Seeing as it was my last poo transplant, I finally worked up the courage to ask if I could see the enema equipment. J always brings the ‘tools of the trade’ in on a trolley, all covered up, and I had been too scared to ask earlier, in case it freaked me out.
It turns out that basically, the poo is stored in one of those bags used to hold fluids when patients are on a drip. The poo is mixed with saline until it is just ‘squishy’ enough to go down the tube attached to the bag, when J squeezes the bag.
The tube is the width of my little finger, and at the opposite end of it, is a plastic disposable thinga about the same size – that’s the part that is inserted into the bum.
That disposable thinga is hilarious - it’s (Caucasian) skin colour, and at its tip is a roundish ‘bulb’. Yep, that’s right, it looks like a dick. Big time!
I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw it, and said “J, you’ve gotta admit, that just looks rude!” She agreed, but said the hospital had tried several different disposable thingas, and this one was apparently the most comfortable!
Anyways, just under the ‘bulb’ are several holes, and that’s where the poo comes out into the bowel.
Once the amusement had worn off (it took a while!), I had a few final questions for J:
Q: Why does the patient handbook have only eight weeks worth of symptom sheets, when my follow-up appointment isn’t until 12 weeks’ time?
A: Follow-up appointments are generally made two or three months after the treatment has been completed, as it's around this time that improvements stabilise. Sometimes the deciding factor in the appointment scheduling, is how busy the Centre is.
The Centre can photocopy additional symptom sheets for patients who won’t be returning for more than eight weeks.
Q: OK, I know that my health will be up and down over the next few months – what I don’t know is why? Is it because the good and bad bacteria are still battling for supremacy, and sometimes the bad stuff is winning?
Basically, yes. Although the good bacteria are strong and healthy, their host bowel is a new environment for them, and they can take some time to adjust. Like babies, the bacteria need to learn to crawl, then walk, talk and finally, multiply! (Ooh, bad mental images of chatty bacteria in my body!)
Whilst they’re undergoing this process, there are bound to be some times when the evil stuff, that is on it’s “home ground” as they say in the footy, will be dominant, and it’s at those times that patients will feel sick. It is expected that over the coming months, the frequency and the severity of the sickness, will decrease.
Before I left, J had a final information sheet for me. It contained a reminder of the high fibre and protein diet requirements, and also stressed the importance of patients looking after their health, as if they get sick, antibiotic treatment may kill off the new bacteria. The hospital encourages patients to contact them if antibiotics are required, so that the types least offensive to the poor good bacteria can be recommended.
So…that’s it from me for now. I’ll probably check in once a week with updates on my progress, in the lead up to the follow-up appointment. Please keep your fingers crossed for me, and my ‘baby’ good bacteria!