also showed the top half of large bowel, and it appeared that there was more stricturing further up, past the point where the colonoscopy reached.  This in itself did not surprise me, as I could tell that by the episodes of pain I was getting.  What was a bit of a shock was that she said that with such a significant amount of stricturing it was unlikely that it was just inflammatory and some of it was more than likely fibrotic.  This meant that it was likely I was going to require surgery at some point.

I've had ten years to get used to the fact that having crohn's was likely to mean I would need some surgery at some point.  It still upset me to hear this however.  Rather embarassingly, it made me tearful, and I was at work.  I hate acting like a girl at work!

My colleague reassured me and told me she knew somebody who had had a bowel resection.  It was straight forward, and they were much better for it. I know she's right, but it's still annoying to hear that the crohns had progressed that far.  On the plus side, my consultants appointment was brought forward by a week!

partial bowel obstruction!

Well, firstly I have to apologise for not updating my blog for so long! Believe it or not, a lot has happened since May, and in order that you can get a full understanding of what I have gone through I'm going to post a series of back dated posts, rather than one very long post that you'll all get bored of.

We.'ll start with May 19th. My low residue diet was ticking along quite nicely. It was rather tedious only being able to eat a few things, but with some thought and care, I was still able to eat some tasty food, and I was still enjoying cooking more normal food for family and friends.

On the weekend of May 19th we had some family visiting. An aunt and uncle from up country and we had invited my brother and his family and an aunt and both My grannies, who live in the village, for a barbecue. I had decided to bake a cake and make some bread rolls as my contribution to the cooking. This shouldn't have taken very long in itself. However, I was a little uncomfortable in my tummy. A bit bloated, and not feeling like I could eat.  As the day went on, I began to get the waves of intense pain I'd been having before I had started on low residue.  The pain got more and more, and it became increasingly difficult to finish the cooking I'd set out to do. By the time I'd finished what I'd planned to cook, I had started to have pretty much continuous diarrhoea, and was constantly taking trips to the toilet. I thought this was probably a good thing and that things would start to improve.  I just about managed to say hello to family members, but by the time my mum was lighting the barbecue, I was either in the bathroom or laying in agony on the bed. If I stood upright, I Felt dizzy and sick. Then the sickness started.  I was heaving, right down in the pit of my stomach.  What I was bringing up was very dark in colour. Was it faeces? I started to feel scared at this point.  I could hear all my family outside, laughing and chatting.  Did I need to go to my mum and tell her I thought this might be serious.  Was this the point at which I should be calling an ambulance?

Thankfully, I never got to making this decision.  The sickness eased off a little, and I was able to get some sleep.  I thought perhaps this was a partial obstruction. The next day I gave the ibd nurse a call. I'll save that conversation for my next post.