Ostomy Surgery Appointments

So I have mentioned before that I may have to have further surgery on my ileostomy as it has retracted a fair bit and causes me a lot of hassle in my day to day like which is draining mentally and physically. This was originally mentioned back in November last year and was only briefly touched upon as due to surgical emergencies my appointment was running really late and I had to catch a bus. I have been ruminating on this since then and I was originally supposed to have had an appointment at the beginning of March to discuss everything. As we all know far too well the global pandemic of COVID – 19 happened and soon put a stop to that appointment!

It had originally been swapped to a telephone consultation but my surgeon is incredibly skilled and was needed to be all hands on deck with all of the other amazing NHS staff we have; so that like many others was also cancelled.

I have been slowly getting worse and worse suffering far more leaks than I ever have done before and it has really been getting me down. One one hand it meant I got to do more running for Phoenix and this Sunday will have seen me do 40 runs in 78 days within the GNR Solo remit.

I have had three separate letters in the past week from my colorectal team and it doesn’t leave me in high hopes. First of all I received one saying I was having a telephone meeting in November, the second letter said this was cancelled which I can only presume is his well deserved time off rather than COVID and the third gave a new date in December.

I also got a letter from an unknown department saying they will be ringing me and information about the phone call will be sent to my GP. I have never received a letter like it before and in all honesty it is unnerving. Another letter I got (yep allllll the letters) was for rheumatology in October and also in October my infusion for my lignocade; which I should have been due in March but the pain team was so over run I couldn’t get through in February.

I really hope that I will be able to have my phone consultation with my surgeon and see where we are with all of that and COVID, I will be sure to keep you posted.