G-Mans Bag for Life

What is Scoliosis. This is a curvature of the spine but can be different from person to person. In this blog I will be telling my journey from diagnoses to treatment and how i coped. It was from around the age of one that my parents started to notice that i wasn't sitting properly in my baby carrier.   Every time I was at hospital my parents would mention it them that i seemed to be stooping forward in my carrier and that i looked extremely uncomfortable.   The doctors would look at me and say, oh the reason he stooping forward is because he is protecting his stoma. How could a one year old baby know they have a stoma and need to protect it.   Now back in those days in the early 70s there were no stoma bags for babies.   All I had was bandages wrapped around me many many times,  so at that stage my parents just thought the doctors know best they must be right. Over the next couple of years as I started to develop and grow i was shown signs that all was...

I was hoping to continue a daily blog whilst i was in hospital for my surgery but sadly this was not possible for a number of reasons.   So this is what i went through. On Thursday 14 June my hospital admission was a very long day to say the least.   I had to be on the ward by 2pm and on my arrival I was told my bed was not available at the moment and would i wait in the day room for a short while. Over 6 hours later i was finally shown to my bed and a nice big private room. So it was worth the wait. By this time I was very restless but also needed to build up courage to ask about my stoma care. Finally did and the HCA came to answer my buzzer.  It was hard get th words out but managed it and was told she would let my named nurse know.   Few minutes later the HCN returned to take my blood pressure.  Oh my it was high along with my heart rate.  I was asked if something was bothering me.  I explained that i find hard asking for help with my sto...

Well tomorrow (Thursday 14 June) I will be admitted to hospital for surgery on Friday.   I call this maintenance surgery because for the past 5 years i have been going in for botox injections in the bladder.   I usually have it every 6 months but it's been decided that it would be best to have it every 4 months. The reason i have botox is to stop bladder from leaking in-between the catheters i do and help with the bladder spasms.   Every 6 months worked very well but for the past year i was getting to the 4 month stage and the leaks had started to return earlier than normal. It's also a huge thing for me to be admitted.  People keep telling me, oh you be so used to it now it won't bother you going in.   That is so for from the truth. This procedure is usually done as a day patient and can be done under a local anaesthetic.   For me that is not an option. Because of my anxiety that would be just too much for me to cope with so when i first starte...

I don't think there is a day goes by where someone makes the comment of how well i look and cope with everything that is going on with me.   And that i am always looking happy and content. However looks can be deceiving at times.    Behind all that there is a different me. I suffer from anxiety and depression. This first started in the late 1990s and i kept it to myself for about 4 years.   I was still working at the time.    I would get up for work and go through my routine with all my medical issues.   Once I arrived at work i would put all my medical problems to one side and switch off from them.  Soon as i finished work at the end of the day i would then switch back on to my worries and get wound up, thinking all sorts. After having to leave my job in 2002 because of ill health thats when the depression started..it hit me suddenly that i was finished work and didn't know how to cope with it.    However most of my time was spe...

So today i had double appointment.... Blood tests first...I have to have monthly blood tests to check my iron levels.   I was slightly anaemic towards the end of last year and had to start iron tablets.  I was on a drug that could only be prescribed by my consultant at the hospital.   This wasn't a problem having to go and collect the drugs from the hospital because and am always there for various other appointments. Taking blood from me can be so difficult.  My veins are so bad these days find the right vein is like an operation in itself.    However i got lucky today.  Only took 2 attempts.     Doesn't really bother me how many times it takes....the record is 8 attempts in one sitting.   The team wanted to give up after 5, but i let them carry.   I did make a deal if they reached 10 then they could stop. Second appointment was with my GP. Now i have to admit i have one of the best GP's i could ever ask for.  She is ...

This September I will be taking part in the Newcastle Great North Run to raise money for the Crohn's and Colitis UK Charity. I do have the easy part as my cousin Claire will be pushing me in my wheelchair just like we did back in 2016. This is a charity very close to our hearts as not only do i have crohn's disease so does Claire's sister as well. If you would like donate to this great cause please click on the link below. Your support is appreciated. Claire and Graham. xx https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/claireandgrahamgnr Claire and Graham's page We are doing the Great North Run 2018 for  Crohn's and Colitis UK  because we want to raise lots of money for a great charity. Story We had so much fun doing the Great North Run in 2016 (and Graham was so well behaved) we have decided to do it all again this year! We are both training very hard and very much looking forward to what is my favourite day of the year. Please help ...

Today I have my weekly bladder washout. For this I go to see the district nurse.  This can be done by yourself, however as I don’t have enough grip  in my hands to squeeze the solution through the catheter the district nurse has to do that part for me. The procedure only takes about 5 minutes but it helps to keep my water infections to a minimum. Shown below is what is squeezed through the catheter into the bladder..its then left inside for 60 seconds then drained back out into the bag. The slower its done the less comfortable it is for me, but some district nurse's are in such a hurry they squeeze it in fast then let it drain back out.   When this happens I will have bladder spasms for about 20 mins and the urge i want to pass urine.   But as the bladder is completely empty this is not possible. Today it was one of my favourite nurses who takes her time so I had no issues.   That's it done for another week.

So why do i have to do ISC (Intermittent Self Catheterisation) Back in 1993 when i had my rectum removed there was some nerve damage done to the bladder. This didn't happen straight away though..it wasn't until 3 years later that i started to develop the odd UTI (urinary tract infection).     Suddenly one day i went into retention and i went a full 24 hours unable to pass urine and eventually ended up in A+E. A catheter was inserted and the pain just vanished within seconds and I drained 2 litre's of urine in the space of 30 minutes. I was kept in hospital for a week and various tests carried out and thats when i first found out i had a problem with fully emptying my bladder. Although i could still pass urine the normal way i was asked if i would consider doing ISC.   At this stage i refused and said if things get worse in the future i would might think about it again. Over the following years i was getting about 2 -3 infections a year and yearly bladder flow ...

So today i return to hospital for my pre op assessment for my 4 monthly botox surgery. This never gets easier. So why the botox you ask.   Well since the mid 1990s i started to develop UTI's (Urine infections). Sometimes I was struggling to empty my bladder fully and what urine was left in the bottom of the bladder would become infected.   This went on for many years but gradually started to get worse. Then in 2011 I had to start to ISC (intermittent self catheterisation) and this was to drain the excess urine i couldn't pass.   Over the next couple of years the bladder muscle's started to weaken and i was having bladder leaks. Botox treatment was offered in 2014 and i have been on it ever since. The botox expands the muscles so that urine doesn't leak out.  So the only way i can now pass urine is to self catheterise every 4 hours. This procedure never gets any easier because I have to have a 3 day stay in hospital because of all my other medical issue...