Changing gears again this morning. Remember on Day 4 this year when I posted about poop? Thought I'd do a crappy follow-up to it. I had talked about being the coolest chemist when I was collecting her stool samples. The most recent stool sample that we had collected showed some abnormalities and Vicki's GI called me the other day to talk about it. We've done the same stool samples in the past, and they had been negative. This time a few the tests came back {for those of you who are poop connoisseurs her calprotectin was significantly elevated, along with a few others} not so great that raised concerns again for both Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis. So, the GI wanted to schedule a sedated colonoscopy and upper endoscopy as soon as we could. Fast forward to today. Today's the day.
Vicki has had 2 upper endoscopies done before with biopsies taken to keep tabs on her reflux and check out other issues. She has never had a colonoscopy done before. He decided he wanted to do both at the same time, to lessen the number of times she has to be sedated {because we also have a sedated MRI looming on the horizon}. So, in the past 2 days, I've raced around trying to get things scheduled and taken care of. Not only prepping the insurance and pre-op stuff with nursing and the doctor by phone, but also making sure I canceled all of the other services she gets on a daily basis and coordinated Mark's work schedule. It's crazy how many calls I have to make to get that done. Anyway.
I had to keep Vicki home from school yesterday to do the prep for the colonoscopy. I was really worried about it. And, in true Vicki fashion, she rocked it. I talk a lot about how difficult things are when dealing with change. One of the exceptions, it seems, is when we have to do stuff with doctors. I know deep down that Vicki knows that doctors are trying very hard to help her feel better. I know she feels crappy a lot. And when we talk to her about doctors and hospitals, it's like a switch is flipped in her head, and she can do the things that are different. She knows the name of her GI doctor. That's how much we see him. She will say "belly hurt, Dr. ....... please". And it breaks my heart and makes me so proud at the same time.
So, we did the colonoscopy clean-out yesterday. She rocked not having her "yogurt medicine" in the morning. {Usually, I give her the omeprazole - her reflux medicine, mixed in yogurt before she gets in the shower}. She was able to move on when I told her it was because we had to do different medicine for the doctor. She knows that when we have to drink Gatorade, she wears a diaper, and she went and got a diaper out. We couldn't do her applesauce medicine {she can't swallow pills, so I crush them, or open capsules, and mix them with applesauce}. She was able to take her clear liquid Keppra and Zoloft though. But she couldn't have her normal breakfast, so I made yellow jello and apple juice the most exciting thing in the world. And she did amazing. Then we started the Gatorade/Miralax clean-out. 8 oz every 30 minutes. And she rocked that. I don't think she quite understood why she couldn't eat though, and I felt really bad. She kept asking for dinner. I offered her a few clear liquid choices but she got mad. I would have to. Eventually, she asked for a popsicle and resigned herself to that. We were up really late last night because it took a long time for the magic potion to start working. She will never tell me when she has to go to the bathroom when she is doing a clean-out, so I have to watch her really close for signs and try to take her at appropriate times. She refuses to get up a lot, so it's a bit of a battle. But we didn't have any accidents last night or this morning so I will call that a win.
I have to run now though to get her up, we have to be at the hospital pretty early today. If you could just keep Vicki in your thoughts today, I would appreciate it. Anytime she gets anesthesia and has a procedure done, I get nervous. I will post later to let you all know how it went. I hope that the doctor is able to find out the cause of the shitty issues she is having, and we can put a plan together to help her. I would love for Vicki to not have to ask for her GI doctor because her belly hurts. Much love to you all. xoxo
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