Tuesday 21 July 2015

Sigmoidoscopy and another diagnosis

Hi guys,

I had planned to update this blog a little more often, but what my mind wants to do my body doesn't necessarily agree with! It's been a busy few weeks with hospital appointments and such, so I thought I would write a little update of what's been going on recently. Last Monday I received a phone call from my local hospital, asking me to come in the next day for a sigmoidoscopy - not much notice but thankfully I wasn't busy, so I agreed. I had an OGD and Colonoscopy back in 2012, and unfortunately it didn't go too well. I didn't respond well to the sedation that they used and during the Colonoscopy we think my bowel was pierced. Despite telling them I felt really unwell and was passing large amounts of blood, I was sent home. I think I must have lasted about half an hour at home before I started getting pins and needles in my hands and face, my lips were turning blue and I was losing a significant amount of blood. My Mum rang the department and was told to bring me straight back to A&E. I've never been seen so quickly! I was admitted straight away, put on morphine (which I then had an allergic reaction to), IV Fluids and was sent for an urgent CT scan. Nothing showed up on the scan, but because I was visibly losing blood I was kept in for observation, and ended up staying in for a week over all.

So after this experience I was obviously quite anxious about the prospect of having a similar procedure. When I was younger I was extremely squeamish and couldn't even watch TV programmes like Casualty. But since my health went downhill when I was 15 I made a complete U-Turn and since then I generally don't get phased by medical treatments/tests etc. But before my sigmoidoscopy I was the most anxious I've been in a long time, having flashbacks to the last procedure and going through the worst possible outcomes in my head.

My Dad drove me to the hospital last Tuesday and waited with me until I was seen by a nurse. I was visibly shaking, which she commented on, but to be honest she didn't do much to reassure me! My Dad had to go at this point, and I was taken through to a separate room where I was asked to change into a gown. Another nurse then came to see me and gave me an enema (they usually send you one in the post, but because of the late notice they had to do it on the day). Anyone that's had an enema will know that they're not the most pleasant of things, but needs must. A while after I was taken through to the procedure room and asked to lie on the bed. Although they don't routinely offer sedation for a sigmoidoscopy (it's similar to a Colonoscopy but doesn't look as far into the colon) they did ask me if I wanted gas and air (I did!) A nurse stood by my head through the whole thing and helped me breathe in the gas and air. The first few breaths I took didn't do anything, and I started to worry that it wouldn't help at all. But after a few more breaths I suddenly started to feel very strange - my hearing went muffled, I couldn't see properly, my head felt like it was spinning and I was unable to move or control my body at all. I was aware of the nurse asking me to open my eyes and putting a monitor on my finger, and could feel this intense pain in my abdomen, but the more I breathed in the gas and air, the more out of it I felt. It definitely wasn't a nice feeling at all, but it got me through the procedure.

I was moved to recovery where the effects of the gas and air gradually wore off and I started to feel more with it again. I was still in a lot of pain (they inflate your colon with air to make it easier to see) but was able to communicate again. After a while the doctor came round to see me. He told me the bowel prep (enema) hadn't worked, so he was unable to look around as much as he would have liked. This happened with my colonoscopy as well, and because we already suspected that I have motility problems it wasn't a surprise. From what he could see, he said there were no obvious problems, but he did say that there was stuff in my colon that looked like it had been there for months - not great obviously! For the rest of the evening I struggled with severe stomach cramping, but copious mugs of peppermint tea and a hot water bottle certainly helped.

Fast forward to this week, and more specifically yesterday (Monday). My mobile rang with a number I didn't recognise so I wasn't going to answer it, but for some reason decided to at the last minute. Good job I did - turns out it was my Professor that I see up in London for my digestive problems. When you hear someone like that introduce themselves on the phone, your mind starts racing through possible reasons they could be ringing you for. He told me that he'd received the results from the gastric emptying study I had back in June and they showed that the emptying of my stomach is severely delayed, meaning I have something called Gastropaeresis (paralysed stomach). I've already tried some medications for this problem already, but they've either made no difference or have made me more unwell, so he said he will need to have a think about our next steps. He wants me to come and see him in clinic - my next appointment isn't until October, so he's going to try and squeeze me in sooner, so we can discuss the diagnosis and what we can do to manage it. Gastopaeresis cannot be cured, but there are a range of options available to help manage the symptoms, which include medications, Botox, gastric pacemakers, feeding/venting tubes and surgery.

I'm not really sure how I feel about it all at the moment. Part of me is happy that we finally have an idea of what's going on. The other part of me feels sad/worried about my prognosis and what the future may hold. For now though, I'm just trying to concentrate on getting to this appointment up in London, so I can talk things over with the Professor and see where we go from here.

2 comments:

  1. What an awful experience you've had! We had no idea!! Stay strong and we hope the writing helps you. Fingers crossed you will get some answers in London xx

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    1. Thank you hun - I've had an appointment through for August 20th so not too long to wait thankfully xx

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