I’ll save you the fancy reporting since I feel terrible right now, and just say that my colonoscopy went… well, it went. I only remember the nurse saying “this will start to make you a bit drowsy,” and immediately I whispered, “wow that works fast.”
I woke up to hear voices a few curtains over laughing about how “this patient” slept like a rock from the time they started the IV and still wasn’t stirring. Couldn’t have been me because I was at that very minute, “stirring.” I was half awake and in a bit of pain, which I rated a “2,” and they left me to get changed out of the super duper extra large hospital gown. I will probably never learn to rate my pain at anything over a 2 on the first asking. I ended up sitting there in a ball crying in pain and the nurses that passed by went running one by one to make sure I was supposed to be in “that much” pain.
The doctor however, whom I could hear from my curtained area, said that I had rated the pain as “nothing much” and that I’d be fine. I heard the nurses insisting that I was “not fine,” but fine or not, home I went with promises to feel fine within the hour.
Let’s just leave it at “not true.”
I called in to the doctors and was given another perscription to help ease the stomach cramping and told I should be fine by tomorrow. I feel like I haven’t eaten in three days – oh wait, I haven’t – and I’m hungry.
Anyway, on to the good stuff – colonoscopy results:
The doctor took a few biopsies which I should hear about on Friday, and they are currently treating me for Ulcerative Colitis. Basically, to quote the literature I was handed this morning, UC is “a chronic disease of the colon, marked by inflammation and ulceration of the innermost lining.”
My symptoms do not seem to match the typical symptoms for this disease, and so I am a bit skeptical, but ready to give this treatment a try. The doctor wrote on my papers that he feels my condition “should respond to treatment” and that he does not believe surgery (removal of the colon) will be necessary. I’m not using it anyway.
The plan is to spend four weeks on the meds and see what progress is made. I’m really in the mood for a steak dinner, and boy, would that be progress! For those of you with lots of initials after your names, my new diet of pills is Mesalamine (Asacol 400MG 4xdaily).
This article at Wikipedia gives a little more information on Ulcerative Colitis, if you couldn’t grasp my half cognizant description.
My thoughts right now, as I go through this next treatment trial, are for holiday plans. It’s hard to figure out what I’ll be up to and it’s also a struggle to budget in plane tickets and possible cross country drives with the medical expenses I am accruing. Eric and I are hoping to visit my parents in NJ, his family in Ohio, and my friends and family here in Spokane. Outside of trying to split the holiday vacation across three compass points, we feel it’s crucial to have some down time to spend together, and we’re looking forward to that. I don’t know yet if I can travel or how I’ll be feeling, so working out a plan is a bit tough.
I’d appreciate your prayers for that as well as for my health and patience.
Anyway, I’m in pain but in good spirits and glad that this step is done. Thank you for your prayers, you keep me smiling, and He is faithful.
- Jess
1 Comment
November 15, 2006 at 5:47 am
Will keep praying for ya, Jess!