Major Surgery?

I'm waiting for the surgical team to make a big decision. They have now analysed the CT scan from Watford General in detail and have diagnosed Monday night's problem.

When they did the original operation they had to move the intestines around quite a lot, and this meant they had to cut some of the membranes that hold the intestines in place. Now that they are free to move around, and now that there are holes in the membranes, it seems that a small loop of the intestine got caught in one of the holes.

That happened shortly after I fell asleep on Monday night, and within minutes my body sensed that there was a blockage and started pushing harder. When this didn't work the muscles began to spasm, and the pain built up. This is, I think, known as an internal strangulated hernia. This is well-known to cause extreme pain. Buscopan (an anti-spasmodic drug) gave me small temporary relief, but fortunately when they sedated me the loop of intestine relaxed and worked itself free. This is lucky as potentially it could have started to die and maybe rupture, leading, in the worst case scenario, to major internal bleeding and death. If I had been in Kings when it happened they would have operated immediately. As it is, however, I have made a full recovery and they need to weigh up the significant risks of more major abdominal surgery (with another very large cut) against the risks of the internal herniation reoccurring. It is possible that surgery could reduce the risk of further blockage due to herniation, but then replace that with increased risk of other types of blockage simply as a result of the second surgery. On the other hand it would be riskier to operate on me if I was in the middle of another herniation than it would to do it preemptively.

The final decision is to be taken by Professor Rela, the joint chief surgeon at Kings who oversaw my original surgery. It sounds like it is very much six of one and half a dozen of the other, and that the surgeons are fairly evenly divided on the issue, so I will go with whatever decision they make. If they don't do it then i would expect to be discharged very soon, perhaps tomorrow. If it goes ahead then I have to go all through the major surgical process again with all that recovery entails, setting me back a month, and keeping me in hospital for several more days at least.

I should hopefully hear later on today - more news as it comes in.