After a sleeve, twelve years ago, and now this

I would say get the two sets of clinicians talking to each other if you possibly can. Mine were not, for a year, and I was the messenger and I got it wrong twice.

Something that surprised me: my long-standing symptoms improved rather than worsened. That is not everybody's experience and I did not expect it to be mine.

Quietly agreeing from the other side of the country.

I take other things for my gut and the timing of them relative to everything else needed working out properly with a pharmacist. Worth an appointment of its own.

My history meant I was watched more closely, which I resented at first and was quietly grateful for later.

The flare I had at month three turned out to be my usual condition doing its usual thing at its usual time of year, and I had blamed the medication for a fortnight.

Mine required one pause and one restart in eighteen months and both were planned rather than emergencies. That is a good outcome for a complicated gut.

The advice to eat small and often already described my life. I had been doing it for fifteen years and had nothing left to adjust.

I would gently say that a previous diagnosis is a reason to have the conversation carefully rather than a reason not to have it.

Reading Özlem, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

My records were a mess across three services and putting them in order myself, once, in an afternoon, made every subsequent appointment better.