I saw a new dr on Thursday, a registrar on the team of fabulous medics who have been looking after me. As you may know, my surgeon is called Mr Brown, we do laugh that he has an appropriate name for a bum doctor… Well, the new one was called Dr Liu. Dr Loo?! Are they kidding?

When they become a doctor do they choose the funniest name they can think of that relates to their speciality? Did I mention my friend’s dad (he has an ostomy too) whose doctor is Mr Butt!

Or is it like Harry Potter’s sorting hat? When you start medical school do they match your name to the most appropriate category?

Anyway Dr Liu was very nice, he talked through my camera test which showed a very small amount of inflammation but not enough to be causing me so many problems. The Coeliac test hasn’t come back yet but all other blood tests are normal. This is great to know there’s nothing majorly wrong but a little annoying as it means there is no easy treatment.

I am going to the toilet around 15 times a day, sometimes as many as 20, I have talked before about how it is normal for someone with a pouch to go multiple times a day but this is very excessive. Since the op I take Imodium every day to slow the output.

The doctors have added in two more drugs to slow everything down. The first is fybogel which thickens the stool and therefore makes the passage through the body slower.

The other new drug is codiene. Though it’s used as a painkiller, a side effect of codiene is constipation and so I’ve been put on quite a bit of it. I’m now taking 4 Imodium, 2 fybogel and 8 codiene a day. I wasn’t sure at all about taking so much of a string painkiller but after 2 days it seems to be working!

On Friday I went to the toilet just 7 times in 24 hours and then amazingly I slept through the night last night!!!!

Woooohoooooo!!!

I can’t describe how good it feels to have had a proper nights sleep after so long of waking at least a couple times a night.

The only issue is that codiene are strong painkillers. I’m feeling very sleepy and foggy headed and so the codiene isn’t going to work long term for me as I don’t feel able to drive or do much at all when I’ve had the tablets.

The plan is to try this combo for 6 weeks then go back and see the team. If things aren’t settled by then, we will reevaluate.

Thanks so much for the lovely messages

Sam xx