24 Hours from Hell

Hey all. I promise not to be graphic but just a warning that this may be TMI for some. I just sooo need to vent about the day from HELL!

Well I had blogged correctly when I said I would not be able to tolerate the Prep they insisted on doing and had a night I didnt think could ever be topped by anything worse. I KNOW, though they wouldnt believe me, that I am not a person who can tolerate large quanities of liquid at one time. Sure enough the nausea started after only 20 oz of the 64 I was told to consume in 3 hours and once the gagging with every sip began I knew I was in trouble. I tried my best but it was not to be. Chills and shaking set in and before long ALL that I had managed to take down had come back up. As a side note, the box said that vomiting occured in only 5% of those taking this prep.. well guess Im special.... *sigh
I knew now though that I had to do something to clean myself out. I called a very arrogant on call doctor at the center who inferred I didnt try very hard, but agreed I could try the laxative I used on Sunday and managed to keep down. It wasnt easy but I did it. Unfortunately it was waaaay past 9PM now so this stuff didn't start to work till 2 Am. So so much for sleep last night. My fear this morning was I wasn't going to be 'clean' enough to have the test done but I guess I was. Little did I know that as awful as the prep was it was nothing compared to what I faced today. Let me give you a little timeline..
Have a 9 am check in and get there on time...
after giving my history yet again grrrrrrr I am taken back at 9:15 for a 9:30 procedure.
10:00 I am still in the room waiting.....
10:10 they finally take me back and at 10 :15 I get stuck not once but TWICE to start an IV, though they seemed surprised that my veins are hard to find, failing to take into account that I havent had any fluid in my body in almost 12 hours and threw up what little fluid I did have the day before. I loved the part where the first nurse tells me she cant seem to find a vein but will take a "stab' at it anyway. It felt like a forboding for me of what was to come and I was right once again.
10:25 take me back to do the colonoscopy.. I get hooked up to all sorts of monitiors and oxygen etc since they will put me out. Now I can barely move and Nurse says she is going to get doctor.
11:01 I am still waiting.......................................
Finally doctor comes in at 11:05 and puts me out.
I wake up at 11:45 to find out she did an incomplete colonscopy because she couldn't get around one part of my colon. She claims I must have adhesions from a surgery performed 40 years ago though they didnt stop me from having 2 previous complete colonoscopys.
12:00 Nurse says the doctor now wants me to have a lower GI series (which in case you didnt know is a Barium Enema Xray) and do it today since I was already cleaned out. That was the ONLY good thing she did.
1:00 over at radiology getting 1/2 gallon or more of fluid pumped into my colon from the opposite direction of my mouth. (actually easier for me after what I have been thru with the prep, just embarassing as hell.)
50 mins later I am still trying to hold all this fluid in my already distended colon (Full of air from the morning) and changing positions ever 30 seconds, but was actually complemented on how well I do. This doctor and Xray Tech are the nicest people outside of K, that I have met in Tenn. Good thing because its getting painful. She also says that she doesnt see any narrowing of the colon that would have kept the other doctor from finishing but *sigh at least I'm glad she backed off if she couldnt do it and not perforate me. Shortly after that I have the embarrasment of my life by not being able to 'hold on' till I get to the restroom. Spent 10 mins getting cleaned up.
2:15 finally done though I am now told they wont have results till the next day. All I can think is that IF she now finds polyps on the xray, they will have to go BACK IN and remove them! I want to cry but have no fluid to produce tears.

I just can't believe that a medical center that is supposedly one of the best in the country for GI issues can be so much like a stockyard. Never once did what I think get taken into account even though I had been thru this 2x before and I knew my body. I was handed from one tech to another, never seeing the same person twice and I'm sorry but laying on a gurney with your ass exposed while there are 2 other people have the same thing done on either side of you, (which you can hear) even if there is a flimsy curtain is not my idea of compassion. Oh and I can't wait to get the bill for a Doctor that I actually spoke all of a dozen words too, and who spent less then 5 mins either before or after the procedure talking to me.

But I have to end this with a bright note. My darling K was my angel and my sweet protector thru all of this. Only true love holds the can when you are sick and sitting on the toilet, and the next day doesnt seem to notice the barium all over your shoes when you come out of xray. She even did the one thing I needed most before my procedure. She kissed me in public and that meant more then Anything to me. She is my partner and my soulmate and I will cherish her till the day I die and beyond. 8-)