14 nights of fun…

Last week I travelled down to St Marks for my consultant appointment which ultimately was to look at my progress on my current course of medication and decide whether any further action needed to be taken. Overall, my consultant was very happy with my current health and described me as looking ‘terribly well’. Despite me mentioning a few occasions in which I was (quite heavily) losing blood in my stool, my consultant decided that there didn’t need to be any changes made and so ordered some bloods to be taken and sent me off to book my next appointment in 6 months time. This was a brilliant outcome! In regards to the blood loss, I was advised if it was to continue and became a concern, that my IBD nurses were the point of contact and if necessary, that would arrange a colonoscopy or barium meal.

I went away pretty happy, however the next day while at work, I suddenly felt very unwell and needed to use the toilet. Unfortunately, upon doing so, I lost a lot more blood. After speaking with my parents it was agreed that I would ring my IBD nurse to make them aware. Usually the occasional blood loss wouldn’t be too much of a concern but a couple of years ago, pre diagnosis, I lost a lot of blood over a period of time which mean my Hb level dropped so low that I would collapse after going to the toilet. As a result I needed 11 units of blood as a transfusion. For this reason I am always a little concerned when I lose blood.

The following day I was able to speak to a nurse who decided the plan was to start me on a 14 day course of enemas. I’m not sure how these will help and I’m very nervous about starting them but the decision was made to try these before a colonoscopy was needed. I’ve only had one enema before while I was in hospital and it was hands down one of experiences ever. The thought of doing it for 14 days straight, on my own, is a bit of a nightmare!

So with that all said, I should be picking up my prescription in the next few days and will then start this medication. I will keep you all posted as to how it goes. I’d be interested to know if anyone has had enemas to treat IBD and if they were beneficial or not.

Love & hugs,

Rachel ❤