Colostomy Timeline

My journey towards a colostomy started back in September 2018 and at the time I thought I’d be on my way to recovery but things rarely run smoothly in the medical world. Here’s my timeline from electing to have the surgery to my current surgery date.

September 5th 2018
This is the day that I elect to have surgery. After a meeting with my specialist after Humira wasn’t working like it had in the past, I decided that surgery was the route for me. At this stage I was pretty sure I’d go for it but not 100% sure.

September 24th 2018
I opted to pay private to meet with my surgeon to confirm surgery and to discuss options. It was decided that I would have a partial Proctocolectomy with Colostomy where only the infected portion of my colon would be removed. Ironically, he had already operated on my peri-abscesses in the past so was aware of my condition. Was told to expect to have surgery in 6 weeks.

November 20th 2018
Given a surgery date of January 11th 2019. I later learned that I had been shifted around a couple of times so the 6 weeks may well have been realistic when I met my surgeon.

December 1st 2018
Unexpected peri-anal abscess meant surgery and an overnight stay in hospital.

December 3rd 2018
Attended a pre-op assessment and discovered that I could be too anaemic for surgery. With only 5 weeks to go, iron tablets wouldn’t work but an iron infusion could work in 4 weeks. Strings had to be pulled to get me an appointment in time.

December 10th 2018
The first of two iron infusions. My iron levels had risen slightly since the pre-op assessment but still low. The aim of the infusions was not to take me out of the anaemia zone but far enough away from the borderline.

December 12th 2018
Received a call saying that due to an emergency my surgery would be pushed back to January 15th 2019.

December 17th 2018
The second of two iron infusions and it was at this session that I learned that the emergency that pushed me back was for a cancer patient so completely understandable that they’d be placed ahead of me.

January 15th 2019
Currently this is my date of surgery and fingers crossed it doesn’t change.