In December of 2020, I got married to my absolutely amazing Husband, right bank smack in the middle of all the Covid lockdowns. It’s without a doubt, the best decision I’ve ever made.

At this point, I was still trying to pretend that my health wasn’t that bad. I think I had become so disillusioned with the fact that everything I seemed to suffer with had ‘no cure, or anything we can do’ that I just thought I had to put up with what I had. 

In 2021, out of the blue, the amount of UTI’s I suffered with became crazy – I had about 18 bouts during the course of the year. I also suffered with my skin, finding myself spontaneously splitting and bleeding all over, randomly with no warning. I still struggle with this today. 

Fast forward to 2022, my UTI’s finally calmed down, but then I started to notice blood and mucus when I had a bowel movement. At first, I didn’t think much of it, putting it down to these skin splits which I figured must also being happening internally. Slowly, over the next couple of months the bleeding got worse and I started to get cramping pains every few days. 

One day, the bleeding was particularly bad and I was stuck in the bathroom for a lot longer than usual. I decided to go to A&E, because something clearly wasn’t right. There I saw a Doctor who wasn’t overly interested in looking into what was happening. I spent about 13 hours in the hospital getting conflicting information about what was happening. One nurse said I was being admitted, while the Doctor said he didn’t believe there was anything wrong with me. I had a blood test, which didn’t flag anything unusual and was sent home being told that I had haemorrhoids. That same Doctor said ‘See how it goes, if you’re still having issues in a year you’d better come back’.

At this point, I felt completely hopeless and like I had wasted everyone’s time.