Dear All

 

As some of you may know, I had my colostomy reversed in July last year and (touch wood) things are going pretty well.  The only remaining problem I have is that mornings can be a bit unpredictable.  This seems to fall into three categories:  Firstly, no problems at all (about 50% of the time).  Secondly, it takes a few hours for my bowels to settle making it very difficult, if not impossible, to leave home and travel any distance by public transport because of the very real risk of an "accident" if I can not get to a toilet very quickly and, by very quickly, I mean within a couple of minutes.  The final category is when I feel as if it is going to be one of the unsettled days but turns out to be fine.  I always feel resentful on these occasions because I keep myself indoors until I know I'm fine and then think of all the things I could have been doing!

 

Since surgery, I have been living on a small pension from a previous employer and a small amount in benefit. I would like to return to work but because of the morning problems, this has not been possible yet.  My long term aim is to (say) get an afternoon job and, together with my pension, I should be able to manage.  I have been told that it may take a year or two until I can be absolutely certain that everything is stable.  That is the reason for it being a long term aim.

 

As part of the UK State Benefit system I had to attend a medical examination and the doctor there decided, in her wisdom, that the problems I have are of no significance whatsoever and my benefit was stopped.

 

The reason for this mail is to ask you for your experiences after reversal (good and bad) so that I can get a full and unbiased view of how lucky or unlucky I am.  I know I can search the web and find out success rates for reversal surgery but they are very black and white:  The reversal worked or it did not work.  I regard myself as a success in those terms but I still have these problems.

 

I am making an appeal to a tribunal against the doctor's decision and, as part of my appeal submission, I would like to prepare a summary of "real" people's experiences, rather than official statistics, to compare myself with.  I realise that some who have had a completely successful reversal may have left this group but would hope that there are enough around still to let me have some information.

 

Obviously, I don't yet know what the response to this plea will be and therefore what form my submission will take.  Any information I receive will be treated as confidential and I promise to "black out" your name or email address if you wish.

 

Rather than fill everyone's inboxes with mail, may I ask that responses are sent to me personally at peter@...

 

Of course, those awaiting a reversal may be interested in the experience of others so they have an idea of what's to come.  If they let me know at my personal email address, I will copy the responces I receive (text only, no name, no email address) to them in due course.

 

Thanks to you all.

 

Peter Gowing