(February 2002)
This month has been very nerve wrecking. The new prep for the colonoscopy I used was pills called "visicol". I had to take 20 pills the night before, and 20 pills 5 hours before the test. It was awful. The night before I took 3 pills at a time with a glass of water every 15 minutes for 1 hour 30 minutes, and a final dose of 2 pills and a glass of water the night before. The following morning I had to do the same routine. When I was ready to have my colonoscopy and endoscopy I told the nurses and the doctor doing the test that I was very hard to put asleep. They were just nodding their heads at me. Just as the doctor started the colonoscopy it was very painful. After words he said that is very common with people that have IBS. He told me that he had to use the pediactric scope to do the entire test. By the time they had the colonoscopy done I was awake, and there was no way they were going to do the endoscopy with me awake. They had to call Anesthiesia to come and put me asleep so the endoscopy could be done.
I don't even remember the endoscopy, but I sure do remember the colonoscopy. The doctor that did the colonoscopy said that I was very combative. All I remember doing is saying it hurts, and the nurse telling me he was almost done. Its not like I was fighting with everyone. Sometimes the doc's think that saying it hurts is being combative! Anyways, after the tests the doctor explained the finding with me. I had aphthous ulcers through almost all of my colon. At the time I really didn't know what that meant. My stomach had some irritation and inflamation.
I followed up with my GI doc a few weeks later at an appointment where I got to see all my doctors at the same time and they talk together and come up with a plan for treatment. Well, as it turns out I now have colonic involvement with the Crohn's and I was placed on Colazal. It's some new kind of Mesalamine product. Its kinda like Pentasa, but time released. I also seen my surgeon. He's very happy with how I'm doing, but he doesn't want to fix my hernia yet. He said that they would see me again in June, on my one year anniversary since my last surgery and Maybe do surgery. Also he said that when they fix my hernia they could have the plastic surgeons come and fix the one big scar I have from my 1st and 2nd surgery, and give me back a belly button. It's a pretty big scar. They couldn't staple it shut. The doc's had to leave it open because of the infection I had from the first surgery. It took over 2 months for it to heal over. Now whats left it a big ugly scar. Its about 6.5 inches long, and 2 inches wide at the top. Hopefully the surgeon's can fix it. They said it would be a really big cut to fix everything. I guess I'm happy about it. That's about everything that's happened this month.
If you'd like to read the next Update, continue on to update 12 
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