...that people get to look inside their own guts and live to tell the tale.
Preparation wasn't as bad as I expected -- "Here, drink a gallon of this ucky garbage and crap your guts out." ...But in the event, I only had to drink 3/4 of it, and the resulting effluent seems to leave effortlessly of its own accord. I just sat there and waited on it; no cramps, no nothing. A bit messy, of course, but that's expectable. The real problem was that I was on clear liquids for a day, and couldn't eat or drink anything at all until after the procedure, the following day, and I seriously didn't need that much deprivation; I was dehydrated and very flat when I arrived at the endoscopy center. Fortunately, they promptly put half a liter of liquid into me, which helped a bit.
I refused sedation, for several reasons. For one thing, it seems somehow wrong to me that you should experience severe discomfort, but be unable to remember it. That represents an imbalance that I'm definitely not comfortable with. Also, as I point out implicitly above, how often do you get to see your own innards? I wasn't about to miss it.
The procedure itself is somewhat fraught (there were several moments of intense pain, as the gastroenterologist maneuvered the scope around some corners); but aside from those few moments, the discomfort that I experienced was actually relatively minimal, and the pictures were just wild. I can't put the few snapshots here yet, because I won't have copies until next week, but I'm considering whether I should do so when they're available. (Should I have privacy issues about my guts? Odd question.)
I'm pleased to report that I don't have colitis. Mind you, that doesn't really get us a whole lot closer to an explanation of what's wrong (and something definitely is wrong), but it does rule out a possibility or two.
In the meantime I continue to see my acupuncturist
and to take large quantities of bacteria, both of
which appear to be helping. My weight is down, but
it appears to have stabilized, and I'm working on
getting it to return to something a bit more normal.
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Last modified: Sat Feb 9 00:19:23 EST 2013