Sorry I’ve been away

First off let me apologise for my lack of blogs recently. As with any illness, you have rough times, and unfortunately I’ve been going through my own lately.

My pain levels have been really high, which has meant I haven’t been able to do too much. Also, I have been having to rely on extra painkillers which can make me really sleepy and pretty useless.

It all came to a head, as such on Saturday. With adhesions, depending on what they are stuck to, it can lead to other problems. **WARNING THIS MAY GET A BIT GROSS**
When your bowels are effected this can cause major issues and if a full obstruction occurs, it can even be life threatening. This is why after a week of agony, and not being able to go to the toilet, I was understandably worried. For this reason I called 101, the NHS advice line. The woman went through some questions with me and then told me she would need to speak to one of the clinicians due to my answers. When she came back on the line she went on to explain that an ambulance had been dispatched to me and to sit tight until they arrived. Needless to say, I freaked! Panic and scared do not even come close to how I was feeling, whilst at the same time it was a relief someone was taking me seriously. Doctors don’t like to acknowledge adhesions after all.
The ambulance turned up about 10 minutes later and they came in and started taking my obs. I had low blood pressure (but that’s pretty normal for me), my blood sugar levels were fine but I was slightly tachycardic (heart beating slightly too fast). They put me on gas and air to help with the pain, and made a phone call to the Doctors explaining all this. Because I live on my own they thought it best that I went into hospital so I could be checked over properly, because the chance of obstruction was still a risk. This is where it all went downhill……….

Once I arrived at the hospital my obs were taken again and they were pretty much the same as before. I was then taken through to a corridor…..and left! For about an hour. With no pain relief! Apparently this was the queue for the Accident and emergency Department. I was in agony and hadn’t had any painkillers since the morning, so I assumed someone would at least be along to provide me with something, but this never happened. Finally though I was taken through to a cubicle…..and left again. This time for half an hour or so. Then a nurse came in, just to tell me that she was my nurse BUT that her shift was actually just finished and someone else would be taking over from me! When I’m in pain, I have a tendency to show it through anger. I was in immense pain, and getting angrier by the second!
Eventually a new nurse came in to take blood samples and to get me to do a urine sample. I was then told that the only pain relief I was to be given was paracetamol. Now for those of you who are lucky enough to not have to take painkillers, paracetamol is for mild pain relief ie headaches. Now daily I take Tramadol, which is a hell of a lot stronger, an opiod painkiller. So to be told this, nearly drove me through the roof. If that was the case I would have been better off staying at home and sticking with the stuff I had indoors!!
Because of this I finally snapped and told them this, that I would be better off at home, so would they take the cannula out of my arm and let me go. The nurse advised against this and said she would get the Dr to come and see me straight away. In all fairness he was pretty quick. The Harry Potter lookalike! Was pretty hard to take him seriously, as I swear his voice hadn’t even broken yet!! He examined me and said that my bowels sounded like they were moving, all my tests had come back clear so they were pretty sure there was no major obstruction. I was advised to ‘rest my bowel’ for the next few days and see what happens. This would mean cut down my fibre content as much as possible and eat things, that would be easily digested and that could move smoothly along my intestines and through my bowels. If it didn’t improve I would be best off seeing my GP and getting another hospital referral.

That all happened 3 days ago. I’m still in quite a lot of pain but the good news is that I finally managed to ‘go’ today!! Woo Hoo!!! When you have a chronic illness that has side effects like these, you tend to lose your dignity slightly and become able to talk about these things much easier. It also means that simple things, such as bowel movements become an important part of your life. Pretty sad huh!

So I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that now I have ‘movement’, the pain will start easing off. If not, could be the start of yet another referral journey……..