cdl.me

Sometimes people ask me how I’m sick, or what I have. Usually I’d point them to a blog, but I don’t think I’ve done one (or if i have, I have no idea where it is) so I thought I would write an entire new one. This blog will be about my UC, ileostomy, and reversal. It’s going to be a bit long, so yeah. Let’s begin.

It all began in 2008, it was around March when I began to feel a bit sick. I had a bit of nausea, couldn’t sleep well, all basic flu symptoms so that’s all I thought I had. It wasn’t until that Easter that I started to get worse.

On Easter day I went out to a family breakfast at Sizzler. I felt really sick, light-headed. I remember I was supposed to work that day, so I had to ring in sick (of course they thought I was only “sick” because it was Easter).

After Easter it just kept getting worse. I’d be in the toilet constantly, lost a lot of weight (I was down to 45 kgs at one stage). All I could eat was fruit cut into tiny pieces, and even that I could maybe eat once a day. After a few weeks of it not getting better I went to the doctor (why I didn’t go sooner I’m not sure).

The doctor did some tests on me and said I had irritable bowel syndrome (that I probably got from salmonella). He gave me some pills and sent me on my way. The pills worked, but only for a week. Once i had run out of them I began feeling worse then before. I was losing more and more weight, eating less and less. I got so bad it was time to go to the hospital.

When I went it was pretty much the same as the hospital. I told the doctor what my GP had said about IBS, and he just gave me stronger pills. These worked better than the last ones, but just like the last ones once they were gone I felt sick again. I was getting annoyed with all this. Once again I went back to the hospital.

This time they ran some proper tests on me and had a professional butt doctor look at me. I was in hospital for a week this time. The whole week was a lot of blood transfusions, blood tests, IV drips, and a lot of other invasive things. 

After the week was over they finally worked out what was wrong with me. I had ulcerative colitis. They worked out what pills I had to take and let me go home.

The next year was all about getting better. I had a weekly check up with the gastroenterology doctor, and everything seemed to be going fine.

Everything went okay until the start of 2010. Just after my 20th birthday I started feeling sick again. My pills were no longer working. The doctor put me on stronger pills and a weekly IV treatment, hoping it would make me better.

A few months passed and I felt fine, but according to my blood tests I wasn’t. The doctor decided I needed to have a colonoscopy to see what was going on. Apparently my large intestine had become incredibly inflamed. I was checked into hospital and told I’d have to have surgery to remove my large intestine, or I could face getting bowel cancer and most likely die or something just as fun.

After a few days in hospital it was finally time for surgery. I tried not to think about it. Once the surgery was over I don’t remember much. I was attached to a morphine machine for the next few days so was pretty drugged for most of it.

After a few days when I wasn’t so sore anymore I had to do physio to get up and out of the hospital faster. Finally after a week of being in the hospital I was out.

The next few weeks at home I was fairly okay. Then a month after my surgery I got incredibly dehydrated. I couldn’t move, and if I stood up I’d faint. I ended up back in hospital for another week. Once I was out I felt great. Better than I had in so long.

The next 9 months I was slowly getting used to my colostomy bag. By the end I had finally gotten used to it, when it was time for my reversal.

My reversal surgery went alright. No complications and I was up the next day walking around. I felt pretty good. Later in the day they put me on solid foods. Some kind of disgusting cheese fish thing. It made me sick and the next 2 days I was staying in hospital again. After that I was finally allowed home.

The next few weeks I seemed to be getting better. I was able to leave the house, walk around a bit and all that. That only lasted 3 weeks. Once I hit the 3 week mark I started feeling incredibly light headed whenever I stood up.

And that finally leads me to know. The 5 week mark. I’m hopefully getting better, but I still feel incredibly sore, and can’t walk much without being out of breath and dehydrated. Hopefully this surgery wasn’t a mistake and I won’t end up with the ileostomy bag back again.