Hey everyone, so again I haven't been posting as much as I wanted to when uni ended. My body has had other things in store for me unfortunately. The last blog post I had done was actually the night I ended up in A&E. I thought I would let you in on what has been happening though. Little warning that there may be some TMI going on here. Few trigger warnings may be warranted such as hospitals and eating disorders.
The Night I Went To A&E
Back in mid April I had been getting some really awful pain in my side/stomach/back. It then got steadily worse with bleeding when I went to the toilet. Fun right? My boyfriend was convincing me to go to hospital or at least phone NHS24. I'm pretty damn stubborn and refused. The day I phoned my GP to get an appointment but couldn't because there were none left was the night he didn't give me a choice and drove me to Glasgow Royal Infirmary as I was hunched over in absolute agony. With the symptoms I was describing they decided to check for a kidney stone which was hilarious as Chris was one week away from surgery to remove a kidney stone and we thought it was too much of a coincidence. I was taken for an x-ray and given some strong painkillers. After a while the doctor came to see how I was doing. Which was not good. I was still in agony and with the x-ray showing some kind of shadow but they weren't sure what it was so the doctor decided to admit me. Apparently I looked at Chris the way a puppy looks when they find out what the vet is for the first time when I got told I was going to be staying in. I was not happy.
Staying In Hospital
I got taken up to a transit ward to wait for my CT scan which was supposed to be that morning. Turned out only one scanner was working that day so I waited all day to be told it would be the following morning before I got my scan. I was first on the list at 9am though which was a bit of a relief. I was transferred to another receiving ward for the second night. I have never had to stay in hospital before so it was definitely strange. I was also lucky that Chris was off work so he was able to stay with me most of the time. I didn't get much sleep at all which resulted in a headache just to add to everything else. I got my CT scan and few hours later the doctor came round and told me that it was not a kidney stone but my colon wall was inflamed which may be a sign of ulcerative colitis and that they would allow me to go home and have a follow up appointment a month later if my symptoms persisted. I went back to Chris's that night and was going to have something to eat and go for a shower but as soon as my body got onto the bed I passed out for some much needed sleep.
How I'm Doing Now
So... my symptoms have not just persisted but I think they are getting worse. Over the last few weeks I've been hoping my outpatient appointment was sooner or tempted to go back to A&E. My appointment is on Tuesday though so it's not far away now. I was told that I may have to go for a colonoscopy which is looking rather likely now. I've been reading up on some things about ulcerative colitis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colonoscopies. I know that it seems pretty horrific but having an answer to the pain is better than not knowing. The medications I was given are not really helping either. I become extremely tired very quickly. After being out for an hour I'm ready for collapsing in a heap somewhere. Another issue is eating as the pain increases a lot after eating food and I'm starting to fear eating which is not great. It's also very frustrating anticipating the pain and not being able to do as much as I could do.
Starting A Diary
As food is a huge trigger for the pain I decided to keep a diary of what I eat, my toilet habits and the scale of my pain. So far I haven't found much of a pattern that causes the pain as it's everything that I eat which causes pain. Almost every time I eat something I feel like my body hates me and attacks itself. It's pretty horrible. I've definitely been sticking to soup a lot. Especially the Scotch Broth from the Scottish Soup Co. Bleeding when going to the toilet is also a moment that kind of freaks you out. So yeah, things are a tad grim at the moment.
Good News Though
There are some good things however. I got my results from uni and I passed everything. Including the exam which I was 90% sure I had failed which is a major relief. This means that I now technically have a degree but I am going to continue to get my Honours. Hopefully the health stuff will behave itself. The boyfriend and I are also a couple of more stops closer to buying our own place which is exciting and I'm going to see Wicked at the weekend in Edinburgh. So some positive things to reflect on.
Hopefully there will be answers to what is going on with me soon and can be resolved or at least managed. It has been a pretty few awful weeks recently. Thank you for reading though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Social Icons