More than just a bag lady

I was lucky enough to get discharged on the afternoon of the 23rd which meant I was home in time for Christmas. It was a bit touch and go for a few days as my bowels really didn’t want to start working again and I was in soooo much pain but a festive enema kickstarted things and I made it home! It meant that Christmas Eve was a bit more hectic than I would have liked but I was bloody grateful not to be spending Christmas in hospital. I had presents to deliver to family that was isolating with Covid, I had to wrap Hubby’s gifts and finish wrapping the kids stuff and was on the hunt for a reindeer antler for the dog as my usual pet shop had sold out. (Reindeer antlers may sound very Christmassy but they’re a natural dog chew and he has them all year round but he was in need of a new one for Christmas.) It was about 6pm by the time I sat down and was ready to relax and by then I could not be bothered to cook so a Dominoes order was made. Trust me- the kids weren’t complaining! The four of...

I’m back in my second home, the bloody hospital, again. I’ve had a couple of bad days this week but I spent Wednesday night going to the loo every 30 minutes and then began vomiting yesterday morning. I couldn’t keep my morning medications down but I was hoping that I might feel better later in the day so I went back to bed and managed to get some sleep. But I woke up in agony in the early afternoon and tried to take my meds but I started vomiting again and didn’t stop for almost an hour.  Hubby rang the ward to let them know I wasn’t well and to see if I could be admitted straight to the ward without the need to go in via A&E but they didn’t have a bed. We got to A&E about 3.30pm and usually they take me straight through to majors and get me on a trolley but this time they left me sat in a wheelchair in the waiting room to be triaged by a nurse. I was in so much pain I was sobbing and because of covid restrictions Hubby wasn’t allowed to stay with me so I was there all on ...

Nothing is ever straightforward when it comes to me and medical matters. So it’s no surprise that getting my next covid jab was a bit of a palava.  First of all instead of needing a booster jab, I needed a 3rd jab because I was on immunosuppressants when I had my first two. It’s the same injection but it’s how it’s recorded on the system that matters as I will need to have a booster jab in 3-6 months time and if it’s not recorded as a third jab then I won’t be able to book a follow up booster. We all know that when the time comes to book my booster I’m going to have loads of problems because that’s just how things go.  The issue I have had is that when I had my first two jabs I was told that I couldn’t have the Phizer one due to all of my drug allergies and phizer is pretty much the only one being offered in Nottingham as a booster.  So when it came to booking this one I tried to find out where I could go to get Astra Zeneca or Moderna. Now you’d think that if you rang 11...

This weekend has been super busy. As well as the kids usual football and netball matches the England netball team were playing in Nottingham so of course we had to go and watch them. So on Saturday as soon as Big Girl’s own netball match finished we made a mad dash to the Arena to watch England take on Jamaica. The match was brilliant and seeing netball played at such a high level is inspiring for Big Girl. It’s fast paced and although it’s technically a non contact sport it can get a bit argy bargy at times, which makes it all the more exciting.  England won 66-47 but due to Covid the players weren’t allowed to give autographs or have photos taken with fans so Big Girl was really disappointed. When we got home I was knackered so went straight to bed so I could recharge my batteries ready to do it all again on the next day.  On Sunday morning before going to watch day 2 of the netball we made our annual family trip to get the Christmas tree 🎄 We always have a real one and we ...

I was discharged from hospital on Friday afternoon and within a few hours of being home I was out taking Big Girl to her netball training session. I didn’t feel great but Hubby had a load of work to do so I thought if I did the netball run it would take the pressure off him. Usually after dropping Big Girl off I go to my sisters house as she only lives 5 minutes from where netball training takes place but this week both her and her husband were out so I resorted to wandering the local retail park. I was hopeful that I would be able to get some Christmas presents as I haven’t bought a single thing yet but I just couldn’t get into the mood for shopping. I think being tired and in pain didn’t really help so in the end I went back to the car and sat and watched Netflix.  Driving home that evening the pain got worse and by the time we arrived home I was in agony. I crawled up the stairs and into bed hugging the sick bowl. Part of me was wondering if I would end up having to go back into...

I’ve been out of hospital since mid-September and I’ve had the best 8 weeks. I’ve been able to watch Big Fella play football, Big Girl play netball, ferry them both around, do school runs, walk the dog, cook dinner, go out with friends, go on Question Time, celebrate my 40th (that’s a whole other post!) have rainbow hair and just live life. But always in the back of my mind is the thought that at any time I could become ill and end up in hospital and that’s exactly what happened this week. On Saturday evening I had a bit of a party to celebrate my 40th and had family and friends round to the house. I had an amazing time and even had a couple of cocktails and a cheeky slice of dominoes pizza. I knew that I wouldn’t feel good on Sunday but thought ‘sod it’ and did it anyway. I spent all of Sunday in bed, mainly recovering from the exhaustion, but luckily I didn’t really have any repercussions with my bowels.  On Monday morning I got up, took the dog for a walk and then went to the d...

Hubby thinks I’ve gone mad. In August I finally dyed my hair pink after having the hair dye sat in my bathroom cupboard for all of lockdown. I hadn’t been able to get an appointment with the hairdresser before going on holiday so I did it myself but I had booked myself in for November so I would look decent for my birthday. The original plan was to have blonde highlights but I was quite enjoying having pink hair so thought I would have another colour put on, maybe blue or purple. But when I started googling coloured hair some pictures of rainbow hair came up and once I had seen them I decided that I had to do it.  I popped into the hairdressers two days before my appointment to choose my colours and to get a proper telling off from the hairdresser for bleaching my own hair. Luckily my hair wasn’t too damaged so when I showed her the photo of the rainbow hair and asked her if she could do it she just rolled her eyes and told me to come in an hour earlier.  This was my hair bef...

My kids have been off school for the last two weeks and they’ve kept me very busy. So much so most evenings I was practically unconscious by 9pm (oh who am I kidding, some nights I only just saw 7pm!) Half term began with Bestie, her fiancée and 4 kids coming to stay for the weekend from Hertfordshire. We had decided not to do much as they arrived Saturday late afternoon and were leaving again on Sunday afternoon as their kids only had a week for half term and still had to go to school on the Monday. So Saturday night there was a huge Dominoes pizza order placed and the older teens were helping themselves to the ‘beer fridge’. That made the evening fun for the adults as we watched them get more and more pissed while protesting that they’d ‘only had a couple’. Luckily there was no vomiting and it did make them sleep whereas normally they’d all be up until stupid o’clock. Sunday consisted of a big fry up, walking the dog, lounging around and the obligatory group photos (we have been taki...

I used to love swimming and even went back to doing lengths in the local leisure centre after having a stoma. I found the repetitive motion very soothing and it’s one of the very few activities where I could totally zone out and let my mind be still. So when I got my first Hickman line 7 years ago I was gutted when I was told by the doctors that swimming was an absolute no-no.  Over the years I’ve read on various Facebook TPN groups and blogs of people swimming with Hickman lines and they’ve usually done it one of three ways: 1) they’ve ignored the doctors advise and just gone swimming regardless  2) they’ve bought a specially adapted drysuit from  Hammonds . These keep you and your line dry but do cost upwards of £400 3) they’ve used stoma bags to cover the line and keep it dry I really  missed swimming and asked my consultant at St Marks at almost clinic appointment if he was sure I couldn’t swim. And every time his answer was the same: no swimming. Because I’...

Tonight Hubby and I were in the audience of Question Time!  I was watching the programme a couple of weeks ago and saw that it was coming to Nottingham and decided to apply. I’ve always wanted to go on the show but the last time it was in Nottingham I was in hospital so being well enough to go tonight was especially poignant.  The online application form was pretty straightforward and didn’t take long to complete. There were a number of questions you had to answer about your political allegiances- who you voted for in the last election, which party you would vote for if there were a general election tomorrow, how you voted in the EU referendum and whether you belonged to a political party or have even done things like leaflet dropped or gone door to door for one. The reason they wanted to know all that is to make sure they get a balanced audience that is representative of the country we live in.  On Monday I was out at the shops and just as I was paying for something at t...

I got a phone call  from the hospital on Monday asking if I could attend an outpatient appointment with Mr E, the colorectal surgeon on Wednesday at 9am. Of course I said yes even though Wednesdays are usually spent in bed recovering from Tuesday nights yoga.  Since getting the phone call I had been wondering if this meant that they were starting surgeries again and that’s why I’d been called to the outpatient clinic. Would I get there and be given a surgery date or would I just be fobbed off with ‘NHS backlogs’? My mind had been going a million miles an hour thinking of all the different outcomes and trying to predict what would be said at the appointment.  I got to the hospital this morning and went through all the Covid related questions they now ask you as standard. I was Mr E’s first patient of the day so luckily there wasn’t a long wait to be seen. I was called in and the first thing he commented on was my pink hair. We then talked about my admission in Cornwall and...

Tonight I went and got my Flu jab at my GP surgery. I was in and out in 2 minutes and I barely felt a thing. Hopefully that will protect me from getting flu this winter and having had Covid fingers crossed I won’t get it again.  I am a little bit confused about the whole 3rd Covid jab/boosters that are being offered at the moment. I saw this post on the Facebook page of Crohns and Colitis UK. I wasn’t sure what the difference was between the two so I thought I would ask the nurse while I was getting my flu jab. She seemed to think that the third dose and the booster were exactly the same but the above picture implies that they’re different. She told me that they’re currently offering Pfizer boosters at my GP surgery which I wouldn’t be able to have anyway due to my allergies. After doing a little googling I found this information which helped to clarify what the difference is on the  Crohns and Colitis webpage So I’m thinking that because I was on steroids and an immunosuppres...

Today, Saturday 2nd October, is World Ostomy Day. For those that don’t know what an Ostomy is it’s a surgically created opening in your abdomen to allow poo or urine to leave the body. Ileostomies and Colostomies are also commonly known as stomas and are for poo. Ileostomies come from the small bowel and colostomies from the large. People tend to end up with these as a result of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), cancer or if another surgery goes wrong and damages the bowel. Urostomies are for wee and are made if the bladder is too damaged to work properly or has to be removed.  I had an Ileostomy for the best part of 5 years following the emergency surgery I had in 2009 to remove my large bowel after it perforated. It came as a huge shock to me and took me a while to get my head round the fact that I had a stoma. However I was still able to do all the things I could do before, including swimming. The reason I no longer have an ileostomy is because I was ‘joined back up’ in a 2 part...