Feeling much better this week, thanks for all the messages of concern and support.
To be fair, most of these were from colleagues after reading my newsletter editorial detailing my difficulties obtaining a stool specimen of sufficient standard, but it was still heartening. I’m pretty much back to normal now, and have been at work all week, so I feel a bit of a fraud as I currently drink the stipulated 700 ml of fluid before my CT scan later this morning.
My GP booked the scan last week, just after I burst into tears in her office, and you could now uncharitably describe it as a fishing expedition. I did toy with the idea of cancelling the scan once my symptoms improved, but since it was the third episode I’ve had, and the faecal specimen was negative, making an infectious cause less likely, we’re going to go ahead. My husband fears that far from getting answers, we’re going to end up discovering an “incidental-oma”, some weird thing in my tummy that is completely irrelevant and might never have caused me any problems, but will now need to have further investigations, causing unnecessary stress and anguish. Added to that, being flooded with X-rays is not an insignificant thing, either. Apparently thousands of Americans die each year of leukaemia caused by unnecessary radiological investigations. I heard that statistic years ago and don’t have time to fact check it now, but I’m sure it must be nearly true, or true-adjacent.
Anyway, no time to write more, have to get into the shower. More to follow.