My operation

[robvalue]

I now have a firm date for my operation, 6th December. Just a week's time! I'll use this thread to keep you updated on my progress and recovery. Unless an emergency case needs doing, I'll be going ahead with that date.

I've had Chron's disease since my teens, and its latest attempt to screw with me has been to cause scarring which narrows part of my intestine. This happened about 5-6 years ago. My specialists were all clueless as to what was causing the horrible episodes I were having, until I moved house and happened to end up with an excellent new specialist. He identified the problem almost immediately. To combat it, he put me on a very restricted low fibre/residue diet. This has meant that, for some 5 years now, I haven't been able to eat anything with peel, "bits", or anything else that might cause a blockage. This means no fresh fruit or veg, unless it's been brutalised first.

As well as just generally sucking, this is a very unhealthy diet to be on, and is only meant to be short term. But there's been no alternative, until now. I'm sure this diet has been making my energy and depression worse (I also suffer from M.E.) and so I'm excited about this being a possible turning point. After many tests to identify the problem area, the plan is to go in and remove the part with the narrowing in it. This happens to be right next to the join between my small and large intestine, so it's going to be necessary to remove the whole join and then fix the two together. I've been told there's a 97% chance this will take first time. If it doesn't, there are contingency plans. It may be possible to do this with keyhole surgery, if my guts behave themselves. If not, it will be a more major operation. They won't know until they open me up to look.

I'll probably be in hospital for about a week following the operation, and then in recovery for a few weeks after that. I should be able to use the hospital wifi to keep you informed on this thread about how I'm doing. If all goes well, I'll be eating a proper diet again by Christmas!

Thank you, I love you guys