To stay true to my reason for blogging, here are the details of today's procedure.

My instructions were no food or drink after midnight last night, no aspirin for 7 days prior and no herbal supplements for 2 weeks prior.

My friend (a.k.a. driver) and I showed up at 9 a.m. They had me fill out a little paperwork and took my friend's cell number so they could call her when I was ready to be picked up. After waiting for just a few minutes, they called me back into the "surgery" area. They had me give a urine sample (only for women who can still have children) and put on a hospital gown over my clothes. They also had me put on comfy socks with the gripy stuff on the bottom. Then they walked me to my little area, where they would prep me for the procedure. The area was pretty much your standard pre-op area that was divided with curtains. There were actually 2 other people having the procedure right before me so I could hear them going through the same prep work.

The nurses were super nice and introduced themselves to me instead of just jumping into the paperwork. After meeting them, they verified the information I had on my paperwork and had me sign 2-3 more papers. Then they put a paper bracelet on me, as well as a blood pressure cuff and a little monitor on my finger. Lastly, they put a big sticky sheet on my upper back. That would later be hooked to another monitor during the procedure. Then they started my IV. They gave me fluids first to plump up my veins. The nurse said it was like Gatorade for my veins. The IV wasn't painless, but it wasn't bad either. It was pretty much like having blood samples drawn for lab work.

Since I came in with a headache, when the anesthesiologist came in he said he would give me a little pain medicine in my IV. I heard him giving the lady next to me the same thing so I imagine if you come in with any pains, they just try to make them go away before the procedure. Plus with no fluids for several hours and no morning coffee, I'm sure lots of people come in with caffeine headaches. So he put a little syringe of magic juice into my IV. About 2 minutes later I was drunk on magic juice. I just wanted to sleep....so I did. The doc was running late and with the magic juice I really didn't mind.

After about 15 minutes I was no longer drunk, just tipsy. Then the doc came in and asked me a couple of questions and wanted to know if I had any questions. Since I didn't really, we were off to the "surgery" room. The nurse pushed my gurney into the room and had me roll onto my side. She placed a pillow behind me to keep me propped up how the doc needed me. Then she attached the sticky sheet and blood pressure cuff to the monitors. The worst part in my opinion was the yuckiness she had to spray in my throat to help numb it. The little bottle looked like a mini bottle of WD40 with that long skinny straw to help get it to the back of your throat. It wasn't painful at all, just yucky tasting. It was supposed to taste like cherry but it just tasted like yucky old medicine. But it did the job. Then she had this little mouth guard that you simply wrap your lips around and it keeps your mouth open. The best way to describe it is that it was like a short piece of plastic pipe so the little scope thingy (very technical I know) could fit right down the middle and into your throat. The mouth guard was strapped around my head to stay in place.

So there I was, on my side with "cherry" yuck in my numb mouth, a blood pressure cuff on my arm, a finger monitor on my right hand, a sticky sheet on my back and an IV in the top of my right hand. Sounds overwhelming, but it really wasn't. All of that happened within 3-5 minutes. Then the magic juice guy started the IV drip. The last thing I remember was him telling me that the medicine might sting a little as it hits my vein. Snore......................

Then I was woken up by a nurse parking my gurney back in the curtain area outside of the "surgery" room. The only reason I knew I was done was because I was still on my side and surely they wouldn't have me out there again unless they were done. I had no pain at all. No scratchy throat. No difficulty swallowing. Nothing. It was just like I had a nice nap on a rainy morning. The nurse gave me some ice water, which went down just as easy as before the procedure.

I laid there until the doc came over to tell me about what he found. Yikes! He found something? Yea, but he wasn't really worried about it....and he had some cool pictures of the inside of my stomach. He said I had about 3 ulcers that were developing, which although I didn't expect that, it wasn't surprising (read My Story and you will understand why). He also said I had several tiny blood clots that were dried up. So they were old blood clots. He said the acid was probably causing the ulcers and they probably caused bleeding. I said those aren't the bad kind of blood clots, and he said yes they were and they can be caused by several things like caffeine. So that was a bit disturbing. But he gave me a prescription for Omeprazole (generic Prilosec), which should heal up the ulcers. I mentioned that I take Zantac pretty much daily and he said to take this prescription instead.  So the pesky little blood clots shouldn't be an issue.  He left the cool pics with me and sent me on my way. (I'm thinking about posting the pics on here but not sure if people would want to see that - so let me know if you do.)

The nurse had already called my driver so she popped in when I was getting up and ready to leave. Perfect timing. They made my friend/driver sign something stating that she would get me home and we were off. I was soooo ready for Starbucks but in light of the ulcers, I decided to pass even though the doc said I could have one last one. Looks like it will be decaf peppermint mochas for me now. When we left I was thirsty and hungry so we stopped and grabbed me something on the way home. I ate and fell asleep. Unfortunately, the headache is back but I think I will have to suffer through these until my body gets used to the decaf. Thank goodness I don't drink soda.

So that's it. Super easy, painless (except the sticky sheet on my back being pulled off), and pretty much an easy procedure. If you have questions, send them my way. I'm sure I forgot something but I wanted to get this blogged before I forgot the details of the day.

Good luck!