Anyone Else have TWO Colonoscopies in one day?

Well, I did!  Was sched for EGD & Colooscopyon same day.  (Yes, they routinely do the clean end before the dirty end).  GI Dr. wanted to check on my ulcer before going for broke to determine if I could be given a license to live another 5 yrs.  It was to be my 5th anniversary of removing the acxsending half of my colon due to a nearly malignant polyp. 

Naturally pre-op we went through all the normal questions concerning my PM & wht kind of problems I had .  Well, I have frequent V-Tach breakthrough runs of 3-5 beats, with the definition set as 5  beats in a row  at over 120 BPM.  My EP wanted to find out how often i exceeded  normal rates.  ,

He just finished the mouth end & had the Mt Palomar 200 inch telesope in me looking at the far end of what little colon I still have when my heart put on a show fgor them - a couple runs of 5 beats.  At that point, they pulled oput, let me wake up & hustled my semi-conscious buns down the hall to the ER, where I tried to explain to them that whatever happened was quite normal for me.  The ER Doc decided I was gonna live & says "You ar OK.  We'll duscharge you frm the hospital & reschedule yu for the procedure later - OK?"  Towhich I replies in a state of high dudgeon (I love that term)  "NO! IT'S NOT OK.  I want to get this over with today.  I'll be D%$#@ if I'll go through that prep again!  "    So ther ER Doc said he'd send for a Cardio to check me out & see if the GI would get me rescheduled for the end of the day.  A strange Cardio came in, gave me a clearance to go for it & my GI put me on at 1600 that day.  By then I would have been w/o food for 48 hrs& felt a bit wimpy.  But anything beats the prep protocol for the procedure.   So, back we go to the GI suite to meet my good GI doc & a n otherwise whole new crew of techs to help him.  After all the introductions & ediscussions of the fun they would have, we did the deed.  I think thy shorted me on the propofol, because I recall saying as I went under "I'm going, going I'll tell you when I'm gone," followed by "what's wrong, I've stopped going."  And I woke up.  

GI found a single 2 mm polyp, which he lopped off at the base of its stalk, so it appeares that I paswsed the exam. Results of biop[sy in 2 weeks.

BUT!!!! there's a morale to this story - you darned well better know 1) your meds & 2)  how your heart acts, based upon your download data.  If you go in for a surgery or any othe procedure at a different hosp than where your Cardio practices, they may well NOT have access to your records!!!!!  You may be the ONLY source of info on a lot of issues - like I was.   In my case, I was in Atlanta at Northside Hosp, Cumming.  My cardio records are at Emory Hosp, about 5 miles away!  Is it a small world?  the PM download guy knew my Cardio & I had met his grandmother in Miami, FLA in 1954, when she managed the cafeteria where I went to High School.      As to the meds part - the stranger Cardio prescribed  a magnesium drip for 30 min before the next procedure & some IV metoprolol.  Since they took me OFF Metoprolol to put me on Sotalol, I politely declined that med.  No one complained! 

Thus ended the saga of the repeat Colonoscopies.  I now have a license to harrass youse guys for another 5 yrs!  (Ian, Grateful Heart &  Pop, beware!)

Donr


4 Comments

Another 5 years of Don……. Oh No !!

by IAN MC - 2018-10-22 12:58:16

Don; I had been having a very enjoyable day today until I read your report on the intrusions into your rectum to remove a 2mm polyp !

The sun is shining here , I played 18 holes of golf with good friends and colonoscopies were the very last thing on my mind until I did a quick catch-up on the PM club . Now I'm thinking about Drs invading most of your orifices !!!

Just one comment .... isn't it bizarre that we can land men on the moon  , yet not be able to share medical records  with a hospital only 5 miles away 

There is an intention here to have uniform computer systems throughout the UK so that no matter where we fall ill, they could immediately access our medical records.  I will believe it when it happens !   ........... but, the sooner the better.  It sounds as though the situation is no better in the U.S.

Cheers

Ian

That's NOTHING!

by donr - 2018-10-22 14:59:22

The hospital rep told me when Iwas checking in that they did not even have compatibility within their entire hosp complex!  While I was lying in the ER awaiting the Cardio, I was on the phome feverishly trying to locate the latest copy of my download.  My cardeio in Atlanta didn't have it, so Emory hosp didn't because he belongs to Emory.  The new EP in Mississippi had it, but all I got there was voicemeils.  The only cy I could get to was in my office drawer in Mississippi.  called them, but their  Fax was out of whack so they could not send it to me.. 

I'm not suree the Cardio that came to see me even read my meds list - he should have known that you don't give two Beta Blockers to a patient - especially when one of them is Sotalol  I've  long ago established that I willl not take anything without a well defined reason that makes sense to me .

Don

Don

by Grateful Heart - 2018-10-22 15:45:39

Glad everything worked out in the end.  (pun intended)

Indeed you have to be your own advocate.

Grateful Heart

thank you, thank you, thank you...

by ROBO Pop - 2018-10-22 17:29:32

 

I told my doctor you were gracious enough to get one for me while you were there, so he cancelled my colonoscopy. I'm having a glass of ale in your honour "Bottoms Up!"

You know since they removed the polyup while in there, the procedure is called a correctume? 

You know you're wired when...

Intel inside is your motto.

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