After surgery: After surgery I struggled to eat. My stoma was not working as it was swollen. Anything I ate, came straight back up as it couldn’t go anywhere. This continued for another week, in this time I continued to get weaker and weaker. Eventually I could eat without throwing up and I was allowed home. However, once home things didn’t go to plan. Feeling thirsty I drank water, but all this did was flush my system and make me thirstier. At this point I could not find the energy to even get out of bed, I just could not be bothered and couldn’t see a future for myself. Two days passed with phone calls between myself and the hospital bowel and stoma nurses. Unsure of the true picture they sent an on call Dr to visit me at home; he promptly diagnosed severe dehydration. This led to me being readmitted to hospital and being connected up to IV drips for 4 consecutive days. I was then discharged for the second time. Once at home I weighed in at 55kg, felt weak, but I could see a positive future for the first time in weeks.

October 29^th – first meal out and complications: My parents came down for 3 days staying at the local inn overlooking the harbour. We decided to try eating out. I chose a chicken and bacon pasta dish with a garlic and cheese sauce. This went down well, but occasionally as I wanted to join into conversations, I forgot to chew properly. Oops! This led to an interesting morning the next day. My bag was just full of water. When emptying it, water continued to pour out of me. Panic ensued. This hadn’t happened since I was dehydrated and got readmitted to hospital. Sian and I agreed 20 minutes and we’ll see what was happening. Thankfully, after emptying my bag twice more, my output started to thicken and slow. 10 minutes later, I felt ready to go to church with a normal output from my stoma. I now regularly have marshmallows and jelly babies which help to keep my output thick.

November 4^th – first walk into town: Now Sian and I live close to town, but we live up a steep ‘Cornish’ hill. Walking into town was a breeze, no problems and I was able to walk around town easily. However the walk back up the hill was quite different. Usually I will be striding up the hill and having to slow or wait for Sian to keep up. Today it was the other way around. This was quite hard to accept, but after a break to catch my breath half way, Sian made me realise that this is the start of my recovery and how far I had come already.

November 7^th – 10 minutes on the spin bike: The spin bike had sat looking at me every day. Almost taunting me that I couldn’t be training. So today I said “No more!” with Sian in attendance, I nervously sat on the saddle and took off all the resistance. 

For 5 minutes I spun my legs gently. After that, I took a quick break before turning up the resistance to a low level for another 5 minutes. I need to make sure I don’t push it too much so I will slowly build up my time and resistance until I can manage 30 mins at mid to high resistance. After completing this challenge I shall arrange a ride outdoors on the road.

November 9^th – Weight now over 60kg: Weighed myself today and I am over 60kg up 5kg since leaving hospital. Recovery is going the right way, I will keep on eating lots.

November 24^th – 30 mins on spin bike, challenge complete: After slowly building up my endurance over the last two weeks with the approach of ‘little but often’ I have managed to break the 30 minute barrier. This means I have fulfilled the criteria to get out on my road bike. In celebration I went out to my bike and put on my winter wheels and set up the mudguards, all ready to go.

November 27^th – 2 months on and first drive: Two months. Who would have thought it had been two months. In some ways it has gone ever so quickly. However, in other ways it seems like ages since I was lying in that hospital bed. I wouldn’t be at this point in my recovery without the support of my family and close friends. If you are reading, you have all been amazing. To celebrate I took the keys from Sian and sat in the driver’s seat. It all seemed so familiar even though it had been nearly three months since I last drove. As soon as I took off the handbrake it was as if I had been driving all along and off we went to finish our Christmas shopping (I think this is the earliest this has ever been completed for us!).