This morning marked 2 weeks since I had my gall bladder removed. Tomorrow lunch time will be 2 weeks since I was discharged from hospital after my blood pressure recovered.

Recovery has been going very well. I had my discharge call from the surgery department yesterday. It was about 20 minutes long and we talked through various aspects. They were very happy with my progress and I found the call pleasant, useful and reassuring.

( Recovery and next steps in more detail... )

Because I work from home at a desk, I was allowed to start doing phased return a week ago. I've managed at least 3 hours work every working day for a week with 4 or 5 hours most days. As of tomorrow I'm going up to virtually full time (I have 3 flexitime hours in hand from before my surgery so I can have a longer lunch and an afternoon nap). I'm glad I've been allowed back to work because I'd have been very bored indeed by now.

My mum came to visit this afternoon and did some of the chores and housework that I'm not allowed to do yet. I now have a cleaner flat, clean bedding, a fully stocked fridge and some more portions of home cooked food in the freezer, which should keep me going for another week or so. I'm very glad to have patient and helpful parents who live nearby to come and help when I'm in recovery.

So generally recovery has been all going at or ahead of the schedule I was told to expect, with no unexpected difficulties. The only hitch at any point has been the low blood pressure on the first day and that had been resolved by midnight.

I'm currently in the depressing situation where my irritable bowel syndrome has got so bad that I feel almost constantly uncomfortable and get frequently triggered by problem food after which I feel ill and understandably for days. I am very lucky I'm working from home or this would be disrupting my life even more than it currently is.

A while ago I realised that the 'norovirus' I'd suffered at several conventions in a row was actually the true extent of my IBS - I would eat all my trigger foods over multiple days and the end result would be complete (and spectacular) digestive system failure. I've recently confirmed through a very annoying process of removing foods and adding them back that my major triggers are cabbage, brussel sprouts, onions, lentils, beans, peas and chickpeas, once I'm triggered then just about any green vegetables or carbohydrates make things worse.

You may have gathered from that list, that it makes following a vegan diet ridiculously difficult, I've had to stop eating houmous and almost all available ready meals and, once I'm triggered, veganism makes it impossible to avoid other trigger foods so a period of extreme IBS can last a full miserable week after I eat a trigger food.

About three or four weeks ago I came to the conclusion that I was going to have to stop following a vegan diet, since then I've been depressed, going through the stages of grief and trying every possible ditch attempt to avoid the enevitable. But, here I am, everything else failed, accepting that I'm moving over to an ethical vegetarian diet. I always believed in doing what I could practically do to make a difference, and due to failures of my health, ethical vegetarianism is now what's practical.

But yes, although it's very depressing that my body isn't able to keep to my ethical standards, I now need to accept the situation I'm in and get on with my life. Here's just hoping I'm able to gain some control over my digestive system now I have a larger range of non-triggers to choose from!