I lost 5 stone in 10 weeks after going to the loo 50 times a day – my boy didn’t even recognise me and I thought I’d die

A woman nearly died after a rare bowel condition made her to go to the loo more than 50 TIMES a day - causing her shed a staggering four stone in 10 weeks.

Trudi Stonard, 37, was ‘lucky to survive’ after she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis – a condition which causes inflammation of the colon and rectum.

In just 10 weeks the condition became life-threatening and surgeons spent six hours removing her bowel which was so inflamed it was like ‘it was on fire’.

The mum-of-two started experiencing extreme stomach pain in December 2014 – even eating a packet of crisps left her in agony.

She was misdiagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) but Trudi feared it was more serious when she started passing blood after eating ‘one bite of KFC’.

Trudi dropped from 9st 9lb to 5st 9lb and her son Leonard, now seven, refused to go near her because she looked 'unrecognisable.'

She underwent surgery to remove her part of her colon and replace it with a stoma bag at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton, in February 2015.

Despite the damage to her insides, Trudi managed to ‘miraculously’ fall pregnant with her son Bobby-Jo, now four, and has learnt to embrace her stoma.

Trudi, from Walsall, West Midlands, said: "In the space of 10 weeks I went from a normal person, to someone with a stoma bag.

“The surgeon met me after my surgery and said he’d never seen a colon that bad.

“In fact, it look so inflamed, it he said it looked like it was on ‘fire’.

“He said: ‘I just wanted to stamp on it and put it out.’"

In the space of 10 weeks I went from a normal person, to someone with a stoma bag.

Trudi Stonard, 37

"While I was suffering from colitis, I lost around five stone. I lost so much weight people thought I was anorexic," she continued.

"It's been a difficult adjustment but I've learnt to love my stoma bag.

"If someone offered to reverse it tomorrow I'd so no - it's part of who I am now."

In December 2014, Trudi started getting stomach pain and going to the loo more frequently.

Things escalated in a matter of weeks until everything she ate was leaving her in agony and was rapidly losing weight.

Trudi was diagnosed with IBS but she knew suspected it was more serious after she tucked into a takeaway.

After ‘one bite’ she rushed to the toilet where she saw blood ‘flowing' from her behind.

Trudi said: “I never had any problems with my stomach until February.

“Anything I ate, from a small snack to a meal, was leaving me in agony."

"Even a packet of crisps caused this crushing pain that felt like I was going to be sick,"; she explained.

“I went to my GP but said it was just IBS and gave me Buscopan but nothing helped.

“One night I tried to eat some KFC, I had one bite of chicken and I had to dash to the toilet where I saw blood literally flowing from my behind."

Trudi went to hospital where doctors suspected she had food poisoning and sent home.

Two days later she collapsed and her mum Jill Stonard, 53, rushed her to A&E while she was ‘screaming’ in pain.

Trudi said: "When doctors said it was food poisoning and I thought: ‘That makes sense.’

“I thought that would explain why my stomach had been so bad.

"But when my mum found me screaming in pain, she took me straight back to hospital."

Trudi continued to lose weight and was going to the loo more than 50 times a day.

Doctors found the lining of bowel ‘covered in ulcers’.

Trudi Stonard, 37

In the space of 10 weeks she dropped a whopping 5 stone.

She said: "I kept losing weight and couldn't keep anything down.

"One day I went to the loo around 53 times in one day.

"The doctors tried to take a stool sample but the bed pan looked like someone had poured a pint of blood in it.

“I felt awful and was barely able to get out of bed.

"My mum brought my little boy up to visit but he wouldn't go anywhere near me.

“He said: ‘You’re not my mummy’. That was devastating."

Trudi was sent for more tests over two weeks including a colposcopy – which involved sending a camera through her colon.

She said doctors found the lining of bowel ‘covered in ulcers’ and she was finally diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.

Doctors tried every medication but nothing was working.

In February 2015, Trudi's last resort was to undergo surgery called a colostomy.

It involved removing the affected bowel and diverting the end through opening in the tummy called a 'stoma'.

The stoma would then be fitted with a stoma bag to collect the waste.

She said: “When they did the colposcopy they said my bowel was literally covered in ulcers.

"We tried every medication and steroid but I was throwing it all up.

"In the end, it was an operation or I'd lose my life.

"Surgery should only take a couple of hours but my bowel was so bad, it took them six hours."

Trudi was told it would be difficult to conceive because of the damage to her insides.

She was shocked to discover she had fallen pregnant three months with a little boy after her operation in June 2015.

"I was told that I wouldn't carry to full term but Bobby-Jo was a little fighter.

Bobby-Jo was born on February 20th 2015 weighing 5lb 15oz.

Over the next few years, Trudi learnt to adjust to life with a stoma.

She was rushed for more surgery in June 2016 when her remaining bowel twisted.

Four years after her colon was removed, Trudi has learnt finally learnt to embrace her stoma.

"It took me a long time to adjust to the stoma bag," she said.

"For two years I pretending everything was fine and hid away my stomach.

"Then I went on a holiday to Tenerife and decided to go for it and wear a bikini.

"I had eyes on me left, right and centre but I didn't care - I've learnt to embrace it.

"It's not something to shy away from but embrace."

This week we chatted to woman who suffered from a devastating condition which prevented her from having sex until she was 30.

And a woman who lost half her body weight in eight months in a bid to get pregnant, but was left needing therapy, because she hated being thin.