Unfortunately I've had a pretty awful month with my tummy (read bowel), to the extent that I was so sure I had colon cancer that I was starting to draw up contingency plans for the worst kind of diagnosis. Anyway, I had a colonoscopy yesterday and it turns out that it's actually ulcerative colitis (something my father suffered from) and should be successfully treatable. I do have rather a lot of pills, some of which are a one-off treatment and others that I'll need to take for the rest of my life. I also have to go back for an outpatients appointment to talk about aftercare and disease management, but in the interim I wondered if any other TZers were living with this and, if so, how you are coping.
As an aside, just some words of encouragement for anyone facing a colonoscopy for the first time. The lead-up is a tad unpleasant (a change of diet for a couple of days, followed by a day's fasting whilst taking some industrial strength laxatives - and they really are industrial strength); however, the test itself was nowhere near as challenging as I was fearing. I fact, having been given some sedation I wasn't even aware of when my consultant swapped his finger for a probe (!) and he had to wake me up to tell me that he'd reached the end of my colon and was now on the way back. Even then - when I was properly awake - it was no more than very mildly uncomfortable.
My advice to anyone who has symptoms that are worrying them (changes to traditional movement habits, loose stools, blood in stools, etc) is to get on the NHS Bowel Screening Programme straight away. You'll receive a simple kit to submit a sample, and if they see anything they're worried about you'll be straight in for screening; thereafter, because you'll be on the screening programme any treatment required is fast-tracked, and is actually far quicker than going privately (should you even have that as an option).
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