As I stated in my last post, I was pretty sure I was going to have to do something. I called the Dr's office Thursday morning and just told the receptionist to tell Kim I was ready to go to the hospital. She put me on hold and Kim came right on the line and told me to get to Memorial, check in, tell them what was going on and let them just do their normal evaluation and then they would probably give me an iv of steroid and get ahold of Dr. Peterson, who was already at Memorial on call this week.
We got up here at noon on Thursday, did all my paperwork and then was evaluated by the ER doc. He was not a nice guy and treated me like I was stupid for even worrying about this. Well, I am bleeding where I shouldn't be bleeding and I am tired because I have went to the bathroom 25 times in the last 24 hours--no, not an exaggeration. As soon as I got in the treatment room, they put an iv in so I thought at least they would give me the steroid to stop the bleeding. Then the ER doc comes in and tells me my blood work doesn't look all that bad, he has paged Dr. Peterson but he will probably just send me home. I was livid! I had wasted all that time, and money to get here and they weren't even going to give me the steroid?? Well, about 10 minutes later, here he comes back, nice as pie. Dr. Peterson ordered a colonoscopy, then he would give me a steroid treatment and send me home. Much better....and what I wanted. Dr. Peterson had been wanting to do the colonoscopy for quite some time and we just hadn't done it so this was killing two birds with one stone. The laughter part comes next--They are taking me to the SPA to have my colonoscopy, yeah it doesn't matter how you sugar coat it, it is still a colonsocopy, but I did find out that SPA stands for Special Procedures Area--which the girls who assisted with the colonoscopy informed me that SPA was much better than what they used to be--the SPU--Special Procedures Unit, I concurred.
So, I get ready for the colonscopy, being rest assured that I would be put out, the way I like. Dr. Peterson comes in, tells me the same plan, colonscopy, since I'm here, a dose of iv and home. I was a bit concerned about doing the colonscopy with no prep but I hadn't ate all day and there is a suction on the end of their scope--so I didn't even have to do the awful Miralax prep--a definite plus. Anyway, I wake up from the colonoscopy in the recovery room with Andrew, who tells me I'm staying. Apparently things were worse than Dr. Peterson imagined so he thought he better keep an eye on me while I took multiple doses of the iv steroid. My worst part of that was Andrew had already mentioned we would stop at Red Lobster on the way home. In a matter of a couple hours, I went from getting Red Lobster for supper to getting beef broth and jello.
So, today is Saturday, we have the bleeding stopped, we have the "I have to go to the bathroom NOW" stopped and we have me started on my new medicine. The long term goal is to stay off the prednisone. When Dr. Peterson and I first started talking about alternatives, he said there was a new drug on the market but it was a bit pricey, when I asked how pricey, he said "$1,000 a month", I said, "Yeah.....no". So now I am starting on Imuran. It has been around since 1968 and was originally used as an anti-rejection drug for kidney transplant patients. It has been shown to have really great results for complicated Crohn's and UC patients too though and that would be me. It can take up to 3 months for the drugs full effects to kick in. Apparently, according to the research I have done today. The inside of my colon is so messed up that my body thinks the insides needs to get out---which makes perfect sense as to the urgency of the diarrhea I have. This drug makes my body not see the bad stuff in my colon so it stops trying to get rid of it. We are going to PRAY it works. If it doesn't, we have a Plan B but this is our first try. I would absolutely LOVE not having to worry all the time about finding a bathroom or carrying extra clothes in case I have an accident.
So, this afternoon I got to eat a real cheeseburger and it went well. I have walked the halls until everyone is probably sick of seeing me and of course, I am wearing my activelink and counting my points because my Weight Watchers is part of my life now so I just worked it in.
Andrew has been staying at Sis and Richard's in Lincoln and that has been a godsend, his back couldn't make the two hour trip here and back each day and even though he could get a room, I would rather spend money like that when we could at least both enjoy it.
As far as everything looks right now, I get to go home tomorrow afternoon--hopefully with a stop at Red Lobster on the way.
So, I mentioned on facebook that it is only fitting that I have a view of the Hilton and the Captiol from my room as I always love having a view of Memorial and the Capitol from my room at the Hilton when I get to stay. I'm too lazy to go take the picture of the Hilton, but here is what I see sitting in my bed
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