Snaklog

Had hospital appointment this morning at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary with Mr King, who is one of the consultants. I wasn’t kept waiting too long. Had a very informal chat about how I had been over the last few months. Told him about wheat free diet and taking daily amounts of normacol and that apart from the recent bout I hadn’t been too bad.

He suggested I have a barium enema; last one was five years ago; to give them a base line on the condition of the lining of my stomach. He told me I had IBS and diverticular disease and to carry on with the wheat free diet and to continue managing my condition as I do now.

Suggested drinking chamomile or peppermint tea when I have another attack as they both have anti spasmodic properties that are more gentle than traditional remedies such as mebeverine or spasmonal.

Suffered a lot of stomach pain over the last few days, tummy really sore to the touch over quite a large area. Taking lots of spasmonal to try and ease the cramps, also suffering from diarrhoea just to round of the whole experience. Have an appointment at the hospital in a few days time.

The dreaded barium enema, having heard horrendous stories about the indignity’s and tribulations of the barium enema it was my turn, following a few days of a low residue diet and having to take the dreaded Picolax again I turned up at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary with some trepidation.

 

 

I was taken to a small cubicle where the procedure was explained and I changed into a hospital gown, then after a short delay it was through into the main room where I had to lie down on a tilt-able bed. The barium was introduced and the table was then moved into lots of positions to fully coat the colon with barium at one point the table was tilted to such an extent that I thought I was going to fall off. Xrays were taken and then it was off the table into a side room with a toilet where I spent the next twenty minutes or so trying to get rid of the remnants of the enema, it’s a bit like sh**tting chalk.

 

The results of the enema were all negative apart from one small diverticula that was found. This meant the diagnosis of diverticular disease was incorrect.

 

SnakBlog

the online food diary that’s not designed for people who want to lose weight but for those that want to find out what food allergies or intolerance’s they have or may have.

 

Admission to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary: February 2004

My story starts in February 2004 when I went to see my local GP experiencing a fever, diarrhoea and pain in the lower left port of my abdomen. She called through to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and I travelled straight down there. I was expecting to just see a doctor for a second opinion, but I was admitted straight away and put on a drip, blood was taken and sent for analysis. I was later told I had a high white blood cell count and that with the pain this was consistent with a diagnosis of Diverticulitis. The prescription was bed rest, nil by mouth and antibiotics intravenously.

 

Diverticulitis

Diverticula are little outpouchings of the wall of the colon. Although they can be found in smaller numbers in the stomach or small intestine, “diverticular disease” refers to when they are found in the large bowel (usually sigmoid colon).

 

“Diverticulitis” refers to when there is inflammation of the colon at the site of the diverticula - usually as a result of one of the diverticula becoming blocked.

 

 

I remained for 4 days in hospital during some of the worst winter weather experienced in the North East of Scotland for many years my wife became quite expert at negotiating snow drifts during her daily visits to see me.

 

On the first night I was quite feverish but was also extremely thirsty when the nurse offered me some paracetamol I eagerly accepted hoping to be able to grab a small mouthful of water. I never realised you could take a paracetamol by having it shoved up your anus; so no drink for me.

 

There were a few other guys in my ward all experiencing some sort of stomach problem including one guy who had been there for some time and had to have his colostomy bag changed at frequent intervals. We all shared one toilet and had to do our business into cardboard containers so the nurses could have a look at our bowel habits later, sometimes the toilet wasn’t cleared for a few hours and the smell certainly became quite ripe at times.

 

After a couple of days I was allowed to start eating light meals and drinking more normally and finally allowed to go home on the fourth day with instructions to rest for a few days. I would be sent for later for further tests.