It’s been a while since an update about my fitness and my bike fitness specifically.
Things haven’t been going great, if I’m honest.
If you’re a regular, you’ll know I lost most of last year to recovery from my hysterectomy. I started getting fitter, and then crohns slapped me with a massive flare up in January of this year. I was also massively stressed and tired from work, plus the weather was naff, so I didn’t go out on my bike.
The flare up made me miss six weeks of gym training because you’re not meant to do anything strenuous while you’re on steroids, which I was to help with the flare. Then I had an issue with a sinus infection, which meant I was throwing up flem on the daily (and sometimes throwing up food too, not intentionally but just as a reflex from the flem).
It honestly feels like every time I make some progress, something happens and I get slapped back down.
This has happened again this week – the day after the ride when I took the photo I posted above, I got a letter saying I need an appointment with a guy who is a colorectal surgeon.
Wait, what?
This is news to me. I have had no information from the hospital about why I need to see this guy, or what on my last round of tests has concerned them to the point they think it’s necessary. I’ve called them to ask why, but they have yet to call me back. Well, they did ring me back, but I was mid-poop and I don’t take my phone into the bathroom (that’s gross and unhygienic) so I missed the call.
And of course there’s no call back number apart from the one I originally called them on, which is an answerphone.
I guess I’m going to be playing phone tag for the next week or so until I get some answers.
I’m not stupid, and the fact I’m seeing a surgeon makes me think it might be time to take radical action on my crohns. The bulk of my inflammation is sited in my terminal ileum, so my initial thought is that the inflammation is getting out of hand and the growths/ulcers (I don’t know how to describe them) need to be yoinked out and yote into the sun.
So if I’m right, that means more surgery which means more time away from the gym and more time off the bike.
I hope they don’t actually need to operate. I can’t be away from my fitness journey again. Mentally that would ruin me more than physically. I’m kind of fed up of having to cope with shit like this and would dearly love to just be able to get on with my life.
Mind you, my crohns has been playing up but that’s mostly down to stress. That’s a whole ‘nother post, and I think that the impact of stress on chronic conditions sometimes is very underestimated. I feel like I’m a phone hanging on to that last 1% battery some days. It’s so draining being constantly on edge and while I’m trying to stop it, it’s quite hard when you can’t escape the situation that’s making you stressed in the first place.
So yes, fitness and biking are not going so great right now. I’ll update again when I’ve seen the surgeon guy, because then I’ll have a better read on the future.
WEST SURREY STYLE 