The 12th, thank, er, well, My surgeons

My surgery hasn't been moved up. One of my surgeons, Dr. Rosen, comes in from Chicago once a month to do high risk people. He's going to take extra time so that I can have my surgery on his last day in town and not insist I have it on the 6th -- a change that would've meant that my sister and best friend wouldn't be able to come and support me. Yay! On the downside, I have a colonoscopy tomorrow, and have been doing the godawful prepwork for it today. I haven't eaten in 21 hours, and I had to drink two liters of the grosses stuff. I'm so glad the taste is out of my mouth (Cinamon Rush Crest -- so glad to have it). Off to the toilet for the millionth time...

So glad to hear you'll have some support after your surgery. The prep is the worst part of the colonoscopy. The actual procedure is no big deal. I wasn't totally out for mine and watched on the monitor as the scope did its thing. I had the colonoscopy because I had low iron levels and they were looking for bleeding. I didn't know it was a procedure for WLS. I only had to have the upper Endoscopy for my WLS. Best wishes. Barb

Colonoscopy is mandatory for WLS. I had rectal bleeding, though, so my surgeon insisted I have it done to make sure nothing was wrong. Everything is totally fine in there. The stuff I had to drink was VILE, and that really was the worst part. They gave me demerol and verset. Neither had that much of an impact. It relaxed me slightly. I felt it. It wasn't as bad as the digital exam my doctor did. It was unpleasant. I remember the whole thing. I was awake the whole time. I asked the doctor if Osama was hiding up there. They love me at the hospital. I got weighed before they did my IV. I've lost another 25 pounds. So I'm down almost 50 pounds since May. That's probably the bst part of my day. It would almost have to be

I'm so glad your surgery will coincide with your sister and your best friend coming to support you! You need all the love you get as you go through this process! I hope your anesthisiologist will be better this time around. You should NOT feel anything, but sleepy!!! Best of luck with the test tomorrow. You ever think about getting one of those coushioned toilet seats??! I bet one of those would be great about now with you running back and forth emptying your bowel!!!! Hope you're feeling better by Thanksgiving!! Jessica

I had the colonoscopy this morning. They gave me 50 mg of Demerol and 25 of Versed and I was still alert and aware. I think it took the edge off the discomfort very slightly. I felt the scope -- not nice, though better than my doc's digital exam. She must have the biggest, boniest set of man hands ever I held a totally lucid conversation with the doctor while he did the scope and watched my colon on the monitor. I asked if he'd found Osama Bin Laden up there. I mean, they guy's still hiding and I wouldn't mind that reward It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I'll be letting the anesthesiologist who attends my WLS know about how my most recent sedation went. I'm very, very hard to sedate. Pain meds in general don't do anything at all for me (I've had prescriptions for darvocet, percocet and vicodin for chronic sciatica -- all tiny perscrptions from the ER or my doc, like 10 pills -- I never felt any sort of relief, not even when I took more than one pill). I didn't have an MD anesthesiologist this morning. I had an RN (who I'm sure is great for all the patients who don't weigh 500 pounds) working under the orders of my gastroenterologist. So maybe an MD will be a little bit better? Actually, he/she will have to be, seeing as the hospital I'm going to does 20 of these surgeries a month (with a week each month being high risk or high weight patients). So I think I should be okay. I did have good news -- they weighed me before setting me up for the procedure and I've lost another 30 pounds. So I'm down about 50 pounds since May. My BMI went down by 5%.

50 pounds is great! I'm down 41 pounds and that's AFTER surgery. Call me crazy Rebecca, but I'm not sure you'd have gotten better care with an MD instead of a nurse.