Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Truth be Told

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.
-Helen Keller

6 comments:

Sean said...

Somehow, I sincerely doubt a woman that could neither see, hear nor speak could have written or said that... but the do say the truth is stranger than fiction. Nice find Leila!

Anonymous said...

i agree with Sean, nice find!

i had my colonoscopy on Monday! No cancer! The GI doc said he didnt want to see me till i was 50! it was just an internal hemroid which means i need more fiber in my diet...no fingers pushing in veins etc.

so here is how it went...the day before the procedure was THE hardest to do. If you have to get one, ALWAYS opt for the pills instead of the liquid. I had to drink 1.5ox of this liquid that was THE MOST DISGUSTING THING EVER. Its an over the counter laxitive/enema solution...it says on the package not to take more than 3 tbls. in a day...i was to drink the whole thing...

i pooped and i pooped and i pooped some more. Truth be told i literally, no lie, went to the bathroom over 70 times throughout the day. i stopped pooping solid after the first sitting...and stopped pooping color after about the third...the rest was just shooting green colored water. It never hurt, but man it was annoying. Sometimes id have to go again before i was finished washing my hands for the previous sitting.

Then, i had to drink anotehr bottole of that stuff before i went to bed and it started all over again :(

The day of the procedure was easy. The nurses were cool. They asked me a bunch of normal questions. Then i got into a hospital gown, they put an IV in me and wheeled me into the procedure room. There they put heart monitors on my chest...heart beat/pulse was +/- 120 because i knew that in about 30 minutes i was going to know for sure that i had cancer and that i should be taken to surgery and chemo in the next hour...and thats if it isnt to late.

Got in there, nurse put the sedative into my IV...that was nice :) Then i dozed in and out of sleep while the doc did the procedure...it did NOT hurt. Nor was my butt ever exposed to the world. Once the doc got the tube in there i was covered up the rest of the procedure. I was asleep for most of it. I would open my eyes every few minutes, look up at the screen to see my colon and fall back asleep...as a hypochondriac who hates to see the inside of organs or the body in general, i can say all of this was acceptable...then they wheeled me back into an observation area where i woke up pretty quickly...i farted so much it was ridiculous. They put air into your colon at various times during the procedure to expand it so they can have a better look. The farts were by far my best ever...i mean 10 to 12 seconds long a piece...i wish i had recorded them.

The tube never hurt going in, while it was in or when it came out. And i didnt have any pain or discomfort in any area of my body after the procedure. Judging from the way my body felt, I literally could not tell that i had just done that.

Then the doc came in immediately and told me nothing was wrong. That he found an internal hemroid and that i worried so much for nothing :)

So a little about internal hemroids that you prolly already know from webmd/mayo...they dont hurt your butt hole. they do bleed usually on the paper, on your turds or in the bowel. mine were never on paper, just on turds. If your regular doctor does a digital exam to look for them, he/she may not find them... (mine didnt find the one i had). thats what i learned.

anyway so so sorry this was so long but i really wanted to tell you how the colonoscopy went and how a fellow hypo experienced it. And to let you know too that up until 2 days ago i was dying of colon cancer too with the same symptoms you were, and that now im not dying of it anymore.

now i just have to wait for the next disease...

love.your.blog!!

if you want more on the details of the procedure (minus my bowels), hit me up rickywilliams at gmail dot com

Sean said...

Ricky Williams? Didn't you end you career in the NFL because of marijuana use/Buddhism? Have you cut your dreads yet?

Anonymous said...

not the same one...im to scared for my health to do drugs lol.

Leila V. said...

Damn it! If you were “the real” Ricky Williams I’d be rich with that inside information.

Very revealing, I have to thank you for sharing. Most people wouldn’t be so candid on such a sensitive subject, (especially not men).

I’m surprised your experience was so positive, although whenever an IV is involved you know there’s at least a little fun. You’ve given me peace of mind; knowing the procedure won’t be as bad as I imagined, (if I end up traveling that path), is reassuring. In the meantime, cheers to a high fiber diet! I’m taking your diagnosis as my own and upping my daily dosage.

Leila V. said...

Oh, and Sean, I've always found the Helen Keller story unbelievable myself.