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My first Gastro outpatients appointment at St Marks

Well today has been a monumental day in my journey to recovery. I actually attended an outpatient appointment at St Marks. 'So what?' you might say. Well, it's significant because I've never been well enough to attend one for months. I'm usually ill and already an inpatient when I'm due to see Dr7 in clinic, so to be able to go today (and not get admitted!) is quite something. 

It has been a long old day though. The appointment was at 3pm so I had to leave just after 1.30pm as it takes around an hour to get there and I wanted to allow for bad traffic, parking etc. the journey was fine but it took me over 20 minutes to get a parking space. I drove round and round I don't know how many times until I finally got one. 

So going into the clinic I am sent for blood tests and asked to give a urine sample. After this I see the dietician and then finally Dr7. By the time I had finished with everyone it was nearly 5.30!

Everything was fine. They are going to increase my prescription of fluids as I'm not getting enough at the moment. Dr7 tried to persuade me that I would be better off having a litre of fluids every night, instead of 2 litres every other night. Reading this you probably think that it doesn't make any difference. We'll, it does. 

The 1 litre bags wouldn't have to be regurgitated so there is the bonus that if I go abywhere I don't have to worry about keeping them chilled in transit or at my destination. However, it would mean being 'hooked up' every night and I prefer doing it every other so I get a night off. Plus every time you hook up you are potentially creating an infection risk so only doing it every 2 days halves that risk. I did wonder if there was a cost benefit to the hospital too. I did ask Dr7 if that was why he was trying to persuade me to go daily but he said that it wasn't important which suggests to me that there was. 

Anyway, I'm going to be doing it every other day for now and then we will review it when I next see him. 

The dietician reviewed all my eating/drinking habits and I've had my wrist smacked for drinking fizzy drinks and trying to eat vegetables. My bowels aren't able to cope with the fibre and they come out undigested, looking exactly the same as when they went in! I miss being able to have a big stirfry, or a lovely salad or loads of veg with Sunday lunch. A diet of pizza, pasta and biscuits might sound ideal to lots of people but after a while it gets very boring and repetitive. 

They have also suggested that I have a litre a day of the dreaded emix. This is a sugar/salt electrolyte solution that is designed to be easily absorbed. It's very good for you, but tastes absolutely disgusting. I'm told that if it's refrigerated it tastes better so I will make some up and stick it on the fridge tomorrow. 

I was thinking aswell that I would like to try doing some gentle exercise. I can't swim (because of the Hickman line), find the exercise bike difficult because my bottom can quite often be sore and can't walk far or jog because of my numb leg. Any ideas?? Was thinking that maybe yoga or Pilates might be worth trying as they're low impact and mainly done sitting or lying. I have a copy of the Insanity workout sitting on top of my DVD player but I think it will be quite some time until I will be ready to tackle that! 

Anyway, back to Dr7 and the clinic appointment today. He wants me to have a pouchoscopy (a camera put up my bum to look at my pouch and my small bowel) as he thinks I might have pouchitits. This is an inflammation if the pouch and not a made up word as one if my friends suggested! ;) Easily treated with antibiotics so nothing serious. 

He is also referring me to the BioFeedback team. This is basically physiotherapy for your anus so watch out- I will have muscles like Arnold swarzenager soon. Only they will be in my bum, not my arms! This should help with the continence issue as the test I had a few weeks ago shows that one set of my muscles is weak which is why I'm experiencing the urgency and occasional accident. 

So all in all a positive visit. I got to see Dr8 today too and we had a chat, aswell as one of the pouch nurses. She actually walked past me and then came back saying that she hadn't recognised me now that I'm blonde. 

Talking of blonde, I will share with you one of my classic blonde moments from today. When I was talking with Dr7 he asked me when I was seeing the surgical team in clinic. I checked the diary on my phone but hadn't put it in there do said to him "I'm not sure when it is. I haven't put it in my phone. I wrote it on the diary on the wall." He couldn't stop laughing as he asked me if I meant the calendar! So you see, I have to dye my hair blonde otherwise I wouldn't have dumb blonde moments, they would just be dumb moments! 

NB x
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