Ups and Downs

Yesterday started well as I had had two good nights sleep in a row and it looked like I was getting better, the staff, and doctors were talking about me going home on Sunday and I did not really have much to write about, so I did not do a blog.

Then I got another piece of good news, the problems I have been having with my digestive system over the last 18 months could be explained by the operation I had. In the operation Mr. Tim Worthington repaired two fistulas one from the bile duct to the duodenum and the other from the duodenum to the colon. This meant that the bile which should travel down the bile duct to the small bowel and then round the system helping the body to absorb fat could not. The bile is then reabsorbed in the ilium which means it is recycled constantly. Mine was going straight into the colon, thus not absorbing fat. It also had the secondary function of arriving in the colon making the gut at this point absorb water and increase the volume of bowel movements and frequency. This answered a lot of the questions I have had on my diet and wellbeing. So with this operation I could be cured.

After this I went down to the interventional radiologist to be scanned and they were looking at where the bile was now going. Unfortunately (a bit of an understatement) the bile was not flowing out of the liver as the join/repair at this point had swelled. It meant that he had to use a small balloon to dilate the opening and keep the drain in to get rid of the bile. I was devastated, as yet another complication has arisen, and I have to wait in hospital until next Wednesday at the earliest to have another test for this to see if this is working. I am staying as an inpatient at the Private Hospital, The Nuffield Guildford, but the procedure was done at the Royal Surrey Hospital. They are linked by a tunnel so I just go down in a lift and then wheeled along corridors to the operating theatres. I have not been an NHS patient here in Guildford only Private as there were no beds. The journey between the two is about 10/15 minutes which I spent sobbing as I was in pain from the procedure and I was so upset with the bad news. My nurse had come down to get me. She is a great nurse on the practical side, but it took 10 minutes for her to enquire if I was ok. A friendly acknowledgement was all I needed and she seemed simply incapable to doing this. It made it worse.

I am in the same situation I have found myself in before where pain medication runs out and I am wide awake overnight as I am not due more pain relief and the pain relief I have at the moment is not enough. I spent an hour talking to the senior sister and she said she would sort it out for me and write it up for the nurses so I did not have a dip – it was awful at 10 last night an now at 4.30/5 am I am in the same awful pain. Why cant they try to get the medication right so you always have some covering the pain. So today I am going to get it sorted once and for all, I hate being in so much pain unnecessarily.

For those of you who are reading this every day thank you for your messages of encouragement and support it means a lot.

20/7/19