Google +

Well, I just got a Google + invite. Not much to see in there yet, but there are some interesting features in there. It will be interesting to see how it works out. Competition helps breed better software.

Back to the Gym

Went to the gym today, and felt pretty good. I think this week I'll be going Mon, Wed, Friday in order to ease back into it. One problem I have is my desk at work is right under a heating/cooling duct so I get a slightly cool breeze on my as I sit here at my desk.

Saw the surgeon last week, they had been calling the wrong hospital looking for the pathology reports... Go figure. They finally got them, looks like no cancer.

Saw the GI doc too. He's cool. It's actually refreshing for a Dr to say "Well, I don't know" and give the three or four possible causes and then say, "Let's wait and keep an eye on it" to determine what to do. He also said "I don't want to irradiate you so much you glow in the Dark" which I got a laugh out of.

On the road to recovery

Well I went to the gym last Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday felt pretty good but I was feeling run down afterwards, and Thursday was PAINFUL - I just had a really hard time with it. After I was done, I started feeling really crappy. I went back to work and made it to the end of the day.

Went home and had like a 101 degree fever. So I spent all night either shivering or sweating like crazy. I'll spare you the details. Friday I stayed home from work, and spent most of the day sleeping. Went to Kelsay's house Friday night, and crashed there. Felt a little better Saturday, went to a bbq, had fun, but was home and in bed by 9:30. Sunday was better still, took the boat out to a friends house, but by about 5 pm, was feeling like crud again. Managed to find a way through it, and we went out on the boat at 10pm to watch the fireworks. Back to Kelsay's at 12 and passed out.

Monday didn't get up till 9:30 and we were not moving fast. Felt better, and the day was warmer, so if we there had been a spotter I probably would have ski'd when we went out to get the boat from the night before (I didn't pull it out after the fireworks). So we took the boat out for a cruise, the brought it home and put it away. Went to bed at 9:30 - I was beat. Tuesday dawned and I felt better - the fevers had pretty much ended Monday. So here we are at Wednesday, and I feel pretty good. I won't be going to the gym today, but maybe tomorrow.

I think the problem is that the anemia the Dr said I have is probably worse that I thought, and I just over did it. So I've been eating plenty of red meat as well as taking the iron supplement. Seems to be helping.

The old 2 for one

This morning, I woke up feeling HORRIBLE. Pretty good cramps and pain in my upper right quadrent. I got up and tolerated it for an hour or so before I woke up my GF and told her we need to go to the ER. I called the on call Dr from the GI office, and he confirmed I should go get it checked out.

So we drove over the ER, and there was one gentleman in the ER waiting room. They checked me in, and told me to wait. So I waited and waited and waited.. Something like 40+ minutes elapsed and I still wasn't taken back. All the while the pain keeps getting worse.

Finally they take me back and the nurse tossed me a gown and said you need to put this on, but said I could leave my underwear on and I thought she said leave my shirt on too. So I put the gown on, but backwards, then had to walk out and give a urine sample. The nurses got a chuckle out of it. I would find out later, that the ER nurses were, shall we say, a bit bitchy. After a bit the ER Dr came in and I explained about the colonoscopy, and the findings He said well, let's get you some Percaset, and then get some X-Rays. The X-Ray techs (one was  a trainee) were GREAT. They let my GF stay in the control room and watch, and showed me the X-Rays after they were done. I have two pretty large gall stones... Ugh.

So they end up rolling me back to the ER room, and the pain keeps getting worse. After about 45 minutes from the time of the pill, I asked for a shot. The Dulotted shot FIXED the pain. As a matter of fact about 45 minutes after the shot,  I was drifting in and out of sleep.  The GF ran down to get something to eat and while she was down at the cafeteria, the Dr came in, AND the GI office called me, so I asked the ER doc if he wanted to talk to the GI office, which he did, asking them to fax my file over to the hospital. He then said he'd call the surgeon and get back to me.

After an hour and a half or so wait, the ER doc came back and said he'd talked to the surgeon. The surgeon said, "Sure I'll take his gall bladder out, but given the mass on the intestine, he's rather take our time, and get all our ducks in a row so he only has to go in once. I asked the ER doc if he'd have this surgeon work on me and the said, he would prefer the guy he's talked to partner. So I've decide I'm going to talk to the partner.

After the Dr came in and talked to us, he said that he was going to send me home. But the pain was coming back so I asked for some pain relieve from the nurse. And the nurse came in and said "Well, I'm going to start an IV" and I responded, "The Dr said I was going home" so she went and checked and then came back with an Indecine pill, and had me sign some documents, without really going over them. I got dressed and walked myself SLOWLY to the car. Since I had the Dulotted, and had a "Fall hazard" wrist band, I would have expected to get a wheel chair ride to the car.

After we got to the car, my gf said "The nurses there really had the attitude they were too busy to help the patients." Yea, the nurses are going to get a BAD review when I get the paperwork. I'm also going to make mention of the fall hazard and no wheelchair ride.

After getting the pharmacy stuff taken care of, we headed home, and I crashed, as did my GF. I got up about 5 hours later to get some more pain meds, then went back to bed. The GF brought me a sandwhich about 9 pm, and I got up to take a shower and sit up for a bit.

Yea, I'm WHIPED OUT...

The rest of the day....and into the next

After we went home, we stopped at Jack in the Box, and I got a burger, drink and egg roles. I was starving. It was pretty quiet the rest of the day, but I was a basket case. Facing MAJOR surgery, and the possibility of cancer scared me pretty well. I can handle external threats to myself because I feel like I can control what happens, but this is different. I will have to place my life in the hands of someone else who I don't know, and I really won't have any control over what happens.

The next morning, I scheduled an appt with my Primary care doc so I can get some sleeping aids and anxiety meds. My Dr is very nice and understanding and she was honest to me, saying "You are highly educated, so it's not like I can just say, There There, it will be alright, like I can to some other patients.". We also got the ball rolling on the surgeon referral.

I then went and talked to my boss, telling him I what was going on and that I'd be a bit busy for the next month or two. I then went home and tried to get some sleep.

The Colonoscopy

Well, it was a nerve wracking 20 minute drive to the center. I was trying to be calm and collected, but I was TIRED, and just a bit nervous.

We get to the center, and walk up to the front desk, One receptionist is on the phone and the other starts helping me when her phone rings. Instead of asking the caller to hold, she proceeds to try and redirect them to somewhere else.... Sigh, at this point I'm just a little irritable, and wonder why the hell she can't just put the caller on hold. We do the paperwork pay the co pay (40 bucks - geez this is an expensive movie) and are told it will be 15 minutes. About ten minutes later the prep nurse calls my name. Geez, just retelling this is getting me a little wound up... not sure why... She takes us back and gives me two gowns and says she'll be back. My GF is in the room with me, and I get dressed.

The Nurse comes back and starts going over the paperwork. Takes my vital signs (BP was 143/95, a bit higher than normal) then breaks out the  IV.... Now I like to think I have a high pain tolerance, but I have a DEFINITE aversion to needles. As I've gotten older I've gotten a better control on it, so I can handle it, but I still do not like it. I've just learned not to watch. My GF explained to the nurse she was in the LPN program, and the nurse was HAPPY to let her watch and give her pointers on what to do, and how people who are just getting started in nursing make rookie mistakes, as well as little things that she's learned over the years. Now, up until this point, the nurse, who had been a little bit, shall we say brusque? Really warmed up. I think one thing that annoyed her was that I wanted my GF to be in the recovery area with me, because if I've got to cool my heels somewhere with nothing to do, and nobody to talk to, I'm not a very happy camper. I don't particularly care to wait around. *I* can waste my own time, when somebody *ELSE* I feel is wasting it, I get annoyed.

I have to say, the nurse was EXTREMELY good at the IV insertion. Which once that was done, helped me calm down a bit. She then walks me down to the procedure room. As we walk in there is a male in scrubs in there who introduced himself and I said "You're not the Dr" thinking HE was the one doing the 'scope. He then informed me that  he was the anesthesia nurse.  I then told him I said I wanted to do this drug free and he said "Are you SURE?", and I said yes, but keep it ready. I also told him and the other nurses that if they just talked to me, and kept me informed of when it might hurt, that I could prepare for it, and it would be fine. He then suggested, how about I give you are very small dose of pain killer because it takes 5 minutes to fully become effective. I said sure, that will take the edge off, and I DID have a very slight headache, so he gave me .5 milligrams, and I felt it pretty quick, just a little light headed, but still just fine. I've had drunks that are WAY worse than that. Then the Dr came in and when he was told I wasn't doing Versed, I think he was actually pissed. His response was "Did you bring the leather strap?"

The actual procedure was EASY. No cramping, just a little pressure, and only like one 10 second twinge. The got the scope all the way to the terminal illium, and then looked up the small intestine. When they got there I was like "That's it???" because going in is much harder than coming out. But this is  where things went bad.. No, it didn't hurt, but my world was about to be turned upside down. Turns out there is a severe stricture (narrowing) of the small intestine. The Dr couldn't get the scope past it because the scope was too big. He said the tissue looks healthy but he couldn't see past the stricture to see how bad things are. He took a biopsy, and did the check of things on the way out. No polyps, everything looks fine.

All the nurses were congratulating me, "you did great" the anesthesia nurse actually said, "Guys like you are going to put guys like me out of a job - you didn't even need what the pain killer I gave you". They then wheeled me out into the recovery area. And told me to fart. And I did. LONG AND LOUD. I was louder and longer than the other patients in the area, but the recovery nurse was dragging her feet getting me out of there, which was pissing me off. Which in turn was raising my blood pressure, so she wouldn't let me go. I almost had a few words with her. Then when she tried walking me to the bathroom to change I was like "Let's go" and she was "No you have to walk slower"..... She was a little tiny thing about 4'10'' and there was NO WAY she was going to keep me from going down if I toppled over. She went and got the GF and said "He's been ready to go" so, it's not like they didn't realize I was capable of leaving.

Then I had to cool my heals for the Dr. Did I mention I really don't like waiting? After about 15 minutes, he comes over and says, "Well, I don't think it's cancerous, we'll get the biopsy probably by Friday, so if you don't hear from me by then, all us." and "You don't need to take care of this TODAY, but you need to get this  stenosis addressed soon. We'll order a CT scan for next Monday and have a follow up on Tuesday, but this will probably require exploratory surgery, or just a resection of your small intestine."

It took me about 15 minutes to realize, he was talking major surgery.

Yea, I was a basket case the rest of the day......I don't mind admitting I'm a bit scared.

The Prep

Monday morning came and I was tired and grouchy. I got up, made up the first batch of Movi-Prep and put it in the fridge to cool. Not TOO hungry yet, but the day was still early. I went to work for the first half of the day, and tried to concentrate on work as much as possible. Around noon, I left, and logged in from home. I knew I was going to be grouchy, so I figured I'd be grouchy at home.

At 6 pm, the main event begins. I grab the solution out of the fridge and pour a full pint glass..... UGH, As anybody who knows me can attest, I can SLAM liquids down, just open the throat and toss it back, but this stuff has a distinctive taste, but the WORST part is the smell. I'm supposed to wait 5 minutes before the next one, but I'm a "get it done and be over with it" type of guy, so I slam the next one. The first two went in two long pulls. The third one, I got about three quarters of the way and had to stop my gag reflex from kicking in. After a short pause I was able to finish the last of it. I then made up the second batch and tossed it in the fridge for the morning.

About 5 minutes later, my guts, which due to the limited food intake of the last couple days, come alive... Gurgle, gurgle gurgle.....About 30 minutes later, things start moving fast. After reading all the reports and all the literature, I thought I would not be able to move from the bathroom, but there was never a time where I felt, an "OMG, I have to get there in 30 second or I'm doomed" scenario, I could have probably ventured down the corner store (a five minute trip) no problem. After a good couple of hours, everything was pretty much over and from the looks of things the prep was where it needed to be.

One note: After every trip to the bathroom, I filled the same glass I used for drinking the solution originally with water and drank a full glass. I was also drinking gatorade as well. I figured I reuse the glass (not rinsed out) to get as much of that stuff down my throat as possible.

Went to bed about Midnight, had a hard time sleeping, but finally drifted off and slept hard until 4:45 am or so, then couldn't go back to sleep. Got up, played some Red Dead Redemption on the 360 and wrote a letter to my GF that I wanted her to read while I was in the procedure. Things have been very emotional for me, and I needed to tell her some things that I had realized. We have a very open relationship with each other, and communicate very well, but like all relationships, it's hard to communicate when you yourself doesn't know what you need, want, or feel. You need to be able to put your feelings into words so you can share them, and if you can't do that, the other person can't possibly know what you are thinking.

At 8:30 I called the Dr's office to confirm when the second batch should be drank. The lady scheduling the appt put 9:30, but the form said "5 hours before your appt", which meant 8:45. The nurse I spoke to said, "Someone can't do math" and said to go ahead and drink it.  I then asked her about the Propofol, and she said Group Health did NOT cover it, and that Versed, and Fentayl were what was covered. I then explained that Versed was a non starter, and that I wanted to try it without any med, but Fentayl was an option. "If I'm paying for the movie, I might as well watch it" She said that a few people 1 or so would try the no drug option each month, but that those people that come in with the attitude that is the way they are going to do it have no problems.

My GF came over at about 11, and we watched and episode of Battlestar Galactica, then I showered and off we went.

Yea, I was nervous.