OT: Colonoscopy-UPDATE

[robysue]

Sitting at home waiting for the laxatives to kick in while starving myself for my baseline colonoscopy tomorrow. Hubby assures me the prep is worse than the procedure. I hope he's right.

I'm also waiting for a call back from the new sleep doc's office. Due to the two rough sleep studies (in the sense of insomnia, not apnea) and the fact that I'm feeling so tired and exhausted and sleepy during the day, the doc wants an actigraphy test to see just how much I'm moving around (and hence arousing) at night in my own bed since the AHI is technically under control with a long term AHI of 2.5ish over the last 45 days. But it was half that over same 45 day period a year ago and a year ago I was feeling better than I'd felt in years even though I was sleeping just about the same amount of time and during the same crazy hours I am now.

I just know that as soon as I have to run you-know-where that the doc's office will call.

Wish me luck

[Gparr]

Please believe your husband...I'm sure 99% of the people you speak with will tell you the worst us the prep...and I speak from experience!

Good luck!

[oak]

what does an actigraphy test consist of?


good luck!

[robysue]

what does an actigraphy test consist of?

In an actigraphy test you wear a wrist watch sized monitor that has an accelerometer in it. It measures how much you are moving around and from that they can get a good estimate of when you are arousing at night. Or so I'm told. The doc wants a one-to-two week long test and both he and I would like to get it done before we leave town on Aug. 8.

The current idea is that something is causing arousals at night and that the arousals may be what's making me feel so bad ....

[oak]

interesting. i had many many arousals during my sleep study and never went into REM sleep. let us know how your test turns out. i will be very interested to hear about it.

hope your colonoscopy goes well. they are right-the prep is the worst part.

[STL Mark]

I never understood why the stuff has to taste so nasty that is taken for prep. There are several jokes that could be mentioned, not sure if I should spare you or not. I will use myself as to spare you.

My wife once told me "now I will have to wait several days before I can tell you your full of s..t"
One way to look at it is "It will all come out in the end"

Ok, our next comedian for the day is... Be sure to tip the waitresses.

[49er]

Totally agree that the prep is the worst part. I was given so much juice that I didn't feel or remember a thing when I had it several years ago.

I had been adamant that I didn't want to be awake to view anything on the screen unlike many people who want to be during their procedure. It looks like the doctor listened to me.

Best of luck Roby Sue.

49er

[robysue]

My wife once told me "now I will have to wait several days before I can tell you your full of s..t"

Been there, done that with hubby and his multiple colonoscopies and barium xrays in the past. He had polyps in his colon as a kid, so he's had things shoved up his rear end with his permission on a regular basis ever since we got married.

One way to look at it is "It will all come out in the end"

And now for one of the tales of one of my husbands barium xrays down there:

Several years ago hubby had a barium xray done. The test came out just fine, no evidence of anything nasty to worry about. And so we completely forgot about it. Our daughter lives in Michigan and the quickest, most direct route between here and there is through southern Ontario. We're going out to visit her and then to continue on to take my son out to Minnesota for his freshman year of college. So we've got a van full of junk and we're driving overnight because, well, because that's what we always do since we never get packed up as soon as we think we will.

Crossing into Canada at the Rainbow bridge is no problem. We're waved through with just a few standard questions and the quick reassurance that none of the junk in the back will be left in Canada. We stop somewhere for coffee at a Tim Horton's but pretty much drive straight through. When we hit the bridge at Sarnia/Port Huron it's like 3 AM and we're the only car on the bridge. (There are a few trucks.) I'm driving across the bridge and sail into customs expecting things to be short and sweet.

But---the customs guy starts asking all kinds of weird questions. He's obviously fishing for something, but I certainly can't tell what. He eventually asks about whether anybody has recently had any medical tests. Of course we've both completely forgotten about hubby's barium xray that took place some six weeks before. So I say, no, no medical tests. At that point, we're told to drive over to the place where they make you park for "special attention searches and questioning."

The guy there brings out a geiger counter and tells us that everybody has to get out of the car and asks that the van's lift gate be opened. We get out and say, "Wha??????" He says that the radiation detector on the bridge picked up radiation from our car and that they'd earmarked us for special attention when we were still on the bridge. And then he asks: Do you have any over ripe bananas in the car? Bananas??? No, we have no bananas. After going over the car thoroughly and satisfying himself that (a) we had no bananas and (b) the car itself was not radioactive, he decided he had to turn the geiger counter on each of us. Me? I'm fine. Son? He's fine. Hubby? He sets off the geiger counter. More questioning---mainly focusing on medical tests. After about 10 more minutes it finally dawns on either hubby or me that he had that dang barium xray about 6 weeks back. At that point the customs guard says he'll let us back into the US. (What a relief.)

But we just cannot restrain ourselves: We have to ask: Why the long search for bananas????

The guy said: Rotten bananas are the number one cause of the radiation detectors going off. People put bananas in the car, the car is warm, the bananas get over ripe---speckled and then to black and then to mushy. And by the time they're over ripe, bananas are emitting radiation from the decay of a radioactive isotope of potassium. And the sensors are sensitive enough to pick it up. Or, of course, the residual radiation a person emits six weeks after a barium xray.

Moral? We NEVER take bananas into Canada even when we're just going to Michigan.

[robysue]

Fortunately for me, the call from the Sleep Center occurred when I was not too indisposed. So after the colonoscopy, I go to have the actigraphy device attached to my wrist. And I'll wear it until Aug. 7 when I return the device. A bit less than than the two weeks the doc would prefer, but you gotta deal with trips somehow. And both he and I don't want to delay running the test until after we get back on Aug. 25.

So hopefully the results will be in by the time we get back and show something that accounts for how I'm feeling.

[STL Mark]

That was interesting. Amazing that the sensors could detect him in the car so many weeks after the procedure.

[ironhands]

Ugh. I took the full laxatives once, I was feeling really backed up and figured I might as well clean the pipes completely. Didn't taste bad at all, just salty ginger. 15 minutes later though, wow. The cramping was intense. On the toilet for 20 minutes, I'd stand up, oh, no, you're not done yet. Went on for hours. Hurt to sit the next day, everything was so raw.

Good luck with it, worst is behind you.

Oops

[STL Mark]

When your doctor is behind you, you know it's all about the end result.



I may take the above cartoon in with me and give it to them when they say do you have a printed copy of your orders.

[SMenasco]

My colon doctor is great. He had a colonoscopy using the gallon of vaguely lemon-tasting vile stuff and had no anesthesia during the procedure, as a learning experience. The prep for my last colonoscopy were 32 pills, taken on a schedule 4 at a time with any clear liquid of my choice. What an improvement over the gallon of foul-tasting puke I drank the previous 2 times. The only negative is the $135.00 price of the pills but they're worth it to me.

[robysue]

Part one of the prep (10 oz bottle of Magnesium Citrate) has started its work.

Part two starts in about an hour: I have to mix 255 ml of Miralax powder with 64 oz of Gatorade. And then drink the foul stuff 8 oz a time every 15-20 minutes until its gone. 64 oz of Gatorade in an hour and a half to two hours???

Even I am having a tough time contemplating wolfing down a half-gallon of liquid in two hours. And I'm someone who has no trouble drinking 24 oz of unsweetened decaffinated ice tea at lunch.

The headache is a killer one. It's a tension headache with a huge amount of TMJ pain thrown in for good measure. I bet I get no sleep tonight.

[kaiasgram]

Part one of the prep (10 oz bottle of Magnesium Citrate) has started its work.

Part two starts in about an hour: I have to mix 255 ml of Miralax powder with 64 oz of Gatorade. And then drink the foul stuff 8 oz a time every 15-20 minutes until its gone. 64 oz of Gatorade in an hour and a half to two hours???

Even I am having a tough time contemplating wolfing down a half-gallon of liquid in two hours. And I'm someone who has no trouble drinking 24 oz of unsweetened decaffinated ice tea at lunch.

The headache is a killer one. It's a tension headache with a huge amount of TMJ pain thrown in for good measure. I bet I get no sleep tonight.

Do you have some straws handy? If so drink the "stuff" through a straw, that allows you to bypass your taste buds some.