my week, of sorts
After digestive distress and nausea didn't clear up after 3 days, I went to the walk-in clinic in Denver Health in the afternoon Thursday to get checked out. I ended up getting switched to the ER when the walk-in clinic closed hours later then they wanted a CAT scan of my guts so I had to drink 3 liters of nasty barium ("pina colada" flavor - I never want that in my mouth again!) over the course of 3 hours. 3 different doctors came back and said that I had something that might be a blockage/growth/tumor (tumor?!) and that they might have to operate. They stuffed a tube down my nose into my stomach and vacuumed a bunch of dark reddish mucus-blood-fat-goo out over the course of 12 hours then talked about an operation again. I told them that there would be no operation unless they knew was it really was so they admitted me then did a colonoscopy.
Because the anomaly was in my jejunum it was easier to snake the scope down my throat so they had me lie on my side, sedated me then did their thing. The only thing I vaguely remember about the procedure was somebody saying "biopsy that" then they were waking me up. And smiling. While I was coming out there were asking me various questions to see if I knew where and who I was and evidently I'm not serious even when I'm really out of it. I remember none of this and was told later.
Examples:
Dr.: Do you know your name?
Me: Yes.
Dr.: What is your name?
Me: I don't know.
Dr.: What day is it?
Me: I don't know (I honestly had lost track of day and time)
Dr.: What state are you in?
Me: ...confusion.
Dr.: What state of the United States are you in?
Me: Colorado. Then Texas.
Dr.: Who is the president?
Me: ...Laura Roslyn
(at this point the tech running the system was the only person who understood that)
Tech (laughing): Are you a Cylon? [I stand corrected from original - who would have thought he found my Facebook!]
Me: Yes, I'm a Cylon.
At this point the docs must have thought I was totally crazy - and they would be right.
They eventually found it was a few ulcers that were not a big deal and no operations or anything radical like that were necessary,just a few days of rest and IV meds. The staff was really nice and once all of the stuff they put in me wore off I felt really good. They let me out tonight with no restrictions although I'm going to take it easy on hot/spicy and very acidic food for a few weeks just to be safe. (And NO MEAT!)
I must again give HUGE thanks to my healthcare program because with my (unfortunately common) level of use, I now have no copays for anything (starting in April) so this didn't destroy my life financially as it would have a few years ago. It's truly life-saving and I am blessed to live here and have access to it.
I will be at A-Kon as planned and I'm going to need some hugs. : )
[sorry about forgetting to turn comments on earlier]