Sunday, February 24, 2013
Surgery Pre-op
As you well know if you read my last post, I'm going for surgery to "cure" my Ulcerative Colitis. It's about 2 1/2 weeks out from my surgery and I went for all my pre-op appointments. I had to get blood work, EKG, and a chest X-ray. I was able to get all three done on the same day. It took about 3 hours total. I've also talked to the anesthesiologist nurse about my medications and past health history. All I have left to do is finish filling out the paperwork for my short term disability while I'm out. Once that is done, then the waiting game begins.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Life with Ulcerative Colitis
I am a 36 year old male in fairly good physical shape. I was diagnosed with Ulserative Colitis (UC) around 12 years ago. It started off with constant trips to the bathroom and then the reaction time stated getting shorter and shorter. Finally I felt that something was wrong, so I made a appt with a GI doctor. After some test and my first colonosopy, I was told that I had a flare up of UC. I didn't know what to think of this new found health problem. I started doing research and asking a lot of questions. Come to find out a lot of the questions couldn't be answered. My GI Doctor started pushing pill after pill on me. After about a year I started getting better. Skipping ahead 4 years, I had a massive flare up causing me to find another GI doctor because the other one wasn't doing and good. I found a new one that actually got me in remission for almost 3 years.
When I had my last flare up, I went back to my doctor only to find out he was leaving his practice. As you might already have figured out, I wasn't happy! Nobody in the practice would release any information on where he went or why he was leaving. So in his place the practice gave me a P.A. She tries everything all over to no avail. I went in for another conoscopy which resulted in me having 30cm of inflamed large intestine and rectum. At this point it was around 8 months of pain and suffering. I was sick and tired of being controlled by this disease. Every time I mentioned surgery to my GI PA, she shot it down like a nerd at the Playboy Mansion. It was time for me to take actions into my own hands.
In January 2013 I decided that I would go and talk to a surgeon to get any options and to get an opinion. After talking to the surgeon, He put all the information on the table and didn't sugar coat it at all. He even recommended that I see another GI. I had seen 3 GI's and all said the same thing, and I wasn't happy with the answers I was given. The surgeon asked me to think about it and return in 2 weeks with a decision IF I had one. I had done my homework prior to going in and knew what I wanted, but agreed and left.
Two weeks later I went back in to tell the surgeon what I had decided. My decision was a full Proctoelioscopy with a Elioscopy. I understand that this is a life changing choice and that my way of life will change. The main reason I picked this option is because:1)My quality of life would greatly improve, 2) the option of the J-pouch would require 2 surgeries and I didn't want to put my body through that much torture, 3) with the J-pouch I would have a ostomy bag for a couple months ANYWAY, so why not just keep it. He knew I was serious and agreed to do the surgery. As I was walking out, he told me that he knew I had already made up my mind, but still wanted me to think about all the information that he had given me. For that reason, I gained a lot of respect for him.
Here I am writing 3 weeks before the surgery and I'm not really nervous or scared. Actually kind of excited to get back to a "normal" life. I have a few things to do for pre-op but they won't take more then a day to do. I will try and update this the day before I go in and within the week post-op.
When I had my last flare up, I went back to my doctor only to find out he was leaving his practice. As you might already have figured out, I wasn't happy! Nobody in the practice would release any information on where he went or why he was leaving. So in his place the practice gave me a P.A. She tries everything all over to no avail. I went in for another conoscopy which resulted in me having 30cm of inflamed large intestine and rectum. At this point it was around 8 months of pain and suffering. I was sick and tired of being controlled by this disease. Every time I mentioned surgery to my GI PA, she shot it down like a nerd at the Playboy Mansion. It was time for me to take actions into my own hands.
In January 2013 I decided that I would go and talk to a surgeon to get any options and to get an opinion. After talking to the surgeon, He put all the information on the table and didn't sugar coat it at all. He even recommended that I see another GI. I had seen 3 GI's and all said the same thing, and I wasn't happy with the answers I was given. The surgeon asked me to think about it and return in 2 weeks with a decision IF I had one. I had done my homework prior to going in and knew what I wanted, but agreed and left.
Two weeks later I went back in to tell the surgeon what I had decided. My decision was a full Proctoelioscopy with a Elioscopy. I understand that this is a life changing choice and that my way of life will change. The main reason I picked this option is because:1)My quality of life would greatly improve, 2) the option of the J-pouch would require 2 surgeries and I didn't want to put my body through that much torture, 3) with the J-pouch I would have a ostomy bag for a couple months ANYWAY, so why not just keep it. He knew I was serious and agreed to do the surgery. As I was walking out, he told me that he knew I had already made up my mind, but still wanted me to think about all the information that he had given me. For that reason, I gained a lot of respect for him.
Here I am writing 3 weeks before the surgery and I'm not really nervous or scared. Actually kind of excited to get back to a "normal" life. I have a few things to do for pre-op but they won't take more then a day to do. I will try and update this the day before I go in and within the week post-op.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)