I fail remedial colonoscopy prep

[pameladean]

ETA: All right, we seem to have dodged that bullet. I am going to bed, and some of you probably should as well. Thanks for the company.




You may all laugh now. I actually let HCMC talk me into trying the same prep again, only they added an anti-nausea drug to help me get the vile electrolyte fluid down. I changed pharmacies for the prescriptions so that I could be sure of getting the flavor packets, too, since I knew that that taste of the unflavored stuff would do me in at once.

The anti-nausea drug worked for two liters' worth and then wore off in a flash. The flavor packets were vile, but did taste different. However, I stuck at two liters. I could not do more. I decided I'd just keep to the regimen of clear liquids for the rest of the day, take the laxative tablets at the proper time, drink lots of fluids, and see if they thought I was well enough prepared for the procedure.

Right on schedule at around midnight, I started shaking hard, and my pulse rate went up. I drank some juice and a great deal of water, flagrantly breaking the rule about when to stop drinking stuff, but things didn't get better, so I called, reluctantly, the GI nurse on call. She turned out to be the person whom I'd talked to when I made the new appointment, who talked me into trying the prep again. She was chagrined and apologetic and very nice to me. She said that despite all the outward signs being propitious, two liters really was not enough, and she didn't think that I should be put in the ER again on the small chance that my system passed stuff along a lot faster than most people's. So she canceled the appointment for me, and I am regaling myself on toast and pomegranate juice.

I hope we can nip this in the bud so I don't land in the ER anyway. At least, with luck, if I do, they'll decide they don't have to do eleventy-one tests to make sure nothing scary is happening, since they just did them last month, and it wasn't. But I hope I can just not go there in the first place.

I am NOT going to do this again.

Now I am off to drink water and juice and anything else I can think of, barring, unfortunately, alcohol.

If anybody else is up this late, I do hope it's for better reasons. Nobody is to worry. Raphael is up with me, and I will certainly go to the ER, complaining loudly, if it seems indicated.

Pamela

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I'm up for better reasons - it's midafternoon where I am - but I reserve the right to worry a bit anyway. I'm very glad you are in good company, though.

[pameladean]

Goily, where are you?

I'll try to post an update about not going to the ER. But yes, the company is excellent, and my pulse rate is down already, so you probably needn't fret. It's awfully kind, though.

P.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Not particularly kind, just the nature of the internets. You read someone's blog often and you get the illusion of knowing them, and find yourself worrying about their wellbeing, in an impotent sort of way.

I'm in Taiwan.

[pameladean]

Taiwan, wow. I keep thinking I know you, but given the location, perhaps not. 8-)

I still think one has to have a grain of kindness to be moved by the plight of people far away.

P.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I'm American and have only lived in Taiwan for a couple of months, but I don't think we've met in person. (I have been to a grand total of one con, ever, WorldCon in LA a couple of years ago, and I've never been to MN.) But I think we do hang out around a lot of the same LJs.

And your name appears in my bookcases!

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I saw someone post a second sentence that made no sense to me, and I started worrying they were having a stroke. Then I looked more closely and if two letters were transposed ("sued" -> "used"), the sentence suddenly made sense.

Which is to say, Get out of my Brain!

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Oh - and also my mom's had ulcerative colitis as long as I can remember, so I 've heard plenty about how awful that stuff is to drink.