The Colonoscopy

After dropping the girls off at a wonderful neighbor's house who was willing to take all five of them at 6am, we made it to the hospital at 6:30. I was very impressed at how nice the staff was. The receptionist was nice, the admitting lady was kind, empathetic, and even funny. We got checked in and back in the prep area.

I had my own little room which shared a bathroom with one other room. There was a flat screen TV hanging on the wall. I loved that it was private and not all out in the open. The nurse was sweet, but I don't know if she was new or not too good with needles - because she stuck me THREE times. Now, those of you who know me, know I'm NOT good with needles. Push a baby out, no problem. Stick a needle in, big problem.

First she had to draw my blood... now WHY she could not do this when she was doing the IV, I don't know. Every other time I've had to have something done, they did it while putting in the IV. After drawing my blood, she switched to the other arm and started going on about the small veins in my hand and she was going to use that area on the other side of my elbow - don't have a clue if that is actually called something.

She gets it in and makes a mess. From what I could tell... blood everywhere. My sweet husband shielded my eyes. Once in and taped down, she made a face... I knew something was wrong. Sure enough, the IV wasn't working. She had to take it out. She called in someone else to put the IV in. This person put it in between my wrist and elbow. It HURT! But, it worked.

Then they brought me 2 nice, warm blankets and turned off those awful fluorescent lights. I was only in there a few more minutes before they came for me. I was wheeled into the procedure room, which was cold! The nurse checked my ID bracelets, put the blood pressure cuff on my arm, the oximeter on my finger, oxygen in my nose, and leads on my chest. They did a "time out" and made sure I was the right patient in for the right thing. Then the anesthesiologist verified I was breastfeeding, told me to pump and dump 1-2 times and then warned me that the sedation medication would burn as it went in and then go away... which is exactly what it did. Then I felt fuzzy and warm and......... I was out!

I remember I was dreaming... no idea what about though.

Then I woke up, slowly. The nurse said "good morning" and immediately started taking off all the things attached to me, including the nasty IV. She informed me that "all the doctor found was proctitis". I had NO clue what that meant and wasn't awake enough to ask. She wheeled me back to my private room where my husband was waiting for me.

The nurse told me once I was awake enough to get dressed and I could go. She brought me ice water and saltine crackers - yummy! Still it felt good to drink and eat a little something. I didn't want to move though. I was warm and tired. My husband told me that the doctor had told him my colon near my rectum was inflamed, that they had taken a biopsy of it and would have the results by my follow up on Thursday.

I finally got dressed and dh went to get the car, they sat me in a wheelchair and brought me down to the exit. Every time I have something done at the hospital and I get wheeled out alive, I praise God. I thank Him for returning me to my family.

To be continued...