Why I Hate Going To The Doctor

Today I had a doctor appointment to follow-up with the surgeon who did my surgery.  He’s a great doctor, I really like him.  He’s good at what he does, he’s got great bedside manner, he’s compassionate and kind, and he really listens to you.  However, I still hate going to the doctor.

• Filling out paper work.  They tell you to arrive 15 minutes early to fill out paperwork.  You do and then you get 30 minutes of paperwork handed to you.  You feel as if you have to rush to fill it out or your appointment will be delayed.
• You fill out all the paperwork ad nauseum, there are several sheets that ask for duplicate information and you make sure to fill it all out, answering all their questions.
• Your name is called, you think, “YAY, I get to go in for my appointment!!”  They sit you in a room, weigh you, check your blood pressure, take your temp, ask you several questions that you answered on your forms, and then send you back out to the waiting room.
• Then you wait, and wait, and wait.
• Finally you are called back to your appointment, the nurse only has two sheets of paper on her clipboard, they are blank.  You wonder where the book you filled out is.  She begins asking you questions that you know you filled out on the forms.  So, you answer them again and then she leaves.
• You wait, and wait, and wait.
• The doctor comes in, asks how you are feeling, checks you over, discusses your plan of health and tells you goodbye.

For this you have spent an hour and half of your day, not to mention the drive there and the drive home.  And this is why I hate going to the doctor!

Things I learned this past week…

1. Having surgery can make you gain 13 lbs of air and water.
2. Hernia repairs make you feel like you have done a gazillion sit ups by the time you get to about day 6 after surgery, before then the pain is like a hot searing knife cutting through your abdomen every time you move.
3. You cannot sleep on your side with any amount of comfort.
4. Air, okay, gas, moving through your bowels, hurts, it’s worse right after surgery, but even on day 7 after surgery, it hurts!
5. You cannot get up or sit down without supporting your tummy.  A pillow works better than that stupid elastic binder that they give you.
6. Glued up incisions heal a lot faster than stitches and they don’t pull as much either.
7. When can’t shower for four days, a shower is like heaven!
8. When you haven’t shaved your legs for more than eight days, your legs become soft like a mouse and you wonder if you are actually going to shave them again, then you look at them and decide that you can’t take it anymore.  By the way, it takes a lot longer to shave a leg that hasn’t been shaved in over eight days.
9. You get out of doing a lot of stuff after having surgery.
10. You get to take great pain killers that make you silly and loopy.  They also make you sleep a lot and that’s not a bad thing.
11. You might get constipated.  Pooping is good and you don’t want to be constipated after having major abdominal surgery.  I recommend lots of water, fiber, and colace!

I have probably told you all a lot of information that you didn’t want to know, ever, but my mind is still not up to reading, listening, or retaining information so this is the type of blog post you get.  One of these days I will get back to normal!

 

Another Surgery

Rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated!  I have been absent from writing because I had to have an urgent surgery done before it turned into emergent.  After struggling with abdominal pain for a week, I was finally directed to the emergency room.  Matthew was at work and Bean was getting ready to leave for her mission trip.  I called a dear friend and she was able to drive me to the ER and stay with me all day until Matthew could come to the hospital.  She made me laugh and kept me going all day.  I finally had a CT scan done that showed that I had two hernias and one of them was what they call incarcerated.  It had loops of bowel entrapped within it.  That is what was causing the pain and what needed to be addressed urgently.  The incarcerated hernias can quickly become strangulated and they can kill off your intestines quickly.  Within 6 hours your bowel can be gangrenous and kill you!

I was blessed in every direction by good caretakers, a surgeon who told me he was damn good at what he does and that I would be in good hands.  He is a bariatric surgeon, unafraid of going in on top of someone elses work.  He did the surgery laproscopically, inserted mesh to reinforce my old surgery incision, and repaired both hernias.  I have eight holes from the surgery.  Thankfully the pain continues to improve each day and even more thankfully, I get to take a shower today.  I am feeling more than just a little dirty!!

Matthew washed my hair for me on Wednesday morning and it was such a relief to have it clean.  I will be happy to have my entire body clean!!  My brain is ultra foggy and so I haven’t really trusted myself to write until today and I had to keep it all very basic!  It may be a few more days before I blog again, but no worries, I am still here!!

Waiting

I’ve been out of the loop the past few days and I really missed writing.  Due to overwhelming, to me anyway, medical circumstances, I have been in too much pain to think clearly.  In fact, I had a couple of different conversations that I don’t remember much of.  Pain does funny things to us, especially our minds.

I really dislike waiting.  Recently, we had to wait for news about a new job for Matthew.  It was in my thoughts every day and I really didn’t enjoy the waiting to hear.  We finally got an answer but the waiting was hard.  God had it all worked out for us.  The plan He had is so much better than what we could have come up with.

Now we are waiting again.  This time about matters of my health.  It’s hard to wait in those situations too.  It’s hard because I am impatient, I am a planner, and I constantly feel the need to be in control of the circumstances.  In this case, I can’t be.  I can’t rush the results, the radiologists, the lab technicians, the doctors, the insurance.  There is absolutely nothing I can do, nothing, except wait in God’s peace.

So, that is what I am doing.  I have to be patient enough with the process and rest that God will hold me until it’s all done with.  For everyone who knows me personally, you know that isn’t easy for me.

I know that I will have to have surgery and I know that things could go terribly wrong in the meantime that could turn it into an emergency.  We are all aware and keeping a very close eye on the situation.  There are other variables that we are still unsure of and I suppose those are the ones that I struggle with the most.  I never have an easy time with unknowns, I suppose there are few of us who do.

This weekend I am clinging to this Psalm:

Psalm 40:1-5 (AMP)

I waited patiently and expectantly for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry^.   He drew me up out of a horrible pit [a pit of tumult and of destruction], out of the miry clay (froth and slime), and set my feet upon a rock, steadying my steps and establishing my goings.  And He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many shall see and fear (revere and worship) and put their trust and confident reliance in the Lord.  Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who makes the Lord his refuge and trust, and turns not to the proud or to followers of false gods.  Many, O Lord my God, are the wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; no one can compare with You! If I should declare and speak of them, they are too many to be numbered.

 

Colons Are Pretty

I don’t want to gross anyone out so if you get queasy with medical procedures don’t read on.

Saturday was day one of liquid diet.  I drank water, juice, broth, ate jello, drank hot tea, black coffee, and vitamin water.  Day one was easy.  I felt fine.  Day two, more of the same.  All liquid, all day.  When I saw 4 o’clock approaching I started getting apprehensive.  I have had to do this prep before and lets just say that I wasn’t looking forward to running to the bathroom every few minutes.  Plus, the taste of that stuff is horrible.  It’s overly sweet, salty, citrus, and slightly thick.  I barely got the first liter down without losing it.  Then it was running to the bathroom, I don’t know why I didn’t just stay in there with the laptop playing my movie for the entire time.  It would have been better.  I mixed the next bottle and put it in the refrigerator.  They really want your colon clean for these things.  8 o’clock came and I was horrified at having to drink another liter of that stuff.  I only made it through half, but I figured if the squirts were completely clear I had nothing to worry about.  All through the night I had to get up to run to the bathroom.  They got a very clean colon this morning.

I went in at 7:45 and registered.  They sent me up to the second floor where I answered a litany of questions about past surgeries and medications.  Some of the questions were ridiculous.  They missed on the first try with the IV.  Apparently, the salt solution to clean my colon shriveled up my veins.  They wrapped my arm in a hot towel and called in their IV expert.  The conversation about shriveled veins led to silliness about shriveled boobs.  The very serious anesthesiologist came in and was told that it would be a few more minutes until they were ready for him.  Matthew was able to come back and offered his veins for the IV.  They got it second time around but it wasn’t without pain.  The doctor came in to introduce herself and see if I had any questions, they kicked Matthew out  and then placed a blue bite block in my mouth.  They had me turn and position myself the way they needed me and in went the sleepy juice.

I woke up and could feel pressure, no pain, and I could hear them talking.  I saw the pictures of my colon on the screen in front of me and I heard the nurse tell the anesthesiologist that I was awake.  He said, I know, and I watched a little more and then went back to dream land.  The next time I woke up I was encouraged pass gas, the room was void of doctors, just my nurse.  I did as I was told and passed gas each time the feeling hit me.  No politeness allowed after an endoscopy.  I heard the nurses tell me that they didn’t find any bleeding or ulcers.  They took some biopsies.  Found some small hemorrhoids.  I have decided that if you didn’t have them before the endoscopy prep, you would surely have them afterward.  They also said I had some gastritis.

So the next thing they will do is order some x-rays to image my small intestine and residual stomach.  The x-rays should show if there are any problems with the lining and a physical cause for malabsorption of the iron.

Closer to the answers we want and need to have.  In the meantime I will continue to take iron, they may change the type that I take, and pray that my numbers will begin to rise.