Breaking... News

Ladylike as ever i still have not pumped but my visit to the loo just
now signalled a functioning, wide awake bowel - with wind! Get me
outta here.

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Deflation

The antibiotics have reduced my tum from imminent birth size to beer
belly & it's got some give @ last. Water stayed down so had mashed
banana 4 lunch (rather than a small portion of the menued Shpd's Pie,
Cornbeef Hash or Veg Goula
h/Dumplings - a lot of beef & fat 4 sick people?).

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Bucket

Joined briefly on the ward last night by a confused but feisty 88 yr old. For much of the night she described detailed routes thru her house in a hunt for arcane items - hearing aid batteries, a bucket in the kitchen, was obsessed about window orientation. In the morning as she sought the kitchen bucket (a commode sufficed) we saw H was blind. As the staff made beds she told great stories of training her 5 Guide Dogs like Whisp who did 'Busy for a Biscuit' in the garden (not in a bucket) before bed.

Amoxycillin & Metrozonidal administered last night via drip. Tum still huge but a bit less gassy. 1st Nurse I saw this morning assumed she was to take the drip away. I think the default nurse care plan was to discharge me and see what happened - would have been nasty. Apart from dodgy sewing, the Senior Reg's mistake was to think too binary. He thought if there was a surgical problem the blood tests would show it. In fact they did but not to the level he expected. The leak from bowel to bloodstream is small but it's there. Mr K wasn't around enough but by wresting me from the knife of the duty surgeon & stenting last year's tumour, he has good credit.

Foul Up

Because drinking seemed to infl8 my stomach, I have resisted the
nurses/junior medics calls to up my liquid intake & come off the drip.
That's why I feel better today instead of having peritonitis - a CT
Scan shows the bowel has leaked/the reversal join been contamin8ed. Mr
K was v big & apologized - said something not cleaned enough when
stitching the join or a cut that didn't get sewn up. He confirmed(!)
that l shdn't drink & should stay on the drip. Drip antibiotics 2nite to start to sort the infectlon & avoid further
surgery. Down the hatch!

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Set Back

I'll have been in a week 2morrow. The reversal has made my bowel
unhappy. My tummy is hugely pregnant with wind so altho l can poo l'm
back on the drip until I pump. Even sipping water makes more gas so is
not on. Mobility should help so l do ward circuits with my drip stand.
Wish l was walking Spike who's having a lovely time with Lu & Jen.

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Finally - a hangover!

The Pride Weekend revealed new improved energy levels. On Saturday I was able to deliver stuff to the Forum for Shell's shop, do the Outside Broadcast with Future Radio, trundle my gramophone-horned amp round the Parade playing sweet sounds and Pride Live! idents, compere some of the show, deliver stuff back home, sing with Shell, Luke and Alex at Marzanos....and go pubbing until 2am. Finally I can stay up drinking long enough to get a hangover!

Pencilled in

Sue has diaried my reversal op for 20th October which will be a year from my first encounter with Mr Kapur when he rescued me from an unplanned Ileostomy after an emergency admission. I may well be bounced from the list by priority patients but I'm happy to be non urgent this year.

Awaiting Reversal!

I guess Mr Kapur's interpretation of my stranding scan is different to Dr Biswas' - I've had a letter advising that he's scheduling the stoma reversal! This is a pretty simple, non- urgent intervention so I'll probably have to wait a while. I've emailed the wonderful Sue, Kapur's secretary, for a rough idea of when I might be in.

Chips and tonic

This morning heralded an embryonic swirl on a finger tip, a surge of energy and less of a robot mouth (taste buds not Stephen Hawking speak). My throat and belly feel better too - I'd associated acid reflux with cancer and felt a bit blue when I had it for a few days but it's far more likely to be post chemo over indulgence - G&T and Chips.

Stranding in the Way of Control

Dr Biz phoned - he's just back from leave. He said essentially the scan's fine but shows some stranding which is likely to be scarring or adhesions from the op/cancer/chemo. So I have to have another scan in 4 months to check nothing sinister is going on. I'm guessing I stay a Bagger for a little while longer.

Here's the link for streaming or downloading Monday's show:http://www.futureradio.co.uk/podcast/2011/june/pride-live-podcast-27-6-11

Another Day Another Ansaphone

Think I've fallen between the two consultants so I'm hoping the stalwart Stoma Nurses can get in between - they're used to getting to difficult places.

Here's a draft entry to my 'bag on paragon' gallery - imagine it's Kylie not me (tough I know). I hope to get loads of photos of Stoma folk posing with their bags. There are an estimated 1.2 million people in the UK with a bag and another 13500 having the op every year and yet before I had the op I knew no one who had or had had a bag. Lots of new stoma patients are youngsters with Crones or Ulcerative Colitis and knowing about peers and or superstars who've done bags would surely help make the process easier to deal with?

No News

I've left a message on an ansaphone somewhere up at the hospital so I hope to get a call sometime soon re the scan. I'm guessing if there was a problem I would have heard by now but in my darker moments... As ever there's Pride Live to take my mind off everything except the script for the show, and tonight the crew and guests were unbelievable with slick, witty features and cool personas belying the hideous portacabin cauldron of Future Radio. Podcast up tomorrow.

Matt's birthday party last night and I got pleasantly pickled for the first time in 8 months (not that I've been unpleasantly pickled in that time either although I have imbibed a fair bit of poison). So tonight I'm carrying on where I left off with Bagger's Pimms; lemonade (carefully flattened)and cucumber (peeled and deseeded). Hope to have enough Dutch Courage left tomorrow to phone Dr Biswas and ask for the scan result.

Bored

Still tingly, still stuff tastes of metal, still tired; bored now!

My phone Still Ain't Ringin'

To Paraphrase Randy Travis; Since my phone still ain't ringing, I assume it still ain't Dr Biswas. No news of the scan results yet. There is a result from Monday's other exercise in technology though - the podcast is up (although the download file doesn't work at the moment so please press play).

Uncharted Territory

I've had an 8 day break from Xeloda before - the Royal Wedding delayed the weeekly drugs issue by a day - so this ninth day off was uncharted territory. Still metallic mouth, still tingling fingers and toes. An increase in energy was sapped by a bag leak and associated panic, changing and cleaning up. Tomorrow is another day!

Hot Shot

The scan involved drinking a jug of what looked like Pernod but tasted of Dettol over an hour then having a shot in the arm that fizzed round my body in a nanosecond and felt like intravenous Deep Heat and also made me feel as if I'd wet myself. Results over the phone from Dr Biswas shortly I hope. From Radiography to the Radio and Pride Live went well. Podcast should be up on Wednesday.

Pride Live but tiring!

Hear me rapidly run out of juice on last Monday's Pride Live.

Radio and Radiography

I'm happy to be presenting Pride Live at 6pm on Monday so I can get stressed about that rather than about the scan at 3!