SURGERY #2: The Aftermath

December 6, 2019.Reading time 22 minutes.

A photo of a bag of dextrose hanging on an IV pole.

When we last left off, I was fresh out of surgery and my mental state was precarious at best. Read on to discover just how low I sunk… and how high I have risen since!

SURGERY #2: Pre- and Post-Op

November 29, 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

An operating theatre with surgeons performing surgery on a patient. Several medical monitoring machines can also be seen in the room.

I’ve been gone a while, but with good reason! I had emergency surgery at the start of November. It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but I thought I ought to record it – so here’s what happened, Friday to Sunday.

Hello, Hickman: Insertion + Healing

August 31, 2019.Reading time 16 minutes.

An empty operating table with several screens surrounding it.

How is it that the words ‘nil by mouth’ manage to trigger the most intense hunger and thirst you’ve ever known? I’m uncomfortably hungry and, consequently, uncomfortably cranky. Every minute seems to stretch on for eternity, but also fly by like a loosed arrow. Time seems to loop back on itself like a Möbius strip, […]

Another Orbit

August 14, 2019.Reading time 21 minutes.

A hand grasping a bunch of balloons of varying colours.

Happy birthday to me! If you follow me on Instagram (or Twitter), you’ll have seen that I’m currently in hospital. What a way to spend your 21st birthday, eh? Shackled to an IV pole in the hospital.

On Losing Hope

February 20, 2019.Reading time 6 minutes.

An image of a girl sitting at the edge of a cliff, staring into the valley below. Photo by Casey Horner of Unsplash.

This is probably the darkest – and most honest – post I’ve written in a while. Content warning for depression and mention of death, and my apologies in advance for the florid turns of phrase I use to describe abstract concepts. I’ve been quiet lately. Christmas came and went – I had a beautiful, rejuvenating […]

Gastroenterology Appointment: September 2018

October 24, 2018.Reading time 12 minutes.

Okay, so, here’s the tale from my updates post that I started to write, before realising it was waaaaay too long and it would need its own post. I always think “oh, nothing much happened,” and then I start writing and actually A LOT HAPPENED. But, spoiler: we’re still no further forward than we were […]

(My) Mental Health and IBD

May 19, 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

It’s World IBD Day! It’s Mental Health Awareness Week! I hope both of them are good to you. It’s quite an intersection of ‘awareness days’, isn’t it, considering the mental toll IBD exacts? So there’s no better time to write about when the two collide spectacularly! Here’s my tale…

Diagnosis

December 1, 2017.Reading time 16 minutes.

It’s the first day of Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week – happy #PurpleFriday to you all, and I hope you’re doing well – or if you’re not, that you’re doing as well as you can be right now. I’m hoping to publish one post per day for the entirety of this week. We’ll see how […]

Humira Update: 10 weeks in!

November 24, 2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

It’s Friday! Like every Friday, I’m in a better mood than I have been all week. Today, though, there was an extra spring in my step, because (just like I have every fortnight for the last 10 weeks) I had my Humira shot. And it dawned on me that I’ve gone so long without writing […]

recover

September 20, 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

Hi, my name’s Emma, and I’m kind of a hypocrite. No, wait. Scratch that. Definitely a hypocrite. I’ve not been having a very good week so far. Monday night saw me eating some Co-Op chunky chips for dinner, and Tuesday morning caught me totally off guard by presenting me with… a partial bowel obstruction. From […]