I Survived The Endoscopies

Yesterday I had a colonoscopy and an upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy.

Endoscopy means looking inside and that's exactly what happens. In my case it was the colon and my upper GI tract that my doc wanted to inspect.

Thanks to Wiki Commons for the image. I didn't take any photos myself. And honestly I did not observe this thing because I remember nothing after the nurse told me to roll over on my left side. Well, I remember saying "Is this okay?" but I do not remember the answer. So I guess it must have been okay.

They gave me Versed and Demerol I think. I was not taking notes though. I think they said the former would help me forget. I said "I didn't need much help forgetting stuff" which I thought was rather witty and humorous. But it must work pretty well.

The next thing I remember after turning on my left side is waking up in another room where I briefly noticed this nurse next to me. Then I had this irresistible need to shut my eyes which I satisfied. The next time I opened my eyes they stayed open and the nurse said I should get dressed while she went to get Judy. She drew this curtain around the bed and I got everything on apparently because I was dressed by the time Judy got there.

I thought it was funny about the clothes when I first arrived because the nurse that took me into this room told me I should leave on my socks and my undershirt. I don't know why that seemed funny to me but it did then and it does now. She also explained the hospital gown to me which also seemed funny as in "put the open side on your backside." I never laughed though.

Oh, yes, there was a toilet in the room and I was invited to use it and I did and there was discussion about what the result looked like. Reminded me of some conversations I've had before in the last few weeks.

Then we talked about horses and the nurse got a wheelchair and I sat in it and she pushed it out the door eventually. I saw our car and I said "I can walk over there" and that's what I did. Except the nurse grabbed hold of me and walked over there with me.

I do not remember the drive home at all. But we must have driven home because I do remember being at Judy's house for a few minutes. Then we drove over to the Banbury house but I don't remember that either.

Next I sat down in a recliner and I don't remember anything else until I awakened. I asked Judy if I had been asleep. She laughed.

Then I fixed myself something to eat: instant oatmeal, instant grits, and 2 of those itty bitty boxes of raisins. That made me feel a lot stronger. So next I found some leftover Thai vegetable fried rice from last week that I had thrown in the freezer (always thinking ahead!!). I put it in the microwave and a few minutes later I was eating it.

I checked the computer but had no energy to do much of anything about anything.

Judy, who had about as little sleep the night before as I did, said she needed a nap. I said I needed a nap, too. She was going to nap on the couch but I said I needed to be flat so I headed for the bed.

When I awakened it was like 5:30 or somthing and we had to go feed the horses. She said she hoped the nurse didn't find out because I wasn't supposed to do any "chores" today. Well, feeding our horses isn't very hard unless I have to carry feed sacks to the feed cans. I had already done that (again thinking ahead!!).

We visited Judy's mom a while and on the way home we stopped at a Sonic. At first I didn't think I wanted anything but then I thought a lemon berry real fruit slush would be really good so I got one.

That slush was really, really good. I have to get another one of those soon.

I think I took another nap maybe or maybe not. I watched Chuck on TV I remember. Then I went to bed and next morning came and I was awake again. I fixed myself some left over Starbucks and instant oatmeal and raisins. Then I started this blog entry.

I have to quit though because I have to get ready to go to the urologist at 9.

Thanks for all the good wishes everyone.

TriLyte®

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Does anyone besides me think that message is funny?

I mean the "proper preparation is the key to a successful colonoscopy" part of the message? It just strikes me funny. Cost wise this is certainly the least expensive part of the colonoscopy. I paid the Walgreens folks $35 for the jug which already had powder stuff in it. On the top were 5 flavor packets but you only use 1. The surgery center part is taking a good hunk of a $1,000. I haven't found out yet what the doctors are costing. I think the whole deal is going to bust a big hunk of $2,000.

My health insurance pays for it. Except for my coinsurance amount that is which is $250 or something. And then there is my deductible amount. I have spent ZERO so far this year. Anyone want to take bets on what my deductible is? Yep: $2 grand.

Interesting how that works. Not just on health insurance but all insurance that I buy. Except life insurance and I haven't used any of yet.

The jug is 4 liters it says. That's 135.26 ounces or 16.91 glasses of 8 ounces each. I decided to use 12 oz foam cups though. That's 11.27 of them. At 7:00 a.m. Sunday evening I began drinking two-thirds of the total. I rounded that to 8 cups.

That's a lot to drink. Took me about 2 hours. Then I had to drink 3 glasses of water. I managed 20 oz of water in another hour or so.

The result is pretty much what you might guess. I definitely did not want to drink anymore by the time I went to bed. It made me feel a little sick and "mentally off" -- kind of inebriated feeling almost.

At 3:10 a.m. Monday morning I proceeded to drink the rest -- a little more than 3 of my foam cups. I am definitely not wanting anymore of this stuff.

It is the same foam cup by the way. Is that recycling? Somehow I managed to distort the bottom of the cup.

In case anyone is interested in what this stuff does and can't guess given the scanty information provided thus far I will say only that a toilet is a good idea to have nearby when ingesting.

This will be (I haven't had it yet as I am writing this) my second colonoscopy. The last one was 3 years ago. The same doctor though. He's the one that said I should do this because he found a polyp last time which he removed.

People have asked me what the colonoscopy was like. I didn't think it was too bad actually. Honestly drinking this TriLyte® stuff is the worst part and it doesn't bother me that much. On the scale of disagreeable and disgusting things I've done this is way down the list. But that's just me.

As for the procedure itself about all I remember from last time is someone saying something about counting backwards. When I awoke I felt pretty good. I remember telling someone that I thought I could drive just fine.

Of course I always think I can drive just fine.

So if anyone is reading this before about 8 am central you know where I am and what I am doing.

I've decided to forego twitter and facebook. Unseemly. Have to draw the line somewhere.