Recovery Room, Part II

I blinked awake in the recovery room to someone asking me if I was all right. They were really close to my face. I recoiled a bit and quickly regretted the movement and asked for water. All they kept giving me were these weird little swabs, dipped in water, so I was still sucking down water, but minimally.

Surgery and the Recovery Room, Part I

So all those pre-op appointments were exhausting. I pingponged from one side of this huge hospital to the other to meet every damn appointment. Physical, anesthesia consult, blood cross and match (for which I got to wear a plastic bracelet for well over a week), more blood, EKGs, more blood. I got a little snippy at one point and said, uh next time please just take a pint and divide it among yourselves. My arms hurt.

Colonoscopy day! And immediate surgical consult? What?

If you're wary about getting a colonoscopy, let me set your mind at ease. It ain't no thing. Seriously. The worst part is the prep. That 4 liters of salty liquid? Uh, gross. They give you a flavor packet, which helps a bit, but it's pretty nasty.

Word of Advice: drink it COLD and fast. Each 8 oz glass, cold and fast.

Well there's a title for you

Even though I'm putting this out into the world wide web, it's not something I'm going to link to via my reading corner blog or my try stuff blog or anything like that. I just needed a place to jot it down as I go. I should've done it before my surgery, but honestly, my mind has been kind of shut down about this whole thing. I've been functioning one step at a time. One bit of news at a time. Day by day.

So I decided I needed a place to just jot it down. Yeah, I know, public forum and all. And it's truly a private matter. And it's connected to my G+ because you just can't seem to disconnect anything in this world. I'm okay with that. It's mainly for me. But everyone I know and love knows, so it's okay if they stumble across this, too.

And with that it begins.

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So in November or so I had some stomach cramping and diarrhea. When I wiped, I noticed some blood on my tissue. Didn't think much of it. Having had constipation before and then a tear or whatever after really hard stool, it happens.

But it continued off and on for about a month. Finally, after a third month in a row of a yeast infection, something new and fun I've never experienced before, I made a doctor's appointment. Well, I asked my dad to make one for me due to my work hours and job. When dad told me he got me in the next day and that they said the anal bleeding was probably a hemorrhoid, I remember telling him, "Why did you tell them THAT? I was going in for a yeast infection!"

I went to the doctor who ordered a colonoscopy.  I asked if that was really necessary given my age.

"Well, sure, it could just be a hemorrhoid. But what if it isn't? And then it becomes worse? Better safe than sorry!"

"Yeah, okay."

And so, I was scheduled for a colonscopy in February. It was in January, but we had a huge blizzard and so I had to reschedule. Eh, no big deal, I thought. This is just to be safe anyway.