Colonoscopy

My friend Jacula said on her blog that her mum had had one and that she was on the list for one, too. So am I. I went to the doc's this morning and told her of all my tummy troubles and as well as prescribing some pills for irritable bowel syndrome, she is sending me for a colonoscopy.

I last had one in 2002 and they found and removed several polyps, none of which were malignant thank goodness. I used to get polyps in the womb and had several minor ops to remove them. I seem to be a polypy sort of person. Just call me Polyp Parrot! On the last occasion, I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy in the same session, which is when they found my stomach ulcers. Although I was sedated, the colonoscopy was extremely painful, involving much shoving and pushing and I kept coming round yelling in pain and they had to give me more sedation.

The leaflet said you should bring somebody with you as you'd be too woozy to remember what the doctors told you. I couldn't find anyone, and I was. I just dimly recall them saying I had 'ulceration and inflammation of the duodenum' and that they'd removed some polyps. They also said the pain had been caused by the fact that I had the twistiest guts they'd ever encountered and they had great difficulty getting the camera up. Three days later I left for a holiday in Turkey and had a horrible time, as having had my guts beaten up made me feel as if I had permanent severe period pains. So I can't say I'm looking forward to having it done again.

I'm also going for blood tests including liver function and cholesterol, which has never been checked in my life. I said to the doc that I was getting a full MOT and she said she thought everyone should have one every so often. Now I'm off to the chiropractor to have my neck graunched. Bedtime tonight will involve a liberal coating of Biofreeze!