Needless to say, last night was something that I'm not going to want to experience again.
However, it will have to be a yearly thing now. Went to the doctor to have this thing performed. Sure enough, they gave me all the lowdown, what they were gonna do, etc--this was after a $75 copay--and so on. Got an IV in me, they made me undress, put that gown on, etc, and wheeled me into the exam room, where I saw my Doc again. After some chat, they gave me this absolutely wonderful, awesome amnesiac drug which totally reduced me to putty. I was conscious for most of the procedure (I think), but I didn't have a friggin' care at all. Shove a tube/camera/light up my ass? Go right ahead! WHEEEHEE!
Do I remember any of the procedure? A little. But damn, that was some good shit. I certainly don't remember the end of the procedure, and I think I ended up falling asleep, because when I woke, I was in a recovery room with an April. And the Doc came back with a final diagnosis:
I do have Crohn's disease. Almost a textbook case of it. Ah, gotta love those chronic diseases that pop up out of nowhere. However, I'm not too bummed or anything like that--it's a disease that, with a few changes in my current diet (lay off the foods that can't be digested, like nuts, corn, seeds, popcorn, etc) and some meds, I can keep it under control, even knock it into remission for the rest of my life. It's a disease that affects people in the 18-25 age group, and it's an auto-immune disease. In English, that means that my body attacked itself for some reason that scientists have yet to figure out. Something in my system told my antibodies to attack my small intestine, which was perfectly healthy. Interesting, though, that it's a disease of affluence--people in developed, industrialized, modern countries have a higher risk of it that undeveloped, poorer countries.
After, I was still heavily drugged, but I think I remember going to Dunkin' Donuts afterward and having breakfast--god, so nice to eat solid food after the all liquid diet I had yesterday. Then came the fun part: CVS-hopping. The Doc prescribed a drug called Pentasa, again, an anti-inflammatory. So, we went to the first CVS in the area, and come to find out, they don't have it--well, the quantity that the Doc prescribed anyway. So they called a CVS about a mile or so away, and they had it. We thought. We get there, turns out that there are 2 strains of this drug--a 500mg version (which I needed), and a lesser quantity. They don't have the one I need. They call up another CVS, in the opposite direction (but close to the Guilderland library), and this time, after 3 CVS stores, they had it. The doc gave me 1 month's supply, and so ended the CVS-hopping. She bought me chocolate. :) We went to the library, got some books for Crohn's, and how to take care of myself. Then it was back home, had some lunch, and April and I unintentionally had a 2-hour nap.
So, that's that. There is nothing further I can do with this, I have picked up a chronic disease. Thank God it's not terminal, and that this can be treated. Also, being that it was caught early also helps. Also, while I was in sedative-land, they took some samples of my intestine/colon for biopsy. Results will be told to me in a week or so. In the meantime, he is starting me on another anti-inflammatory medicine, and soon he will begin weaning me off this Prednisone (because it is a steroid, and will lose its effectiveness after some time). Also, he wants to do a follow-up appointment in 2-3 weeks time.
What are the odds of me being in a relationship--together in love, together in pain, together in chronic illness? I have to thank April very much for being with me for this entire mess--driving me from doctor to doctor, putting up with the restrictions on my diet, using her own sick time so she could be with me throughout all of this...thank you very much, my love. I love you. More than you will ever know.
As for my contest, it will resume tonight at normal time--because I was shitting my brains out last night, I was in no position to even think about contests. I did manage to lock the battles before the floodgates opened, and we'll have a restart tonight. Also, check out my RenFaire pics! Links are in the previous post.
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