#auguts hard to talk about
I was diagnosed with ischaemic colitis in 2017.
I was diagnosed with ischaemic colitis in 2017. Since then I’ve upped my intake of fruit and vegetables. A year after I had another bout and again lost 3kg over a 36-hour period of constantly going to the toilet and eventually passing blood.
I’m grateful that it’s no worse than this and since 2018 I’ve not had it quite so badly. However each time I lose between 2-3 kg and find peppermint tea and starvation over a 36-72 hr period clears it up without the need for antibiotics.
I have just received the results of the bowel screening and am diagnosed as clear, for which I’m grateful as both my maternal grandmother and her mother died of bowel cancer. Personally, I’ve ongoing treatment for a mutated cancer of the lung and struggle to put on weight, so it’s an inconvenience. Currently, I’m only just above being anorexic according to weight and height.
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I was born 8 weeks premature with Intestinal Malrotation. My understanding is they weren’t sure what was causing me the pain as a newborn, being premature too. When surgery was eventually done it was found my bowels had twisted. Corrective surgery was done. I was christened in the hospital as it wasn’t looking great.
I have diverticular disease on the right side of my body and I believe only a few people have it on this side.
Mr Frank McDermott is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon and Cancer lead for the Genomics Medicine Service Alliance in Southwest England. His grant with Bowel Research UK why some patients with diverticulitis experience serious complications such as blood infection, while others have milder disease.
Join the #auguts campaign by sharing your own story via video or the written word! We are looking for videos and stories about difficult conversations people have had about their bowel condition, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, or anything else related. Our Patient and Public Involvement Manager Sam Alexandra Rose has created her own video as an example, which you can see below to give you some ideas.
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We brought some of our patients, researchers and our CEO together to talk about what makes bowel disease hard to talk about and hard to fund. Watch them share their stories and join the campaign.
Watch the video