A long and interesting week

Well lets see now. Whats been happening.

Well I have so far managed to not injure myself which is good, though I am still very tired and sore most of the time. I've managed to get an infection in my wound, though I've been assured that its quite a common occurence and that I just have to keep an eye on it. These things apparently clear up of their own accord usually.

We have officially named my stoma Clive, and he is doing very well. My nurse told me yesterday that it was looking very good so I can't complain :)

On that front, for those of you who don't know I suppose I should tell you what it is that I have and what I had done. Stop reading now if you don't care or don't want to know :)

+++++Badness starts here+++++

I have/had a condition called Ulcerative Colitis, which is an inflammatory bowel disease that affects the colon (or large intestine in laymans terms). It had got to the point where it was untreatable medically and the doctors were concerned that it was going to lead to much more serious illness and complications if it was not dealt with surgically. The operation that I had was a colectomy and an ileostomy. What they do is cut an incision through the abdominal wall and remove the entire colon (the colectomy). Then they take the end of the small intestine and pull it through a hole they make and form what is called a stoma (the ileostomy). This now means that I have a little baggie on my side that serves an unsavoury purpose... Go Clive :) If you want to know more about the operation I suggest having a trawl on Google.

+++++Badness ends here+++++

So, now those of you that have a sick interest in what I've gone through should be satisfied and everyone else can feel a little ill if they just read it...

On a much more cheery note my GP took all my drugs off repeat prescriiption the other day which made me feel bloody fantastic! It really felt good seeing all the stuff that I've been on for the last 2 years (pretty much constantly) being deleted one by one. No more immuno-suppressants, no more steroids, nor more other less savoury things... It felt really quite good. Then she told me I had an infection, which made me feel slightly less good but hey, you can't have everything right :)

Well, I think thats about it really. Not much more to say here except that at some point I will try to arrange an evening out and you can all come and see me if you want. No idea when yet but sometime in the next month hopefully.

Well, until the next time,

- Liam