All is well

(Skip this if you don’t want a colonoscopy update, k??)

I had my lovely colon check yesterday, and I am pleased to say that all is well. My colon is delightfully unremarkable!

The wonderful thing about that? I don’t have to get another one for ten years. Yay!!!

The actual colonoscopy was zero trouble, of course; just kind of a nice little nap.

The prep is the challenging part: the days of dietary restrictions, and then the funky prep you have to drink. I tried to chug it as fast as possible, but the taste is not completely avoidable.

I tellya, when I got up at 5 am yesterday and had to stare down another dose of that prep, I was unenthused. I stood in the kitchen for quite a while trying to get up the gumption to drink it. 😉

I felt like a kid standing on a diving board, trying to work up the nerve to jump in. 😉

Also: someone had mentioned in yesterday’s comments that homemade broth is perhaps not a good idea for the liquid diet day of colonoscopy prep (because it can have trace amounts of fat). I do let mine chill, and then I scrape the hardened fat off the top, so I don’t think mine has very much fat in it.

Happily, any fat left was definitely not enough to withstand the two doses of prep. I saw the pictures of my insides after my procedure, and they looked quite clean. Ha.

HOWEVER. I’m not saying anything about what you should do; follow the advice of your medical team. 🙂

Anyway, I am SO freaking happy to have this behind me, and I am tickled pink to be able to eat regular food again. I know I’ve mentioned before that I really dislike food rules (which is why I will never do something like a Whole 30), and I wonder if this is also why I feel very unhappy about the “no nuts! no seeds! no whole grains! Ok, now no solid food!” rigamarole. Some people seem to handle that without feeling perturbed at all, but that is…not me. Ha.

Also, now I have a fresh sense of sympathy for my patients, many of whom are NPO (nothing by mouth) or are on clear liquid diets. I also sometimes prep patients for colonoscopies, so now I can hand them the prep and say I truly know what it’s like. 😉

I think this is my first time really being a patient (other than doctor appointments) since I became a nurse, and it was so interesting to be on that side of things. I got a reminder of what it feels like to have an IV inserted, and I experienced having oxygen tubing in my nose (which is something I often set up for my patients).

I felt pretty wiped out yesterday, probably partly from the anesthesia. I tried to do some homework, but concluded that chemistry should not be done with a post-anesthesia brain, especially if chemistry is not one’s strong suit to begin with.

So I spent some time on the couch, which always makes Chiquita happy.

I’m hopeful that I will be back to something more like normal today because the anesthesia is all worn off, and I also got some food in my belly yesterday.

Thanks for being patient with my little digestive detour! We’ll be back to normal around here tomorrow. 😉