So yesterday was a fun day: I got to experience the joys of having my first colonoscopy. Yep, big time fun it was.<\/p>\n
A few of you have already been through this rite of passage. For those who haven\u2019t, fear not; this is not going to be a highly detailed account of what went down at the endoscopy center.<\/p>\n
The reason I was going in a little early (white folks don\u2019t generally need to get scoped before 50 if they don\u2019t have a family history) is that I\u2019ve been having some weird stomach issues for the past year and a half. The symptoms have changed over time, and often didn\u2019t seem related to each other. But they\u2019ve persisted long enough that I went in to see my regular doc and ask for her thoughts. She couldn\u2019t think of any obvious causes or explanations for my issues, and thus sent me off for a scope to get a look inside. I was all for it. Most of you know it was colon cancer that killed my stepfather and I have no reservations about getting tested early.<\/p>\n
The results were a mixed bag, but in the best possible way. Unfortunately the scope didn\u2019t show anything in the area of my abdomen where I\u2019ve been having pain. Which is both frustrating and encouraging. It could just be a diet issue, or I may need to do some other tests if the pain continues. They did find and remove a polyp the doc said could have become problematic down the road. So that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n
Colonoscopies are one of those procedures that we all seem to dread. I\u2019m guessing they used to be a lot different than they are now. I was knocked out and a roughly five-hour stretch of Monday afternoon is a complete blank to me. There was no pain after. I slept for over nine hours last night and woke feeling crazy refreshed. I would say I still feel a little off today, but more from a combination of lingering effects of the sedatives and low blood sugar than from the procedure itself.<\/p>\n
It was the prep that is tough, though. And even that wasn\u2019t as bad as some suggested it would be. The hardest part for me was not eating any real food for 36 hours before the procedure. I\u2019m not a good hungry person and I was getting pretty grumpy before I began the Gatorade and Mirolax cocktail part of the prep Sunday evening. I didn\u2019t get much sleep Sunday as the Mirolax did its work. But, still, it wasn\u2019t that big of a deal.<\/p>\n
I had only been knocked out once before, when I was 18 and got my wisdom teeth removed. I have moments of semi-clear memories from after the procedure yesterday, but most of it is a complete fog. Apparently I told S the same story about one of the nurses living in the same neighborhood as several of our friends from St. P\u2019s three different times. When I mentioned it again at dinner last night, even the girls laughed because S had told them I was repeating myself.<\/p>\n
(Yeah, the girls laughed and laughed when I told them what I was going in for. \u201cThey\u2019re putting a camera where?!?!\u201d)<\/p>\n
And then there was just a tiny bit of awkwardness because I met the doc doing the procedure at a social event a couple years ago. He had been enjoying the vodka at that event. I\u2019m glad to say he was clearly sober yesterday. We have some mutual friends, and he and his wife have a lake house on the same lake as ours. We may get together over the summer when our mutual friends come to the lake. I sense an opportunity to compliment him on his boat\/house\/lake toys that I\u2019ve now helped pay for.<\/p>\n
Anyway, it\u2019s all done now. I\u2019m glad the results were good but wish I had a better idea of what was going on in my belly. For those of you who get to wait a few more years before you get scoped, I say don\u2019t sweat it. If you follow the guidelines they give you ahead of time, it\u2019s a piece of cake. And you\u2019ll get to take a really good nap after!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So yesterday was a fun day: I got to experience the joys of having my first colonoscopy. Yep, big time fun it was. A few of you have already been through this rite of passage. For those who haven\u2019t, fear not; this is not going to be a highly detailed account of what went down at the endoscopy center. The reason I was going in a little early (white folks don\u2019t generally need to get scoped before 50 if they don\u2019t have a family history) is that I\u2019ve been having some weird stomach issues for the past year and a half. The symptoms have changed over time, and often didn\u2019t seem related to each other. But they\u2019ve persisted long enough that I went in to see my regular doc and ask for her thoughts. She couldn\u2019t think of any obvious causes or explanations for my issues, and thus sent me off for a scope to get a look inside. I was all for it. Most of you know it was colon cancer that killed my stepfather and I have no reservations about getting tested early. The results were a mixed bag, but in the best possible way. Unfortunately the scope didn\u2019t show anything in the area of my abdomen where I\u2019ve been having pain. Which is both frustrating and encouraging. It could just be a diet issue, or I may need to do some other tests if the pain continues. They did find and remove a polyp the doc said could have become problematic down the road. So that\u2019s good. Colonoscopies are one of those procedures that we all seem to dread. I\u2019m guessing they used to be a lot different than they are now. I was knocked out and a roughly five-hour stretch of Monday afternoon is a complete blank to me. There was no pain after. I slept for over nine hours last night and woke feeling crazy refreshed. I would say I still feel a little off today, but more from a combination of lingering effects of the sedatives and low blood sugar than from the procedure itself. It was the prep that is tough, though. And even that wasn\u2019t as bad as some suggested it would be. The hardest part for me was not eating any real food for 36 hours before the procedure. I\u2019m not a good hungry person and I was getting pretty grumpy before I began the Gatorade and Mirolax cocktail part of the prep Sunday evening. I didn\u2019t get much sleep Sunday as the Mirolax did its work. But, still, it wasn\u2019t that big of a deal. I had only been knocked out once before, when I was 18 and got my wisdom teeth removed. I have moments of semi-clear memories from after the procedure yesterday, but most of it is a complete fog. Apparently I told S the same story about one of the nurses living in the same neighborhood as several of our friends from St. P\u2019s three different times. When I mentioned it again at dinner last night, even the girls laughed because S had told them I was repeating myself. (Yeah, the girls laughed and laughed when I told them what I was going in for. \u201cThey\u2019re putting a camera where?!?!\u201d) And then there was just a tiny bit of awkwardness because I met the doc doing the procedure at a social event a couple years ago. He had been enjoying the vodka at that event. I\u2019m glad to say he was clearly sober yesterday. We have some mutual friends, and he and his wife have a lake house on the same lake as ours. We may get together over the summer when our mutual friends come to the lake. I sense an opportunity to compliment him on his boat\/house\/lake toys that I\u2019ve now helped pay for. Anyway, it\u2019s all done now. I\u2019m glad the results were good but wish I had a better idea of what was going on in my belly. For those of you who get to wait a few more years before you get scoped, I say don\u2019t sweat it. If you follow the guidelines they give you ahead of time, it\u2019s a piece of cake. And you\u2019ll get to take a really good nap after!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,47,14,83],"class_list":["post-6353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-family","tag-health","tag-parenting","tag-personal"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13648,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6353\/revisions\/13648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}