Your Dr. schedules a colonoscopy with a surgeon or GI Guy who does a lot of those procedures. You are prescribed a strong laxative because you need a pretty clean colon so the doctor can examine the surface of the colon for polyps.
Doctors can detect and remove polyps as small as 1 CM.
So, the day before the procedure you take off work or you stay home. The laxative is usually in a gallon jug now, and you have to mix it. Many come with artificial flavoring and I recommend you choose a flavor you don't especially like but can tolerate because it will be some time before you drink that flavor again. Make it the day day before and refrigerate it so it is nice a cold when you begin to drink the laxative.
Drink it a glass at a time. The directions will every 20 minutes. You may have to slow down, I get sick if I drink it that fast. The important thing is to drink it all and you will have a very liquid diarrhea. In fact, some describe it as though they were peeing out of their butt. That means it is working and cleaning that colon.
Keep drinking water and be prepared to stay up a bit because some times the diarrhea continues for sometime after you've finished the laxative. That's OK.
You do have to fast, or just drink liquids, eat jello, or Popsicles the day you prep. However, your mind will be elsewhere.
The day of the procedure you show up, undress, put on a gown and are wheeled into a small colonscopy room. There are usually two attendants and the Dr. and you lay over on you left side to give the Dr. access to your butt. You have an I.V. in and one of the nurses gives you a little shot and it is called an amnesia drug. You don't remember anything but the Dr. can give you directions to move a little one way or another.
All of a sudden you come to as the Dr. is finishing up retracting the scope, you wonder if the test is over and are told yes. You are taken back to a recovery room.
Now one thing, the colon wants to collapse around the scope so they use air to inflate the colon so the Dr. can examine the surfaces thoroughly. So when you start to have these enormous farts, enjoy, man or woman it is the same and it feels so good to feel you tummy go down. Don't hold back. I've had so many colonoscopies I've want to record my recovery but always forget and am too far out of it anyway.
So get a colonoscopy, nothing to be afraid of unless you keep putting it off, then you are just kidding yourself. Better to know than not.
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Start of Week 3
April 11, 2015, the start of week 3 of recovery at home. I am discounting recovery starting in the hospital because I came out of the hospital so low I don't feel other than some healing of the wounds I recovered anything.
So two weeks have passed and I have progressed to having my staples our, I walk pretty good, my energy is still low and I have to rest a lot. I have been outside and helped Terry with some repairs I can't make yet.
My sleep is somewhat agitated. My mind is restless and just wanders and keeps me awake at night till quite late. I am taking some Melatonin and that does seem to help. However I fear the night because my mind just seems to take over reality and I have a hard time distinguishing between my macabre thoughts and easy times.
The swelling seems to have gone down in my abdomen. I tried on a pair of pants when I first got home and couldn't even close the waist I was so swollen. I tried a pair yesterday, they went on well, however I've lost so much weight I sure won't be able to wear them for a while.
The soreness has pretty much dissipated from my abdomen, but around the stoma it feels heavy and awkward. My stoma is working quite well but I'm not sure I've been eating the types of food that helps it work. I had an episode two days ago where I passed stool off/on for about an hour. It felt good, but I don't think I want that type of action. To me it seems that it is having somewhat of a hard time.
We are eating regular diet type foods with some minor adjustments. I don't eat foods with seeds or skins. Other than that I had a couple of pieces of pizza last night that was kind of spicey but so far it has not effected me.
My stomach feels mildly upset quite a bit. I do not get sick, I think it is just in the recovery stage from all the surgery. At this point I have to keep concentrating on the fact that I am stronger and feel better than I did two weeks ago. It is kind of hard when you feel so weak and tired. But I did cook breakfast this morning and that is a help to Terry.
C'mon week 3, let's get past fast!
So two weeks have passed and I have progressed to having my staples our, I walk pretty good, my energy is still low and I have to rest a lot. I have been outside and helped Terry with some repairs I can't make yet.
My sleep is somewhat agitated. My mind is restless and just wanders and keeps me awake at night till quite late. I am taking some Melatonin and that does seem to help. However I fear the night because my mind just seems to take over reality and I have a hard time distinguishing between my macabre thoughts and easy times.
The swelling seems to have gone down in my abdomen. I tried on a pair of pants when I first got home and couldn't even close the waist I was so swollen. I tried a pair yesterday, they went on well, however I've lost so much weight I sure won't be able to wear them for a while.
The soreness has pretty much dissipated from my abdomen, but around the stoma it feels heavy and awkward. My stoma is working quite well but I'm not sure I've been eating the types of food that helps it work. I had an episode two days ago where I passed stool off/on for about an hour. It felt good, but I don't think I want that type of action. To me it seems that it is having somewhat of a hard time.
We are eating regular diet type foods with some minor adjustments. I don't eat foods with seeds or skins. Other than that I had a couple of pieces of pizza last night that was kind of spicey but so far it has not effected me.
My stomach feels mildly upset quite a bit. I do not get sick, I think it is just in the recovery stage from all the surgery. At this point I have to keep concentrating on the fact that I am stronger and feel better than I did two weeks ago. It is kind of hard when you feel so weak and tired. But I did cook breakfast this morning and that is a help to Terry.
C'mon week 3, let's get past fast!
Monday, April 6, 2015
Week 2, Day 3 at home
Survived the weekend. Had a ham lunch on Sunday, it was one of the spiral, honey, sweet ham's. While the meat was good Terry wanted to make some gravy and the gravy came out like candy, it was not good. However the green beans were tasty and the mashed potatoes OK.
I have started taking Melatonin to help me sleep at night. It seems to work. I wait until about 8 - 9 PM and take two 6 mg tablets and chase with water. With in a little while it is lights out and while I wake to use the bathroom, or wake several time a night just to look around I go back to sleep and usually sleep till Terry wakes. For the most part I feel rested and because it kind of puts me down I don't have to deal with the evil genies.
For some reason today feels like a step backward. I am feeling week, tired and rundown. I can try to lie down but I usually just lay there awake with my mind wandering about my universe. However, I did complete the PT exercises this morning and there have grown a bit more strenuous than last week.
It is still mentally tough, I want progress not a day backward. However when I have had surgical recovery in the past that has been how it has been. I would have a day that I would feel good, pumped up and perhaps over do, then the next day, oof!
Spring is here. The plum, cherries and peach trees have or are blossoming. Terry early flowers have come up and the progression moves along as the other flowers are starting to make their appearance. So I need to concentrate on that with I enjoy and perhaps my mood will lift too.
I have started taking Melatonin to help me sleep at night. It seems to work. I wait until about 8 - 9 PM and take two 6 mg tablets and chase with water. With in a little while it is lights out and while I wake to use the bathroom, or wake several time a night just to look around I go back to sleep and usually sleep till Terry wakes. For the most part I feel rested and because it kind of puts me down I don't have to deal with the evil genies.
For some reason today feels like a step backward. I am feeling week, tired and rundown. I can try to lie down but I usually just lay there awake with my mind wandering about my universe. However, I did complete the PT exercises this morning and there have grown a bit more strenuous than last week.
It is still mentally tough, I want progress not a day backward. However when I have had surgical recovery in the past that has been how it has been. I would have a day that I would feel good, pumped up and perhaps over do, then the next day, oof!
Spring is here. The plum, cherries and peach trees have or are blossoming. Terry early flowers have come up and the progression moves along as the other flowers are starting to make their appearance. So I need to concentrate on that with I enjoy and perhaps my mood will lift too.
Friday, April 3, 2015
Here we go again
April 3, day 8 of returning home after major surgery at UAMS in Little Rock, AR. It all started last summer 2014 as my CEA count began to slowly rise. Now this is the second recurrence of a colo-rectal cancer that has been hanging around since 2007.
I started chemo in September of 2014 and it lasted until December of 2014. At first it wasn't too bad, but by the time I got to December I was just a mass of tired, sick human flesh simply was biding his time.
I took six weeks off from chemo to let the body settle down then on January 15, 2015 I went to Little Rock for surgery to remove the now defeated small mass in my pelvic region. It was supposed to be pretty simple surgery, besides it was under the direction of the chief oncological surgeon at the University of Arkansas Medical School. Not so.
When they went to seal the rectum, create the stoma and finish they found a fisstula that was at the based of the pelvic area and was leaking small intestine fluid into my rectal area and then draining out my rectum.
As a result I had an acid burn on my buttocks for five weeks that was excruciating. I was hooked up to a TPM system that fed me through my veins and I never had any food or water for that five week period while they tried to get the fisstula to heal.
The pain was so intense I spent every day either standing up or lying down because I could not stand to sit on anything.
Finally on March 15 we went to Little Rock and I told them I just could not stand it any more, it was more than I could handle and I was entertaining bad thoughts like harming myself.
I was immediately admitted to the hospital, I underwent surgery at 8:30 AM on Tuesday March 16 to remove the fisstula and reroute the ostomy. I awoke to my second recovery and the pain in my buttocks is gone. The ostomy is short and is working well so far and I think corrections were made. But at what expense.
I am traumatized by the surgery, the drugs, the setting, the lack of food. I went in the hospital 250 and came out 204. I am so weak I can barely walk, my stamina is virtually nil, and I feel achy all the time,
However, I have gained four pounds this week, I am walking about the house now albeit I have to stop and rest a lot. I am able to go up and down stairs, but don't yell fire.
I don't sleep well, my mind works overtime stewing over my situation. I am trying some melatonin and even though the Dr. doubts its effectiveness I have found a lot of people who are taking the OTC drug. The best thing to happen is for me to just plod one day at a time and notice the improvements along the way as I usually do, and they are occurring, But right now I am disheartened, feel alone and sick.
I started chemo in September of 2014 and it lasted until December of 2014. At first it wasn't too bad, but by the time I got to December I was just a mass of tired, sick human flesh simply was biding his time.
I took six weeks off from chemo to let the body settle down then on January 15, 2015 I went to Little Rock for surgery to remove the now defeated small mass in my pelvic region. It was supposed to be pretty simple surgery, besides it was under the direction of the chief oncological surgeon at the University of Arkansas Medical School. Not so.
When they went to seal the rectum, create the stoma and finish they found a fisstula that was at the based of the pelvic area and was leaking small intestine fluid into my rectal area and then draining out my rectum.
As a result I had an acid burn on my buttocks for five weeks that was excruciating. I was hooked up to a TPM system that fed me through my veins and I never had any food or water for that five week period while they tried to get the fisstula to heal.
The pain was so intense I spent every day either standing up or lying down because I could not stand to sit on anything.
Finally on March 15 we went to Little Rock and I told them I just could not stand it any more, it was more than I could handle and I was entertaining bad thoughts like harming myself.
I was immediately admitted to the hospital, I underwent surgery at 8:30 AM on Tuesday March 16 to remove the fisstula and reroute the ostomy. I awoke to my second recovery and the pain in my buttocks is gone. The ostomy is short and is working well so far and I think corrections were made. But at what expense.
I am traumatized by the surgery, the drugs, the setting, the lack of food. I went in the hospital 250 and came out 204. I am so weak I can barely walk, my stamina is virtually nil, and I feel achy all the time,
However, I have gained four pounds this week, I am walking about the house now albeit I have to stop and rest a lot. I am able to go up and down stairs, but don't yell fire.
I don't sleep well, my mind works overtime stewing over my situation. I am trying some melatonin and even though the Dr. doubts its effectiveness I have found a lot of people who are taking the OTC drug. The best thing to happen is for me to just plod one day at a time and notice the improvements along the way as I usually do, and they are occurring, But right now I am disheartened, feel alone and sick.
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