Seeing what my innards look like from the inside…
April 15, 2019, 11:18 PM
So on Wednesday, March 26, I had an endoscopy as part of a weight loss program that I’m in. That involved going to the hospital, getting an IV, getting wheeled into the room on a stretcher, and then getting knocked out while they did their thing. The good news is that everything looks healthy inside of me, which is what I was expecting to see.
What I found interesting was the difference in the experience in this procedure vs. the last time that I got sedated, back in 2005 when I got a pilonidal cyst removed. This time was just a diagnostic procedure, though, while it was actual surgery back in 2005. The endoscopy was done at Montgomery General Hospital in Olney, while my 2005 surgery was done at Augusta Medical Center (now Augusta Health) in Fishersville, Virginia.
Much of the process was pretty similar to 2005. Come in, check in, change into the hospital gown, put on the hospital bracelet, get all of my information, do vitals, and so on. The first big difference was the IV. I’ve had IVs in the hand before, but for some reason, this one hurt like hell going in. I don’t know why – I’ve never had an IV hurt like that. Then I met with the doctor, who was scoping me and then a second patient. I was told that it was good to be the first one to get done. Then I met with the nurse anesthetist, whose job was to knock me out when the time came. After she told me what was going to happen, I joked about hitting me on the head with a big cartoon mallet. I wonder how many times they hear that joke. I imagine that they hear that a lot.
Then we were ready to go, so they rolled me on the stretcher to the procedure room. There, they had me turn on my side and began administering the sedation. When I had been sedated previously, I just remember going out. This time, they gave me some of it, which made me feel like I was a bit clouded. Then, in that state, they put a mouth guard in and strapped it in. That was there to protect my teeth and keep them out of the way, and also to give the endoscope a safe place to go in. Noting the way the mouth guard was applied, my first thought was, I’m sure that someone is into this.
And then it was lights out.
Coming out of sedation, I remember being a bit disoriented. Waking up, I thought I was at home in my bed, and that Elyse was waking me up. My exact thought was, I don’t want to get up yet. Then once I opened my eyes, I remembered that I was in the hospital getting the endoscopy done. It was one of those oh, right moments.
Then once I was awake, they brought me to another room, where they transferred me from the stretcher to a reclining chair. I was still feeling some of the sedatives that hadn’t entirely worn off yet, which had me feeling a little woozy. From here, they gave me half a sandwich and a cup of juice, and then it was just a matter of taking the IV out (that hurt coming out, too, though not as bad as going in) and getting my stuff together to go. I was expecting that they would make sure that I could walk around and pee before letting me go, like what happened in 2005 with the pilonidal cyst surgery, but they didn’t do that. It was just a matter of getting me on my way. I guess that because this wasn’t surgery, but rather just a scoping, that was unnecessary?
After a few minutes, once the rest of the sedatives wore off, I was good to go. They got Dad to bring my car around, and they wheeled me to the car. I asked if I could just walk out and skip the wheelchair, but apparently, they were required to wheel me out.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad procedure. In the end, I got a clean bill of health, and a photo of my innards, which Elyse intends to frame.
Categories: Personal health