Jonathan Tullett

Quick update on last night’s fun.

Nothing which could be confirmed visually was found – no Crohn’s, no colitis. We’re now on to waiting for the biopsy results. I should have those within the next two weeks.

My alarm went off last night at 6pm. The occasion? Time for my first picolax dose.

150ml water, pour in the powder, stir and then drink. Didn’t taste as bad as I thought it would. Then settle down in front of the TV.

To say it’s effective would be an understatement. I won’t go into details, but I will say that by this morning my weight had dropped below 67kg for the first time.

Now I’m counting down the hours until I see Mr Sanderson (or ‘Daddy’, as I will be calling him during the procedure). Work’s helping to some extent – a few problems this morning, keeping things interesting.

Roll on 5pm.

So the saga with Bupa goes on. They’ve agreed that they’ll help pay for the investigation, but they’ve told me the doctor I’ve been referred to, charges more than ‘their recommended rates’ for treatment, so they’ll only cover part of the bill.

Granted, it’ll likely be the major portion – it’s looking like I’ll be covering £100 or so (with them covering £350). No, my mistake, I have a policy excess too, so I’ll be paying £200, and they’ll cover £250.

I’ve written a letter detailing my efforts so far to my employer suggesting we change providers. The right noises have been made, but whether or not they’re acted upon is another matter.

I’m sorely tempted to cancel the policy entirely. On health grounds.

I called Bupa today to request another authorization code for my upcoming investigation.

It seems the woman who told me that I was covered for all outpatient procedures up to the point of diagnosis didn’t actually write that down. So now they want another letter from my GP stating that he doesn’t believe it’s IBS before they’ll agree to pay.

Bored of this now.

Last night, after months of arguing with Bupa, I finally saw a specialist at the London Bridge Hospital.

We covered my symptoms and the fact that some (wind) are improved by taking enzymes. He’s a little concerned about the weight-loss, though I explained some of my diet changes, as it seems somewhat rapid.

The plan of action:

1. Blood work – rule out parasites and a couple of other conditions.
2. Shove a camera down my throat, look at the lining of the intestines and take a sample for further analysis.
3. Shove a camera up my arse, look at the lining of the bowel and take a sample for further analysis.

He’s going to be looking for inflammation either end, which indicates an irritable condition, and wants to quickly rule out Crohn’s disease and colitis as both those conditions are easily treated. He’s also going to test for coeliac disease and something else I can’t remember right now.

Thanks to the joy of private health care, I’m scheduled for the ‘top and tail’ next Thursday. So Wednesday will be spent with breakfast, a light lunch, a laxative for dinner (which makes me wonder the point of eating lunch) then a night wishing I had a padded toilet seat. Thursday will start with more yummy laxative, low blood sugar and almost certainly a serious case of the grumps. And no doubt it’ll be down hill from there…

At 5pm, I’ll be sedated, have a tube down my throat and have some of my insides removed. Then, having changed tools and despite my protestations that I never put out before a third date, he will ram a camera into my bottom. Well, I’ll be facing forward, but I hope it’ll be his camera.

I’ve been promised some still shots of the procedure but assuming the doctor will give permission, my chaperone, the ever wonderful and hardy stomached Jo, will be shooting some video. Dinner parties at mine will be awesome, oh yes.

This is the first proper step to resolving the issues and I’m happy to finally be at this point.