rainy days and Mondays...and a little anesthesia

Today was my scope.  It was at 2;00 pm.  that meant I could have a breakfast of clear fluids...do I need to repeat the clear fluid list?

ok

Water, broths, Jell-o, clear juice, black tea, black coffee, flavored ice and gatgorade.

My awesome husband made me some jell-o last night so I could have that for breakfast.  Then I did have a couple of cups of tea because I always drink that black.  By 10:00am all I could have were occasional sips of water.

By noon - my stomach was GRUMBLING!

Jay drove me to the hospital and we got there a few minutes early.  Got all checked in - the first question they ask? Do I have a living will?  Uhm, you people are giving me a complex! So, we hung out for a few minutes.  The nurse called my name and Alana and Jordan (two of my children) came screeching through the door to give me a hug before I went in.

This is nice.  It's only 1:45 and I'm in the room going over my med history. Great maybe we'll be done early!  ha ha ha

Things are moving a long fine.  I get undressed from the waist up  (they let me keep the bra on) and put on the little johny thingy.  I kept my shoes on because I didn't know if I'd be able to tie them when I got up. ;)  They come in and have me lay down.  Hook a blood pressure cuff up to me and attempt to put in an IV in my hand.. (1)  Well that didn't work, it started swelling things.  So they moved to the inside of my other forearm (2). That started to swell also.  They decided to call someone else to try. So a different person came in and went back to the inside of the wrist on my first arm (3).  Nope.  And that one really stung.  They have paged the gal that they say is awesome at it, but she is with a patient on the phone.

In the meantime, by blood pressure cuff has gone off and they are having some concerns... 80/50 does seem a bit low especially since I've been stuck multiple times.  * Dr. Coleman wonders in  in the middle of all this and then wonders out again.  * They switch the blood pressure cuff to the other side.  I want to say these nurses were actually great.  Everyone kept their sense of humor and they really felt bad it was not working.  I'm sure being dehydrated from not drinking much all morning didn't help. So finally, Julie (the wonder girl) comes and looks things over and decides to try  the inside of my elbow on the second arm (4).

I could tell right away she nailed it. :)  It just felt better.  So my blood pressure is now reading 116/53 so they are happier about that and they have the IV wide open so we just have to have the doctor come in and go over risks so I can sign off and start, right?  Well,  all this misadventure has lasted about a half hour so we are now at about 2:20pm...guess what?  Dr. Coleman's 2:30 was early too and apparently didn't give them so much of a hard time so he moved on to them while he waited for them to get me going.  So now we wait.

I wish I had brought my nook in, but I left it out with Jay.  It wasn't bad, the nurses kept up a good conversation for the most part.and the Dr finally made it into the room about 2:45 pm.  He made joke about the meds in the IV going right back out all the holes in my arms.  oh aren't we a lively group? ;)

He goes over everything. Talks about what he is going to do and the fact that the most significant thing he is doing is looking for some nasty bacteria that once they operate on my stomach would be very hard to get to so they want to make sure its not there before they start.  I'm cool with that.  They have these really nice screens and I'm determined that I'm gonna stay coherent enough to watch...how cool, right?

Well they turn me over onto my left side, get my comfortable, put a bib under chin for drool  . Did I mention they gave me a warm blanket? oh so comfy. They explain the bite block and start putting the meds into the IV.  I remember the Dr. putting in the bite block...well I remember the start of that...him asking me to lift my head for the the strap that goes around...and then I remember the nurse touching me on my shoulder that they were moving my bed out to the recovery area.  Talk about weird  I didn't feel tired.  I did feel VERY relaxed. They moved me out and brought the family in. And I got COFFEE AND PEANUT BUTTER CRACKERS!  They may have been the best ones I've ever eaten. :)

So.  I literally have no memory of the scope.  My throat is not really sore.  My arms are however.  I was discharged pretty quickly since I kept the coffee down fine.  I really wanted some haddock chowder so my wonderful husband drove me around to two different places to find some.  YUM.

The biopsy should be back in a couple of weeks to let me know if there were any problems with bacteria.  He said everything else looked great to proceed.  YAY!!  I hope my actually surgery goes this well...besides all the punctures of course...another exciting step out of the way.

Now.... I have a ton of catching up to do with my water...how about you?  Got yours in today??

First dietitian appointment coming up on Thursday!  We're really moving along.  :)  Thanks so much for staying with me.

~Mikki