I have finally been signed off from my surgeon!!! Hooray!!! It only took 3 and a half years! Though I am sad to not be seeing the wonderful Mr Brown any more, it is a huge relief to think that unless anything goes wrong, I shouldn’t be having any more surgeries!!!

I am not under the medical team in Sheffield and my consultant is Prof Lobo, who is a legend in the Sheffield IBD scene (SUCH a niche scene!) – I saw him and asked him about this fatigue and if there was anything we could do about it.  He said that fatigue in IBD patients is so tough to deal with as often they will not find one specific reason for the tiredness.

He did my bloods and found me lacking in ferritin and so he prescribed iron tablets, I was to take 200mg of ferrous sulphate three times a day for three months and then we could reassess.  Unfortunately, the tablets didnt suit me at all, they made me so nauseous and sick, I couldnt concentrate as the sickness was so awful. I ended up having time off work because I felt so rubbish.

So I spoke to the specialist IBD nurse and she said that she’d book me in for an iron infusion.  I had to go to hospital and have some bloods taken, then the first infusion took about 25 minutes.  A week later I went back for the second one but that only took 6 minutes.

The put a cannula in your hand or arm and then flush it with saline, then attach a drip bag to a stand and leave you to it.  There is a chance of reactions to the infusion, so you have to stay for around 30 minutes afterwards to check you are ok.  On my second infusion, I came over really faint.  I got really hot and thought I was going to pass out.  Embarrassingly, I had just missed breakfast and was a little light headed, so a cup of tea and a slice of toast and I was back on my feet.

Lots of people have told me that after their infusions, a few days after they have felt the full benefits and been filled with energy and felt a million times better.  Unfortunately for me this hasn’t been the case, I can’t really tell the difference.  I still am exhausted all the time, I finish work and go straight to sleep, Im mainly found hanging out in bed in my pyjamas!

But it is step one on the road to figuring out the fatigue, Im glad we tried it, but ready to look at what else we can do.

Sam xx