History
Last time I saw Mr. Pullan, my regular colorectal surgeon at Torbay Hospital, he said he would refer me to a colleague in Exeter to decide the best way forward in the treatment of my parastomal hernia. He has repaired this hernia twice and I still have the problem. Last year, he repaired it with Permacol mesh. Two weeks after my discharge from hospital I went back into hospital with sepsis, caused by two large infected haematomas in my abdomen. At my last appointment Mr. Pullan told me that the most likely cause of this internal bleeding was because they put me back on my rivaroxaban (anticoagulant) too soon after the operation. The bleeding caused the adhesion of the mesh to fail, and the hernia rapidly returned.
The hernia has been repaired twice, so the area is weak, and my M.E. (myaglic encephalomyelitis) has not helped because it causes muscle weakness. The usual next step in a scenario like mine is to move the stoma to the other side of the abdomen but I said that I didn’t want this.
Appointment in Exeter
Mr. Pullan referred me to Mr. Daniels at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RD&E) and I saw him on 10th April. His appointments were running very late but I did not mind this, because it showed that he cared enough about his patients to give them more time than allocated by the NHS!
We had a further short wait once they had called us into the consulting room, and the nurse came and chatted with us. She said she had never seen a referral letter like mine before, and had to tell me what Mr. Pullan has said about me! He asked his colleague to see “this cracking lady”!!! This absolutely made my day.
Is it actually a hernia?
Mr. Daniels was charming and efficient. He explained that when people have a lump in the region of their stoma, they automatically think “hernia.” However, this might not actually be the case – it might be a prolapse. He explained the difference and drew a couple of diagrams to illustrate this. I have created my own diagram:
What next?
Hernias and prolapses require different treatments. Until he knows which I actually have, he is not able to make any decisions. He is therefore booking me in for a CT scan.
I have had several CT scans in the past and these have been lying on my back in the usual way. He said the trouble with this is that everything gets very relaxed in this position and it’s hard to see what is going on. He wants me to be scanned lying face down.
The scan appointment will not come through for at least six weeks so that’s another wait. In the meantime I shall continue with the support garments and hope for the best.
Mr. Daniels said that once the scan result is in, he will see me again and discuss the different options. Various statistics are available, such as risks and benefits, recurrence rates of different treatments, etc.
Watch this space for further developments.
