Sarah Squire Shares Her Brave Story
My second Blog about life with and without a stoma
Editor’s Note: We welcome Angela back, Angela was our first member of the new 11 Health Bloggers & Innovators Program.
Some six months have passed since I last wrote up a blog.
It’s been a busy time and I am delighted to say that in October 2015 I got an all clear CT scan. So what next I wondered? I was quite used to the colostomy and all involved with maintaining the stoma. So I wasn’t in any hurry to take the next step.
In fact when I saw my surgeon in November I was quite casual about it all. “If you cannot reverse “I said “that is fine I can live with this situation” But he gave me good advice as to why it should be reversed, if it can, mainly to do with my age.
At seventy five I may well get ill with something completely unrelated, like a fall, or a stroke, or God help me, dementia. In that event I would not be able to look after the stoma myself and would have to immediately consider a Care Home.
The date for the reversal operation was set for after Christmas. My surgeon was looking, hopefully, to the second week of January 2016. In the meantime I was to have a series of dilations to the bowel under sedation. The colon had narrowed at the point where the join had been made after a large section of bowel had been removed. It was not uncommon for this to happen; it is mostly due to scar tissue.
So another set of appointments, another uncomfortable procedure and they managed to stretch the colon from 9cm to 18cm But would it hold was the next anxiety, well for me at least! The surgeon initially wanted to get to 20cm but he felt all would work again as the scar tissue would sort its self once the bowel was acting naturally again.
I was ready for the 29th January as the Theatre admission date. All tests had been done. A couple of days at outpatients for, blood tests, ECG, s etc. In fact I just got into the car and said ‘Hospital’ and it went under its own steam!! For nearly three years we had not been to many other places.
On the day before the operation the phone rang. Guess what? Operation cancelled; reason given lack of beds. I was annoyed and for the first time I felt that this was different. You see I wasn’t a cancer patient anymore, which is wonderful of course don’t get me wrong. All the treatment I had had over the last three years had gone like clockwork and always with a certain background of urgency. Now I was in the mainstream of surgical patients.
After many phone calls to and fro it was plain to see that they wanted to put me with another surgical team. I stuck out for the man who had brought me this far. I gathered later that he was furious and personally set a new date for the op on the 26th Feb 2016. This was an odd day as it was my 75th birthday!!! But hey I’ve had 74 birthdays already and you know what; they are all very much the same. So led by the Anaesthetist, the entire theatre staff sang” Happy Birthday” as she applied the needle and off to sleep I went.
It is worth mentioning at this point that I had nearly cancelled my Colostomy bags in January, thinking I would not need them ever again! Although we are constantly advised to always have some spares, I certainly did not have a month’s supply. This time I only contacted the provider after the op. One never knows!
The stoma reversal has been a success as far as its main objective was concerned. This is a great relief to me and my surgeon, as blockages can occur. I am now retraining my brain not to think every time I break wind I will need to run to the loo. But one has to err on the side of caution sometimes! The bowel system will, I am reliably informed, start to settle into a pattern of normal behaviour but not immediately, and it can take up to six months.
The one thing I did not expect was an open wound where the stoma had been replaced into the abdominal cavity wall. When I say open it is of course covered in a dressing but a hole measuring 2cm deep by 3,65cm wide sits on my stomach. It is now the one thing that is taking its time to heal. I have it repacked and dress every two days by the practice nurses, who tell me it is shrinking and they are pleased with its progress. They check the wound not just by looking at it but also by photography, which is a new tool in their medical bag. What a selfie!!!!!
A nasty chest infection inflicted on me during my stay as an inpatient, thanks to everyone in the hospital wards coughing, has now gone. It definitely delayed my recovery and made the inpatient experience quite appalling. Still that was four weeks ago and all is good.
I see my surgeon in May and with luck and a following wind, excuse the pun!! I should be making my farewells to this part of the NHS hospital system. I still have a colorectal specialist nurse who I can call on anytime I have worries and she will organize my CT scan every year for the next four years.
I can truly say that all departments of the NHS have looked after me with care and consideration. It’s a marvellous organization, but on its knees now. Who knows for how much longer can we proudly boast,” Free at the point of delivery from Cradle to Grave”
NB.( I caught Polio at aged nine in 1950, two years after the birth of the NHS. I was hospitalized for four years with a lot of spinal surgery being done. I know for certain no other generation will have the ongoing medical care that I have been lucky enough to count on over the past sixty years.)
Angela Wheelwright. Hayling Island, Hampshire.
March 2016
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