No solid foods after midnight.
No liquids after midnight… With the exception of little sips of water. But not even that allowed after 6:00 a.m. with my procedure scheduled for 11:00.
Gratefully, the Taco Bell and popsicles managed to bring up some symptoms again, so I woke up with at least some symptoms. I was crossing my fingers and hoping they’d be able to find something with the symptoms I had.
Driving is forbidden on procedure day, so I had to have a ride both there and back. A shout out to my angel mother for taking the day off from her normal Tuesday responsibilities and being my chauffeur.
I had some issues with insurance when I got there. I guess they had tried to call me in the morning to figure out what I was going to do for payment, but the call didn’t go through. So I ended up spending a good little while trying to hash out what was going on with insurance stuff, and I guess I lost my place in line because they didn’t actually end up doing my procedure until I think an hour later. Originally, they had been trying to find out where I was, why I wasn’t back there, and so I think they bumped me until later since I wasn’t ready because of the insurance snafu.
I was super grateful for the nurse who managed to stick my IV on the first poke.
Ever since having one of my surgeries over a decade ago when I had two nurses jab me gazillions of times trying to put an IV, and one of them digging around inside causing… Let’s just say a massive amount of pain, and then having nurses since then struggle as well, though none is significantly as that hellish time, I’m always nervous how it’s going to go.
But this lady stuck me on the very first try, and I was so so so grateful. Barely a sting at all.
🥳
I can handle pain, but the anticipation of possibly dealing with severe and prolonged pain as with someone who sticks a needle in my arm and then just starts fishing around with a needle still in my arm trying to find a vein, gosh I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
After getting the IV going, it was probably another hour or so before I got wheeled into the OR. Took me back in my memory to years ago when I accompanied a friend to her identical procedure.
Lots of memories.
I remember being wheeled into the OR and chatting with the surgeon and the nurses and anesthesiologist and everyone. I guess they had been talking about me because I was a mechanic? Because when the surgeon was like “This is the mechanic,” It was almost like I was a celebrity or something. Maybe that’s just because I was the appointment that got bumped until later. 😅
I remember the anesthesia starting to kick in. I didn’t try fighting at this time. I remember going into one procedure years ago and seeing how long I could fight the anesthesia before going under.😆
But I didn’t try and fight it this time. I just remember feeling the little tingles, and then boom, I was awake in the recovery room.
What did they find, after 9 months of constant issues– chest pain, heartburn, the contents of my stomach pouring into my esophagus if I bent over, burping up food back into my throat on a fairly regular basis, having stomach acid squirt all the way up into the back of my throat, leaving that weird not painful, but scratchy feeling…
What did they find?
Nothing. No damage. No information. Heck, not even redness.
😶
What the crap!?!?!? What the freaking crap!?!?!?
Apparently, the surgeon was just as surprised as I was, because he sent me immediately over to get an ultrasound– no waiting for another day, no trying to get on the schedule, he just plugged me in and sent me right on over, with me still coming out of my anesthesia. 😅
So they did an ultrasound of my liver, my gallbladder, my pancreas, and my right kidney. The ultrasound tech said that though she knows what she’s looking at when she does the ultrasounds, she’s not allowed to tell me what she sees, so I have to wait for the dock to look everything over and call me with the results.
I’m guessing that if I hear back quickly, then they found something, and if i don’t hear back for several days, then they didn’t find anything of note. I think that’s usually how it goes, right?
It’s pretty discouraging to have all these issues, and to have them find nothing.
How on earth can I have all this chest pain, and So frequently have stomach acid backing up into my esophagus, and not have so much as any evidence of any problems whatsoever?!?!?!
I mean what do I do? Did I take too good of care of myself? Was I wrong to sip water every time, and as quickly as I could, when I felt stomach acid enter my throat? Was I wrong to sleep sitting up for the last 7 months? Should I have let the stomach acid hang out in my esophagus? Should I have just laid down and dealt with the pain and allowed it to possibly do more damage every night? Maybe they would have found something?
At this point, I don’t have a clue what to do. I’m stuck wondering if the only reason why there was no evidence was because I took care of myself as best I could give in the symptoms I had. Do I just keep doing what I’m doing? I can’t live like that very well. I’m already such a light sleeper that I don’t sleep very well in general, but sitting up? Good crap.
So do I assume that there isn’t anything to do damage, and I just lie down and deal with it and it’s not going to do damage? Or do I assume that if I lie down, I actually will do damage?
I mean, what do I do?!?!?!
It’s really really discouraging to spend thousands of dollars and to have zero answers.
Really discouraging.
Mom took me home. I was mostly in good spirits while I was drugged up. I remember cracking jokes with the nurses and people and whatnot. But eventually, when I’m not around other people, the discouragement starts to set in.
It just seems like the story of my life is the unknown. It’s like there’s never a solid answer for anything That’s really important to me.
Tell me I have cancer. Tell me I’m going to die in 2 years. Tell me I’ve got x condition that requires x treatment. Fine, at least I can understand what on earth is going on. At least I have something that I can hold to and work with.
But these giant question marks that seem to be my lot in life… I’m not built to handle them very well.
But it is what it is. The only thing I can do is try and accept that I don’t have the answers and don’t know what’s going to happen, and I can keep searching for the answers.
Which I will try and do.
I pretty much vegged out the rest of the day. I know I did some things that were productive. I just don’t remember what they were. 😅
Having not eaten in a while, stuffed my face until I was far too full, and I went to bed.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 