Wanderer

The procedure went well enough. To make a long story short, the doctor was late getting there due to a previous surgery, so I had to wait on the stretcher bed, all prepped, with IV in one arm and blood pressure cuff on the other, until two thirty-ish. Good thing I had come prepared with a book to read.

When the doctor finally showed up at 2:40, everything happened very quickly. I could tell the instant the sedative was administered through the IV, feeling a very pleasant sensation in my brain. Very nice! Could I take some home with me please? Made me forget all about the nasty sodium phosphate I had had to drink. Made me forget about a lot of things. The last thing I was aware of was the tv monitor in front and above me. I remember saying "Will I be able to watch you work?" And the doctor said, "If you can stay awake." 

The next thing I remember is waking up and looking at the monitor again. I could see the inside of my intestine! and I saw the device clipping or cutting at a thing on the intestinal wall. It looked completely harmless. So that's what a polyp looks like, I thought. It wasn't that big! and where's the loopy cutter thing I had seen in the video on the internet? What was all that sloshing... oh he is probably rinsing it out ... and then he cut another little bump, the instrument opening and closing over the bump like an alligator mouth. It pulled, and blood, oh, look it's bleeding. Just a little. Not much. Is it supposed to bleed, I wondered? I thought you would cauterize it, but maybe there's different techniques to removing different sized polyps. And what is that thing? And where are you now, I wondered? What are you doing? I was very interested in what was going on inside of me, and wondered at how I didn't feel a thing. My eyes blinked dryly several times, but I refused to stop watching.

Then I heard the doctor's voice saying, "Well, that's it."

 "You're done?" I asked. "That didn't take long at all." I vaguely remember being wheeled back to the curtained room, and after that I really started waking up.

A nurse kept checking my blood pressure, and when it finally came back to a normal number, she told me I could get  dressed. My husband showed up to help me dress, making sure I didn't fall over, but as long as I stood straight up I was okay. A kind young man dressed in a blue jacket came by with a wheelchair to take me to the lobby. My husband got the car, and by 4:30 we were on our way home. "Where do you want to go eat?" he asked.  I couldn't stop thinking about that great broasted chicken sandwich that Hursey's Barbecue in Graham makes. "Let's go to Hursey's," I suggested. "I want one of those chicken sandwiches. I might eat one and order one to go."

So we did, and I did, and on the way home we stopped at the grocery store for a few necessary food items. I bought some chocolate eclairs for an evening dessert. As we passed Thompson Funeral Home, we were reminded of the passing of one of our friends' aunts this week. The visitation was today, and there were people already in the parking lot at 5:50. Still feeling tired, and uncertain about the need for facilities, I decided not to go to the visitation, but my husband went to give our regards and support to the family.

About 6:15 or so, the phone rang. It was my doctor calling to tell me how well everything went. I told him I had tried to stay awake to watch the whole thing, and he laughed. "You slept through the first half, but then you woke right up in the middle. After that, you were the back seat driver the rest of the way."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You watched the monitor, oohing and aahing, and said, 'What's that?' and 'What are you doing now?' and 'Oh, that's what they look like!' and 'Now what are you doing?'"

"I was talking? I said those things out loud?"

"You were like a kid in the car, 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet?' Most people just sleep right through the whole thing." He laughed again. "You handled it well, and I'll call you next week with the lab results."

What else did I say? I wondered after I hung up the phone.

I took a nap while my husband was at the funeral home for the family visitation, and felt normal by the time he got home.

It wasn't a bad experience after all. The worst part was drinking that nasty sodium phosphate stuff.

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• #2 Comment from bethjunebug 
  7/10/06 1:38 PM | Permalink

  I know what you are talking about. I had 4 of those procedures.  Also, the procedure, where they go down your throat, to check your throat and stomach, and upper intestines. As long as the meds are administered at the right amounts, you usually don't remember a thing, which is good sometimes. I'm glad everything went ok for you. I'm sure the results will be too. Its when you don't get the polyps out that things change into cancer.  But mine haven't yet. I do the test every 3 years. I'm due for one this year. My prayers are with you. Sorry for your lose of a loved one too.
  God Bless,
  Liz
• #1 Comment from amdcm 
  9/10/05 11:19 AM | Permalink

  Aint Versed a wonderful drug???? I am so sorry I didn't remember last night about your procedure. When I called you last night I must of sounded so unconcerned. I am so scattered. I am glad all went well. I'll call you later.
  Alyson