Well, The Big Day came and went without much of a problem. After guzzling down 72 oz. of Internally Cleansing Fun (plus a few pills to assist), and said many ounces and pills having their way with me on Tuesday evening, I slept well, woke up Wednesday, chugged another 32 oz. of Gastric Lavaging Goodness, and headed for the clinic.
We got there early, but didn’t have much of a wait because the previous appointment no-showed. I got shown to a room, given the opportunity to strip down to a lovely little tiny smock, and invited to lie down. I got all prepped with an IV (the most painful part of the experience), a heartbeat/temp monitor on an index finger, and a BP cuff that periodically took my blood pressure.
I got to then lie there for about half an hour, watching my pulse and temp and BP and seeing if I could relax further and drop them (no, not really).
Then the doc came in, we chatted for a couple of minutes, I rolled over, they started the anesthetic …
… and I was waking up in the recovery room, Margie by my side. It took a bit of time for me to get back much cognitive function, and I was a bit wobbly on my feet initially getting on my clothes, but soon we were driving home (by which I mean Margie was driving home and chatting with me and I was drifting in and out) …
And at home Margie fed me and liquided me and doted on me and put up with the DVDs I watched, and we had a relatively quiet and placid afternoon and evening.
The End
(Well, The End Really once all the post operative diagnostics and testing are taken care of. But The End for this particular adventure.)
(By the way, I have copies of the pictures of my innerds, which you will be pleased to know I will not be posting, but which is kind of fascinating nonetheless.)
Congratulations on a soft landing!
I’m 4yr overdue for mine. 2 years chalks up to procrastination. But I actually had it scheduled when the terrible horrible no good very bad thing happened and put it off another 2. So I was about to schedule it when the Illinois legislature + courts got in a shouting match and I didn’t know what health plan I’d have. Now that’s resolved for the next 90 days so I’ll try to wedge it in real quickly. So to speak.
Well that was supposed to be funny and cheer you up but it sounds like you are in great spirits already 🙂
Drill, baby, drill!
(Ahem.)
I, being without health insurance, will have to put this off until we get that Affordable Health Care (or forever, if the Republicans get their way).
Thank you, Dave! I promised my husband last night (and I promised my primary doctor several months ago) that I would go forth and get a colonoscopy. Thanks to your reminder I made my pre-op appointment today.
BTW, Husband got his colonoscopy last year and the pics came back looking like some artist’s rendering of a wormhole — just a healthy red tube leading off into blackness. I hope yours were similarly healthy.
Well, I was just out of anesthesia at the time, so it’s hard for me to recall, but I seem to think so. Should probably look those over tonight. 🙂
And good-for-you on making your appointment.
In the realm of TMI, you didn’t used to get to DRINK the stuff.
A friend of ours opted for the 3 day fast followed by the cleanout, while her husband opted for one day of clear liquids and fun in the small room.
I gather you were rolled onto your side, rather than on your front. I was on my back, awake, with a spinal block for Arthur’s arrival, but for my heel’s bone spur removal, I was going to be on my stomach, needing to be inturbated, and thus put under. I also remember waking up not have noticed going under, and being a bit dim. That kind of wakeup after surgery was better than lying alone and worried after the C-section, but in neither case did I get to hold the baby (not that my bonespur was one–and I forgot to ask for it as a souvenir: how lame is that?).
The IV lock for waiting out inducement to labor was put in incorrectly, and hurt every second it was in. I don’t know if yours hurt, or it was only the most discomfort you felt–but that’s not too bad.
For some reason they changed the IV lock just before surgery, and this time it was done correctly. For the bonespur anaesthesia/IV hookup, the anasthesiaologist, who regularly worked with pediatric cancer patients, was wonderful. He numbed up the entrance site–what a marvelous idea–and listened to me about the small slipperies that pass for veins in my elbows. I did say that I still managed to give blood regularly. He used a butterfly needle in spite of my age.
My mother-in-law tells tale of an enema bag and how attractive a prospect it was to the cast.
The only real discomfort was the insertion of the needle. After that, all was well. The anaesthesia well and truly and quickly knocked me out.
Margie says, as I was peering up out of sleepiness in the recovery room (where she was allowed to be), I kept drifting off, so she had me tell her about the book I was reading (Off Armageddon Reef). I have absolutely no recollection of that conversation.