9 polyps

Colonoscopy!

None of the problems I thought I might have did I have. Instead I had completely different ones. After my heart virus that I almost died for 8 months from in 1998 and 1999 my wife and I decided to use our medical insurance and check if anything else was wrong. So, we were thorough because we realized we had moved from thinking we were 25 to realizing I was 50 and she was 43 so we began methodically to make sure we had everything working right as we wanted to spend as many years together as we could because we were happy together with our children and traveling the world when we could and visiting friends and having a good life.

So, one of the things we began was getting colonoscopies. I had one at age 50 and then another one at age 52. But then since I didn't have any other serious health problems I gave that up for too many years and didn't have another one until today.

Having a colonoscopy at 68 is a very different proposition than at 50 or 52 because you tend to have more health problems to deal with so this time instead of an IN office prodedure (which is like a doctor's clinic connected usually to their main office I had to go to the local hospital so more help was there in case it was needed for some reason.

My two biggest concernes regarding my specific health issues was not getting enough blood to my brain during the endoscopy (into mouth and into stomach to look around with a camera and testing equipment) and colonoscopy (up your rear end almost to your stomach looking around and snipping off polyps usually with a little wire loop they put around the polyps to snip them off. Also, this time none of the polyps was cancerous or even pre-cancerous. The first time at 50 1 or 2 of them were pre-cancerous which is why I went in a second time very quickly at age 52 and did it again and I was completely clear this time in the colonoscopy which is why I thought I might be okay this long. But, the doctors say at the very least once very 10 years at the very least to protect you from colon cancer which is very common in our diet and country.

My family doctor has it done every 3 years he says which surprised me.

However, this experience was okay except when I woke up. I think it might have something to do with me being a little too warm this time combined with Versaid which makes your forget what you just experienced but the doctors can still talk to you.

I woke up feeling very strange and that things definitely were not okay with me. I felt fine in my intestines but nauseous and had the dry heaves. I felt by the time I went to the bathroom with my wife and a nurse helping me in there that I was too warm so took everything off to cool down. Even when I went into the car I only wore a T-Shirt pants and Dawg Crocs with no socks (the crocs have a faux fur lining made likely of acrylic or cotton).

So, I needed help to get into the car and out of the car up the stairs to my home. Luckily our housekeeper was there and she is at least 5 foot 8 or 9 and very strong so I grabbed the rail and had my arm around her going up the stairs.

But, as I sat down to watch television to get my mind off my discomfort and some confusion I found myself needing to throw up a lot, some dry heaves and some water and some milk and some medicine (lisinopril) heart medicine that I had taken all came up so I was pretty frustrated with all this. I went outside in the sun even though it was likely only 50 out to try to clear my head and found that I was halucinating from whatever anesthesia they had given me combined without having my armour thyroid or heart medicine on board my body to balance things out. So, I was a mess. But, I had no physical pain. The colonoscopy I knew had gone very very well. My problem was trying to get out from under the anesthesia successfully and I had some fear of hallucinating like I was because it was confusing to deal with. It was worse hallucinating than I got from  Morphine when I was having a burst appendix my first night in the hospital when it wasn't diagnosed until a week later after I had almost died that week.

So, I balanced whether I wanted to go to sleep right then given how hallucinations can sometimes get worse when you are asleep for a variety of reasons. I finally realized I was going to pass out soon anyway so I better go lay down to make sure I didn't fall down.

I slept three hours and woke up then and took my armour thyroid that I usually take between 8 am and 9 am in the morning for being hypothyroid and within 10 minutes felt amazingly better as all my hormones aligned and weren't all fighting each other in my body.

Also, if you ever have a colonoscopy you can only have things like vegetable broth or beef broth or jello or chicken broth for around 36 hours before your procedure while you drink this awful tasting stuff that tastes a lot like powdered plastic and water to completely clear our your intestines. Be sure to start drinking this stuff at the latest by 3 pm the afternoon before your procedure the next day or else you are going to be up all night long on the toilet. By 8 pm all movements were clear water pretty much so I realized I had succeeded in clearing my bowels of everything so the colonoscopy would be successful and it was.

So, if you need a colonoscopy you should get one but don't underestimate the problems you might have as you age and get a colonoscopy.

You have to weigh, "Is having the colonoscopy more life saving for me or less life saving for me?"

I made the right choice this time and still I was surprised but also happy with the result of 9 polyps removed and a clean bill of health regarding my stomach (endoscopy) and colon (colonoscopy). I even have photographs of my insides in the colonoscopy which seem to me pretty amazing as well.
(in color even!)