The Hospital Diaries Day 2 – Tuesday

I managed a pretty decent night’s sleep last night to be fair, which is good for me in hospital!

Food Diary

Breakfast was the only meal I photographed today as I then had to go nil by mouth for my camera tests and then only had a sandwich for tea so not very interesting! I opted for porridge and a slice of jam on toast and I couldn’t complain!

After this I couldn’t eat anything till after the Flexible Sigmoidoscopy and Ileoscope which were booked for that afternoon. I was allowed clear fluids till 11am and braved a black tea which actually wasn’t as bad as I thought! Too much milk doesn’t tend to agree with me when things are playing up so think that helped!

Flexible Sigmoidoscopy and Ileoscope

I was due to be taken down to have the cameras done at 1pm but it was closer to 3pm in the end and in the meantime I was moved to the gastro ward. I’m in a side room again which is nice and private with my own bathroom. When you have a stoma it really is such a blessing to have your own bathroom in here.

I was taken down to endoscopy just before 3pm and my vitals were all checked and then I waited about half an hour before being taken in. The staff down there were all lovely.

I had the Flexible Sigmoidoscopy first after some sedation. Due to strictures they know are down there already they also use a pediatric scope to try and make it a little easier. It was still quite painful but not as bad as the one I had about 10 months ago. He said there was inflammation and has taken biopsies to confirm whether it’s diversion colitis or avtive Crohn’s. My previous post – A Day In The Life – Flexible Sigmoidoscopy – explains more about this procedure and the prep I had to follow from home.

I wasn’t looking forward to the Ileoscope as have never had one before but it really wasn’t as bad as I imagined. The first part was sore as we discovered that there is a rather large stricture right behind my stoma which may be causing alot of my issues! The doctor used his little finger to find this and then the scope to get in for a closer look. There was a lot of backed up output behind my stoma which is obviously struggling to get out past the structure. The doctor did his best to clear this but then there was an awful lot and it was becoming uncomfortable with the amount of air he was having to use. He said the bowel he could see looked pretty healthy but he couldn’t be sure from the view he got so took some biopsies to check for inflammation. He is hoping the dilation with his finger/the camera will help open the stoma up now so fingers crossed!

Cannula Count

No new cannulas needed today as the one on the back of my arm is working beautifully. The one that tissued yesterday has left my arm a right mess though! You can see the thick line at the right hand side of the bruise is where my vein has completely collapsed – that one will never be good for anything again! Luckily it’s not too sore which is good, even with how horrific it looks!

Had Ste, my mum and dad come to visit again today which was lovely. Ste hasn’t been feeling well at all today so it was good to see his face tonight and a big thank you to my mum and dad for bringing him in. My mum bought me a book and Ste got me my slippers and some snacks. I also got to phone the boys which was lovely. I had to fill them in on being back in here but said I was getting some medicine and tests done so they could get me better and they were happy about that. Told them about the camera test in the stoma and their faces were epic! They’d both done their karate lesson and Riley was very happy to tell me he wasn’t told off at all! He also showed me the vegetables they had planted have started to grow and that they had polished off the rest of the Brownie we made at the weekend!

Unfortunately have been struggling with heavy nausea since trying to eat some tea and also lots of pain in my large bowel area (probably following the camera test) so going to try and get an early night. Thank you all again for your continued support. I’m going to write a more in depth post on the Ileoscope procedure once I’m out for those who want to know more but feel free to ask any questions in the comments below.