The clinic appointment came around, and it was one I can tell you I was not looking forward to.
Manoeuvrability with a tube hanging out of your stomach, that was directly inserted through your skin and into your colon with
a bag attached to the end that has to be pinned to your clothes, was to say the least, disturbing.
You see, the tube and bag were there as a pressure relieving
system, almost like a release valve to ensure all that no problems arose from
any digestive working. On occasion the bag attached to the tube had to be
emptied, the tube also had to be flushed with saline solution ( which I can
tell you is not a pleasant internal sensation) in order to be preventative in the
interim.
However, the time had come when it served its purpose,
having been there whilst the other tears in my bowel had healed. My surgeon had not
really implemented this solution a great many times and was both nervous and
anxious to remove it, which made me understandably feel somewhat apprehensive.
My surgeon though was superb, and has been all throughout my case and so my confidence in him was high.
"..in my own mind I had imagined the end of the tube to have a small one inch piece.
How wrong was I?"
My wife and I sat in the clinic waiting room nervously
waiting for my name to be called, my own anxiety and adrenaline racing each
other through my veins in anticipation of the forthcoming removal. I have been
told that the end of the tube that breach my skin was attached to a T section
and in my own mind I had imagined the end of the tube to have a small one inch piece.
How wrong was I?
My consultant called us through to his treatment room where
upon I lay on the bed at the side of the room, a senior treatment nurse busied
around the room preparing packing and dressings following its removal. My
consultant hovered over me like a cat ready to pounce on its prey, and told me
that the stitches holding that you been had fallen out. That explained the
various discomfiture I was experiencing since it was installed as it was moving about in my colon.
"My
consultant hovered over me like a cat ready to pounce on its prey"
So, to the removal. The nurse stood by in observation,
watching with piercing eyes at my stomach while my consultant reached in. As I
said earlier, my interpretation of a T tube was a mere inch inside my intestines,
but what it actually was in reality shocked me. My consultant took a hold of
the tube, and slowly, but surely, he began to pull.
As mentioned in the title of this post, this was the most
bizarre sensation I have had open to now. For it was not a mere inch of a tube,
but considerably longer. It reminded me of a stage magician pulling out a long
length of tied handkerchiefs from his sleeve, a vast length of material that appeared
to have no end. My T tube was very much like this in that the surgeon was
pulling, kept pulling .... pulled some more and it did not seem to end! If I were to say I didn’t
feel like swearing, I would be lying, but, considering the room had ladies
present, I managed to invent a few associated words to express my feelings as
the tube was pulled out of my colon.
".. it
afforded me to be able to return to some semblance of normality"
Finally, I saw the end pop free and it was out. The nurse
descended with the dressings and patched up the hole faster than a Dutch boy at
a leaking dam. The next planned operation would be to reverse the Ileostomy bag
once the hole had healed, and this was planned for the October (2011).
This operation was one I was looking forward to, for it
afforded me to be able to return to some semblance of normality. What I wasn’t
looking forward to were the xrays to be able to check if my colon had healed
with no additional tears that were unforeseen, this involved a somewhat
invasive scan with what I can only describe as a “visibly enabled fluid colonic
irrigation” CT scan! Not a pleasant xray, and one I will describe in my next
post!!
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