postop

it's over. it's done. everything's fine.

the prep wasn't even all that bad. sure there was plenty of nastiness coming out of my person, largely fluid, but i didn't have cramps or anything. and i slept from about midnight to just before 6 this morning, which was a lot longer than i had expected. and i wasn't even all that hungry until about noon today, after having been on nothing but clears for 22 hours.

when i got to the place and was called back, a nurse put an iv catheter in. this was actually the bit i was most worried about, me and my needles, but it was fine. i walked with her to the procedure room. i got into the bed and all sorts of monitoring equipment was attached to me. the doctor came in and said hello. i rolled over onto my side. another nurse took off my glasses for me. she then attached the sedative to the catheter and said it would work in about a minute.

i remember seeing fleeting images on the monitor of the insides of my tubes. the next thing i knew i was in the postanesthesia care unit and it was all done. my glasses were on my face again.

it was weird. the loss of time was weird. i'm a little bit creeped out by that. there were about 30 minutes that i lost. i don't even know that a full minute elapsed between when the nurse pushed the plunger on the midazolam and when time left me. or when i left time. i don't recall traveling from the room where the procedure took place to the pacu.

i don't even remember what the first thing i remember is. i don't remember suddenly becoming awake. i was just aware at one point. a third nurse asked me what kind of juice i wanted and i said orange. i drank the contents of a tiny can of orange juice through a straw. then i was directed to a bathroom where i could put on my clothes again. i felt like i was walking funny, slowly, unsteadily. then kara was in another waiting area, waiting for me. and then the doctor came and talked to us.

everything in the scopy was normal. from rectum to ascending colon to transverse colon to descending colon to appendix to terminal ileum. normal. no polyps, no hemorrhoids, no bleeeders, no tumors. a couple of biopsies were taken, and histology should be back in a week or two. but as far as anyone can tell, i'm fine. so that's good.

okay then. on to the next adventure, whatever that will be.