19. Drama

Period: December 2012

And so, three years after my symptoms started I was admitted to hospital and placed on intravenous hydrocortisol. Within a few days I felt a million times better. After so long, to have some respite from the pain was the most incredible feeling in the world. When I looked in the mirror after a few days, I was shocked to see the difference in my face! In that moment I finally realised why everyone had been telling me how ill I looked (yes, more self-denial!). After a week, the doctors informed me that they had managed to squeeze me in for a colonoscopy the following afternoon. As much as I disliked the thought of taking a bowel prep while using a shared toilet, I hoped that they might finally have some success in reaching the affected area.

I also hadn't pooped the whole week I'd been in hospital and at least the Moviprep helped with that!

During the colonoscopy I was rambling away to the team in my drug fuelled stupor and watching the inside of my bowel with interest. Everything in my large intestine looked healthy enough and they were approaching the entrance to my small intestine. A Junior doctor I was familiar with had taken over the camera to gain some experience. I don't think the poor man will ever forget me! I remember them injecting the fairly innocuous drug Buscopan, which I had received during my previous colonoscopy, and I vaguely thought "that's strange, the injection is quite painful and it was a brand new cannula this morning". 

That was the last semi-coherent thought I had before a sharp pain started to build in my head and quickly overwhelmed me. The team must have noticed something was wrong when I went straight from jabbermouth to total silence. When the nurse asked if I was OK, all I could do was mumble "my head, my head, my head", over and over again. I felt the doctor pull my t-shirt down over my shoulder and heard him say I had I rash. Then I heard them say my face was swelling. At first the sedatives and pain stopped my brain processing things and I didn't really know what was happening. Eventually, after I had vaguely heard the word 'epinephrine', somewhere in the back of my mind I realised I was having an anaphylactic reaction.

When I was eventually wheeled back on to the ward a short time later, the swelling and the rash was slowly subsiding, but it was a little unnerving when I opened my eyes the following morning and found myself staring at an epinephrine needle. Apparently it was left there in case I had another reaction during the night! Needless to say, they still weren't able to view the affected area of my bowel.