When I arrived I was told that I would be put on IV steroids for 3 days in order to try and get on top of the inflammation in my bowel. This caused all sorts of problems because I apparently have very few veins which are any use and so in 7 days I went through 7 cannulas as they would either blow and be useless or it would get too sore or fall out. The steroids worked miracles for me and within 3 days they were confident that they were going to be able to switch me onto the oral version of the steroids and I would be able to go home within 24 hours. This would have meant that I was in hospital from the Wednesday until the Tuesday at lunch time (this deal worked for me). They transferred me onto the oral steroids on Monday morning and we waited with baited breath to see how I was going to react. It was all going swimmingly well and I was basically packed and ready to go on Monday evening with my discharge notes being prepared. Good fortune however was not on my side and throughout the night on Tuesday I took a massive backwards turn, back to a large amount of blood as well as watery diarrhoea throughout the night. The toilet attacks were again frequent and I was in a lot of pain. More painkillers (which I have been diligently trying to avoid at all costs) and I was feeling rather dejected.
The next morning I reported on my symptoms to the doctor (not before they had tried to get rid of me…ward miscommunication) and I was put quickly back on the IV steroids and told I would be needing to go for a camera test so that they were able to see what was happening and take biopsies. I was taken for an x-ray to see if there was anything else that they could see. That day was a complicated one and I certainly had to pull on my big girl panties and stand up for myself at points.
The next day (I think we are on Wednesday by this point) I was all ready having had my light breakfast to go for my camera test. I got myself all gowned up and everything before they decided that I didn’t need to have it any more because I had stopped being symptomatic (thank you IV steroids). So a return to the ward with a different plan to get me off the IV steroids and home by Friday (I mean that’s 9 days in hospital, plenty for anyone thanks).
It was as I got to the end of Wednesday that things started to go wrong. The doctors recommended me trying Laxido. Now this was a baffling concept for me given that my symptoms certainly suggested I would probably NOT need Laxido ever. Turns out however that you can be like bunged up further up the system. So I dutifully took the Laxido (weird tasting stuff, made the water taste heavy?!) and waited for the desired effects. I expected some discomfort with this whole process but it was all going swimmingly well when again the gods did not look favourably on me. It was about 2am when I was back in crippling pain (slightly different area this time but no less painful), I called for the nurse and took some paracetamol to try and get on top of the pain, went to the toilet for another attack and it was back, blood and the rest. Not what I needed. As I drifted into an uneasy sleep I was then woken again by a large amount of pain and more issues with the toilet. I was asked to do a stool sample (it’s just blood but okay…) and took some morphine. The morphine took the edge off but did not kick the pain. Having watched a lot of Grey’s Anatomy in my life, I thought morphine was like a cure all for pain and it would instantly knock me out and I would be grand, no such luck.
So as I sit here writing this at 4:32am, I am waiting for the doctors to be back to the ward so that I can discuss what is going on (again). Maybe I will have a test again (who knows) but I am seriously hoping this is sorted quickly as I am slowly losing the fight that I had when I first came in here.
Please read, like and comment if you enjoyed it! More content to come as I go through this journey 😊