I have a date for surgery

It sounds as though you are starting to get around alittle more.. Remember it takes a while to get used to everything, plus you just had surgery. Try not to tire yourself out too much.

Are you feeling better? Stoma working? That bulb thing sounds like a PITA.....pun intended of course ... I'm glad that you did get that removed..Getting use to the stoma bags will come back to you fairly quickly I would think. This time around you know what to expect and you seem ready for it.

Somdid you name your little button yet?. I can never decide on a permanent name for mine. Sometimes its "Button" others it "Blowhole" and then there are those other times..... I don't think they'd let me put those names in here.

Have a safe trip to your Mum's house and try not to tire yourself out tomorrow.

I'll be thinking of you. Please let us know how you are!

Clo

Thank you all. Genuinely.

I've just had lunch and probably won't be out of here until 6pm, lol. Seriously, the wait for the discharge letter and the medication is eternal in a hospital - don't understand why it always has to take this long.

At any rate the home visits have been sorted. I'll temporarily register with my mum's GP surgery and they can send a nurse round to change dressings, remove staples, etc.

Clo - The stoma is working quite well. Sometimes get a bit of pain behind there, but nothing which walking around and very gently massaging the stoma area doesn't solve. It does feel like a massive advantage having been through all this before, so even though I'm still quite slow with changing the bag, it's still far easier compared to last time. Emptying the bag is even simpler: I just sit as far back as I can and let the bag drain between my legs. Works much better than bending over the front of the toilet and hoping you don't get splashback. Took me a long time to learn that the first time.

No name for my stoma yet! Need to get a better feel for its "personality" first. Though one thing I want to do which I never did last time is buy some ostomy bag covers with cute or interesting designs. A skull, maybe

I've been quite zonked out today, so no walking so far. Whatever little bit of energy I have seems to come to me in the evenings.

Quincy - I know my mum is looking forward to seeing me again. She was only able to visit me once (with the help of my brother) and that was last Thursday, where I was not at my sparkling best. To put it mildly. Hugs back.

Yeah I don't get the discharge delay. You'd think they'd want to free up the bed as quickly as possible.

Hey, don't beat yourself up, you been through a lot in a week. Hopefully tomorrow the dr will understand, sending you a hug & good vibes for the visit.

You have had a rough week NCOT. Completely understandable that you’re feeling down in the aftermath. Hang in there and I’ll bet you’ll feel much better in the morning.

Thanks Flowers and Clo.

I did feel better today, although the continuing pain is dragging me down a bit - I'm rationing my oxy as there is so little of it. Tried to temporarily register with my mum's GP surgery but won't be registered until next Monday at the earliest. Just hope they will not be difficult about giving me pain medication. Especially when they had no qualms about bunging my dad a huge stash of codeine and temazepam.

Incidentally I had to walk to my mum's GP surgery. It's only a 10 minute walk but I was taken aback at how tough I found it.

@Clo - I used to use rubber rings around my stoma and they worked really well. Not using anything at the moment. At the moment the skin still seems okay but I'm aware that probably won't last. I should (emphasis on "should") be getting a home visit next week.

Lol, just need to be able to fly now. That would certainly compensate for not being able to drive for 6 weeks. Thanks CC!

PS: I'm enjoying eating decent food again. Been having soft boiled eggs for lunch - so nice.

NCOT - Oh, gosh! I have been MIA and you have been through soo much in that time!
I am so sorry about your father on top of all the health things you have been going through. You have my condolences. I hope things start to look up for you as your body recovers. Remember, grief takes a toll on the body as well as the mind and emotions, so please be easy on yourself. Hang in there!

Hey folks :p

I'm still at my mum's house. Fortunately there's plenty of space and we get along well, so there's been no clashes. I will have to go back to my own flat at some point but right now I'm not in a rush to return. I've temporarily registered with my mum's GP surgery and have an appointment with a nurse tomorrow to take out the staples from surgery. I'm also going to try and get an appointment with a GP tomorrow (to get a same day appointment you have to phone as soon as the practice opens, which is usually 8am). For the first time since coming out of hospital, I am starting to feel a little bit worried. I'm practically out of pain medication now, but the pain does not seem to be getting any better. I've also been running a low grade fever in the evenings sometimes.

Oh yeah, the stoma nurse is meant to be coming over tomorrow as well, although there is a chance she may not be able to make it. I'm getting a bit of skin irritation around the stoma now. Suspect it's because the stoma has shrunk a bit and the template that I use to cut the holes in the bags needs to be changed. I knew this would happen, as it happened last time: it takes about six months for the stoma to reach its permanent size/shape.

On top of all that, my mum's friend is coming over tomorrow as well. Busy day ahead. >_>

@straydog - I hope you have a nice time with your daughter and son. We had an extraordinarily dry summer this year. It also reached 40C (104F) for the first time ever in the UK, but for the most part the temperature rarely exceeds 30C (86F) here, let alone 40C. Even the low 90s is unbearably hot for most British people. Still, I would pick that over a winter with no central heating, which is what millions are now facing due to unaffordable energy bills :/

@songlady - Thank you so much. I will do.

@iPoop - Thanks as well! The number of bathroom trips has already been drastically reduced and should go down even further over the next few months as my bowels heal. Apart from the pain, I'm not regretting surgery in the slightest.

Ditto what cc said!😀

Hi folks After much tooing-and-froing between the local pharmacy and the GP surgery, I did get my pain meds (enough for 4 weeks). It certainly did wonders for my exercise levels, as the only way of getting to either place was by walking - I genuinely cried when I went to the pharmacy and they couldn't find my medication. It turned out that it wasn't at the pharmacy, it was at the surgery. But when I went to the surgery, they only had the paper prescription, which I then had to take back to the pharmacy. Who of course didn't have most of the medication in stock, so I had to go back for the rest the next day.

I also had to go to the surgery to get my staples removed. Ouch! Still wincing at that one. Got some bio oil for rubbing into the wound.

Saw the stoma nurse yesterday. She was as lovely as ever. Said that the stoma looked good and cut some new bags with a smaller hole for me - the stoma has already shrunk a lot.

So, everything looks good and even the pain seemed to be better today. There's just one slightly worrying thing. I got a phone call from the surgeon's secretary this morning asking me to come in for an "urgent" appointment next week. He wouldn't say what it was about. It's all a bit strange. If it was anything truly alarming, I would have thought they'd have wanted me to come in ASAP and not in a week's time. I also can't think what the problem might be: presumably they wouldn't have discharged me if they'd seen anything worrying beforehand, and I haven't had any blood tests, etc. since leaving hospital.

Meanwhile I can't drive for a few more weeks, so getting to hospital won't be simple or cheap. I hate driving, but it's so hard to get anywhere without it.

Oh yeah, the low grade fevers have stopped, I think. I didn't take my temperature tonight but reasonably sure I didn't have one.

Oh FFS. A spider has appeared in my bedroom and is on the ceiling almost directly above my head. It is at least not one of the really big monsters, but it is still way, way too late for this s%#. Oh okay. It's on the move again. In the right direction. Well, right-ish. It's further away from my head now but also further away from the door. Oh no. It's coming my way again. Bugger this bugger!

Sara - Thanks! To be honest, "urgent" is a word with many meanings on the NHS. It could be something as simple as the surgeon forgetting to book a routine appointment (oops) and turning it into an urgent one instead.

As for the spider, if it dares shows up again in my room, it is dead lol. The stupid thing fell from the ceiling onto the bookshelf right above my head in bed. I nervously pulled out books one at a time. Just when I thought it wasn't there and must have gone down the side of the bed, it scuttled out from the books. Cue several more minutes of it disappearing behind books and me pulling them out before I finally get a good opportunity to trap it in a glass. Took it downstairs to the furthest away point from my bedroom and dumped it unceremoniously in a corner. I could not have done it if it had been one of the really big beasts, I think. But I probably could not have done it with this particular spider a couple of years ago. My arachnophobia is improving!

OMG!!! I'm gone for a few days and look. The spiders have moved across the pond!
J/K.

You sound better! I am so glad you got your pain meds--even though it was a bit of a work out for you. I don't know how you did it. I would have melted right there and just had a crying jag like no other.

I hate spiders. I could not relocate. If they come in the house they are free game. (Meaning dead.) They have a bunch of space outside there's no need for them to come inside.

I am glad that you are spending time with your Mum. Enjoy every second--even when she seems to be dancing a jig on you last remaining nerve.

Please let us know how it goes with the doctor's visit. You are in my thoughts and prayers!.

Clo