'Oscopies and Operations

* Just a TMI warning!!!! Everything surrounding my hospitalization and surgery is pretty gross, so if you don't want to know really inappropriate details about my body, I would stop reading!


Have I told you about my doctor yet? His name is Dr. Amaro. I was endlessly embarrassed by this entire situation because I found this man handsome and funny. And he smelled nice! How mortifying is it not only to have to be in a hospital gown, but also have to discuss pooping and your bottom with a handsome man?! Oh I could have died every time he walked in the room!


Anyway, after a couple of days, my blood pressure and hemoglobin levels weren't stellar, but they were steady. Dr. Amaro thought it was time to pinpoint what what causing the bleeding and from where. He referred me to a surgeon, Dr. Commissiong to preform several exploratory procedures and a surgery, if necessary.


My nurses gave me two bottles of cherry flavored saline to drink that would clean out my intestines and colon in order to prepare for the procedures. The doctor explained that I would be undergoing two 'oscopies: a sigmoidoscopy and a colonosopy. The sigmoidoscopy would let the doctors examine the inside of my rectum and the beginning of my colon. The colonoscopy would let them see the entire length of my colon to determine where the bleeding was coming from. I have to be honest: I was scared! One of my only questions was whether they would put me under and they assured me that they would.


At what the nurses called "pre-op" they asked a long list of standard questions about my health and history. They ran a pregnancy test (very negative, by the way) and checked my vital signs. As the nurse listened to my heart and lungs, she remarked that she thought I said I didn't have heart or lung problems. I replied that I didn't, to my knowledge. That's when she told me that I have a heart murmur. I was surprised and I told her so.


The next thing I remember, I woke up to the sound of my own crying. I vaguely remember hearing a nurse tell me that Sky was on his way and would be waiting in my room for me when they were ready to release me from the Recovery room. The rest of the evening went by in a fog. I can remember looking up at Sky, then waking up again to my dinner tray being brought in, then again the next morning at 6am. Whatever they put me under with was fantastic!


The morning after my 'oscopies my doctor and surgeon came to explain what they found. I had several lesions and lacerations in my rectum and colon and they were hemorrhaging. They would need to do surgery to repair the problem. They told me they had an OR booked for me that morning.


At pre-op I signed my life away via consent forms to the anesthesiologist and my surgeon. I answered another long list of questions, the nurse gave me something to "calm my nerves" and I was out like a light!


Again I woke up to myself crying hysterically. Apparently being sedated makes me weepy. Waking up from anesthesia is such an odd experience! I felt as if I was hearing and seeing things as I was walking through a tunnel. The closer I got to the opening the more I could hear and see. At first I was shocked wondering who was making all that noise! Then I slowly realized that was me screaming and crying! I was so confused. I remember thinking to myself that I wasn't particularly sad. So why would I be crying? It's still strange to remember.


That afternoon and evening was a really rough one. After a couple of hours post-op, the anesthesia started wearing off. I was in more pain than I had ever felt in my entire life, and that's saying A LOT seeing as I just had a nightmare of a miscarriage owing to an overdose of Cytotec. But this pain is something I wouldn't wish on my worse enemy. It was excruciating!!!! It hurt so badly that even after three doses of morphine and a Loratab, I was still crying and screaming in pain. I begged the nurses for something stronger or something to knock me out. I just couldn't take it anymore! I cried so much that I lost my voice and broke a blood vessel in my eye. I don't have the words to describe the amount of pain I was in. 


Unfortunately I still had more to look forward to at the hospital. But for the moment I was happy at least to have the problem figure out and fixed...