It’s been a while between blog posts! I read my last one again which was from March (a whole lifetime ago). I was writing about deciding whether to go on holiday, when I thought I still had a chance of going to the UK. Quite funny now given how things escalated pretty soon after that post.

It’s got me thinking though that it has been an interesting experience being someone who still needs to have regular oncology treatment and my regular FAP monitoring scopes when really I’d rather avoid these areas… mainly for the safety of more vulnerable patients.

March – June was a very stressful period because I had three procedures I needed to get done… and all of them were pushed back a few times because of covid. I finally got to my gastroscopy scope date in May, and low and behold, I presented with a random fever so I couldn’t have it done that day and instead had a covid swab. I got the swab done to be sure but also because I was due for my next iv infusion at the cancer centre in a few days and the thought of going there with covid was terrifying.

This then sent me into a huge stress because I had colorectal surgery booked in a week later which had been a hard spot to secure because of restrictions on elective surgery. I was so worried about catching not only covid but also a cold or the flu… anything that could stop me from going ahead with the procedure. I cancelled all plans, mainly stayed inside and was quite obsessively checking my temperature. I’ve never been more relieved than the moment I got my temperature checked in pre-op and it was all fine.

Thankfully after that went ahead my “I can’t get sick” panic eased and I then managed to have the other two procedures pretty stress free.

I don’t need to have my next procedure until December and it’s been a nice couple of months off and only having my three-weekly oncology treatment to go to.

Then for me there’s also my tendency to mask my chronic illness to just get on with living my best life and being a normal 30 year old. So it did actually take me a good month or so into covid to realise I did need to be a bit more careful for my own health. I admitted to one of the anaesthetist’s that I didn’t immediately consider myself in the high-risk category, to which he gave me a knowing smile as he had just read my 5 editions of hospital notes which definitely suggested I was high-risk!

Sometimes I do forget that my body is hindered by of all my surgery, my ongoing treatment – and the fact I can forget sometimes is telling of the skills of my surgeon and my oncology team for getting me on a treatment that gives me little to know side effects.

It hasn’t been easy navigating health things during covid, but the hospital and treatment centres I go to have been very good with covid safe measures, and whilst I faced delays… I always knew I would get a new date very soon, so I am very lucky.