#uchw

I was admitted on the 10th for surgery the following day, Day 1 had a visit from the anaesthetist who explained fully what he was going to do regarding anaesthesia and pain relief. He offered intravenous epidural as the preferred method and the best method of post op pain relief, the other option being self administering morphine via a PCA, I elected for the epidural and thank the lord for it, but more about that later. After that came the usual consent form filling along with a visit from the surgeon, (right here and now is where I take my hat off to a fantastic man, I couldn't have been in better hands) explaining the procedure and of course any number of things that could go wrong. However he didn't leave me in any doubt that everything would be ok. That just left me with an evening of reading and nil by mouth till the following afternoon when surgery would take place. That's where I'll pick it up from next time, and that’s where it starts to get interesting, well for me anyway.  

Sorry have been to ill after operation to keep this updated. However I'm off the emergency care unit and back into a normal ward so as long as my 3G signal hold out I'll begin updating you on the past few days

This is it the last few hours at home before heading of to hospital, expect to be in for about 10 days providing op goes well

I've volunteered to go on a post op drugs trial. The trial last 2 years and is meant to stop any recurrence if Crohn's after an operation to removed infected area which under normal circumstances will inevitably return at some point in the future. Will keep you posted as to it progress as and when. Can't remember what the drug is called at the moment but will update when I do

Have got the steroids down to 10mg as of today, when I reduced to 20mg the other week symptoms returned sending worse than ever putting back in hospital, the fact that in less than 2 weeks after coming out of hospital I've managed to reduce the dose from 40mg down to 10mg without to much in the way of pain is encouraging. Doubt that's going to stop them opening me up though, still can live in hope.

Just been to the PAAC for assessment, all good for admittance to UCHW tomorrrow

Well was hoping that just maybe they had forgotten about me, no such luck though. Just had the phone call, in Thursday, under the knife Friday