On Tuesday, I saw my surgeon for the first time since I left hospital and it was an interesting meeting. I'd been eagerly looking forward to it, mostly because I had a few questions about what had happened (I think that says something about how quickly everything took place back in April!), as well as being eager to hear the results of analysis on the portion of my colon that was removed. I may have been revealing my eagerness a little too much by turning up a good 40 minutes early for my appointment, but I simply took some knitting along with me and reminded myself that at least I wouldn't be late.
Unfortunately, my surgeon was late. An hour late, to be precise, although I couldn't find myself being frustrated with it; after all, there's nothing that could be done about it.
Diagnosis
Somewhat frustratingly, the diagnosis following analysis of my colon is that I currently have Indeterminate Colitis, which means that there are signs of both types of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. This came as something of a surprise, as most of the doctors that we spoke to in the hospital were saying UC, but then - given how much I can remember - maybe they were just saying "Colitis" and I was reading too much into it?
Interestingly, Crohn's Disease currently seems like the more likely candidate, given that the lower portion of my colon didn't appear to be affected at all (as it should be if UC is the cause). Of course, the fact that it wasn't affected in April doesn't mean that it never will be, and so the mystery continues.
Reversal
Anyway, the implications of the continued mystery are mainly focused around the options for a reversal operation. If I have Crohn's Disease, then the lower part of my colon may never become inflamed, in which case a simpler operation, merely connecting it to the end of my small intestine, could be performed. However, if I have Ulcerative Colitis, then that part is very likely to become inflamed at some point and may need to be removed, in which case it would be best to remove everything and try an internal pouch, formed from the end of my small intestine.
Of course, the longer I wait for either option, the more chance there is that there may be some sign that will decide one way or the other. I've also been told that it would be best to have any children before either reversal operation, as both are major pelvic surgery and, thus, increase the risk of complications and infertility.
In all honesty, at the moment, I'm quite happy to just wait and see. I know that some people find the thought of having the ileostomy for even more than six months difficult, but at the moment, I just want everything to go back to something vaguely resembling "normal" before I consider any more surgery.
One of my questions for my surgeon was whether or not they'd tried any other treatments before operating, as I - in all honesty - couldn't remember. It turns out that they had tried me on IV steroids for two days, but that my colon continued to dilate at a rate where they had considered the operation as the only option. A - rather cool, in my opinion - medical term for this is toxic megacolon, which I'd read about since coming out of hospital, but not known for certain if that was what I had had.
I'm sure some people would think that all of this is awfully grotesque, but, as you can probably tell, I'm actually very intrigued by all of it, partially because I'm an analyst and so have a great desire to understand the logic and causes behind everything that I can, and partially because some part of me hopes that, by understanding the science of it, it'll all start to settle in a little more.
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