Me & My Crohns

Well here I am again. I find myself sitting on a hospital bed with a cannula in my arm and my wife by my side. I’m waiting to have an x-ray of my abdomen and random chest scan. I have been seen by a few doctors and quizzed by the nursing staff. I’ve been cupped, prodded, interrogated, pricked and held captive. I’m in awe at the amount of paper work these nurses need to fill in; surely their time is better spent fixing us broken people! Oh well, mustn’t complain, at least they are trying to help me out and trying to avoid mistakes.

I had better go back a couple of days and explain why I’m here, back in hospital. At the weekend I developed a strange pain which I had not felt before and so did cause me some concern. Fortunately it passed and seemed to disappear. Then, just before we left to walk into town on the Sunday morning I started to get the same pain again. The pain feels like it’s starting in my right testicle and shoots right up into my bowel (about where an appendix should be). It cripples me for a few seconds then fades. If I stand perfectly still I can keep the pain from being prolonged. Extra movement causes extra pain. It’s a bit like somebody has grabbed my crown jewels and twisted (sorry girls you may not be able to picture that pain). Then the pain fires upward toward where my operation took place. After around seconds, the pain goes. It passes as if nothing ever happened. At the time I thought I was in the clear and could continue with my shopping trip. The walk there was pain free, just with a small ache in my groin. My fitness is getting back to a normal level and I find myself being able to walk a good couple of miles with minimum discomfort. Once in town I had another few painful episodes. It was making me walk funny as I was trying to softly lower my right foot to avoid provoking the pain. It looked like I had a walking disability. I had to take a good rest on a bench to try and recover.

The pain would cycle and lull me into a false sense of security. I would think that maybe the twinge had rectified itself but I would soon be shocked into a painful submission, where I would need to freeze perfectly still.

Luckily we managed to get home and for the rest of the day my lovely wife did everything whilst I sat at a funny angle (so as not to provoke a painful reaction) and watched TV and played Xbox. You may be reading this and thinking, “Ooh, what fun”, NO! Not fun at all. Painful. Extremely painful.

I managed to sleep pretty well, although I could still feel an ache in my groin. As far as I was concerned I thought it was a trapped nerve or damaged muscle from the Op, but it needed to be checked just in case it was something related to my very, very important Man area.

A quick visit to the GP helped clear my mind of anything wrong with my Gem’s (I’m trying not to say testicles too much as it brings an embarrassed flush to my cheeks!) The GP gave me a good check over, with a poor student Doctor watching everything and being questioned by the qualified Doc. “So, what do you think it is? Think about his symptoms and what he has described, what would you do?” Poor student had no idea, but luckily the Doc did. To be safe, she booked me in at the hospital for some in depth checks just to make sure no major complications were taking place due to the surgery.

We arrived at the hospital at 11am and returned home at 8.30pm. I was no real better off, in fact I was worse. I now have a massive bruise on my tummy where they injected me with the blood thinning drug, just in case I was staying overnight and a massive bruise which takes up the whole of the back of my hand from where the nurse removed the cannula (It also bubbled up to the size of a ping pong ball due to a small leak and swelling).

Many nurses, doctors and surgeons came to visit me. They agreed that they all believed I was fine and that there is nothing that can be done. The head surgeon basically told me that he was pretty sure, PRETTY SURE, that I would be fine. He then said, “let us see if he is alright after food”. The nurses then took this to mean that I had to stay and eat tea. There had been nothing wrong with eating or passing bowel movements. Why do I need to eat? Anyway, I forced a sandwich down and waited some more, until eventually I was sent home.

Luckily the pain died down over the following 2 days, until now, 4 days later when I can’t even feel an ache in my groin. I believe it was a trapped nerve; a trapped nerve that managed to un-trap itself. My body seems to be good at fixing itself (from silly things, not Crohn’s!) and I only went to the hospital for reassurance due to my recent Op.

One good thing that came out of this though is I now know why my thigh was shaved during the Operation. Apparently I had to be earthed as they used a clever electrical current cutting tool to break through my skin.

I am now fit enough (I hope and think) to return to work. I have made a massive improvement over the past 4 weeks. 4 weeks, I cant believe it. I have had major surgery and yet I am nearly back to a normal life, as normal as can be.I still cant carry heavy objects or jump around. I am leaving cycling for another couple fo weeks just make sure I am match fit. It is a bit of a shame that I have to go back to work now though, the weather is bloody lovely.

I will be seeing my surgical consultant in 3 weeks to make sure he is happy with my recovery. I should be seeing my Crohn’s consultant pretty soon to discuss how my Crohn’s disease will be managed from here on.

 The only way is up. Come on, I can get there. Join me to a full Crohn’s free life.

Much Love

Ben