Monday, May 10, 2010

Rectal bleeding and colonscopy

When you suddenly find yourself having rectal bleeding, dripping down to the toilet bowl and you simply do not feel good even though it could be just piles or hemorrhoids. This is the third time I experienced for this past 1 year and if one ever searches through the internet, the experts will always advise you to seek medical attention right away just to make sure. I had ignored the previous 2 times on the advice!

Once you see red again, psychologically you doubted your health condition and very much depressed. I felt my lower abdomen was not comfortable and always had that bloated feeling once food or water was consumed. I wonder why the stomach seems to be churning and rolling all the time ! Was the food too hard to be digested, or I chewed too lightly on my food, or my digestive system is having problem? All these negative feelings started to haunt me and I had to seek medical advice to get myself out of this very uneasy situation.

Not surprisingly, colonscopic examination was recommended!  Preparing colonscopic examination is a messy procedure. Firstly I had to take 2 doses of laxative to clean up the entire intestine. One day before the examination, 4 pm was supposed to be my last meal of the day with fish porridge and without any meat, vegetables, fruits, cereal, milk etc. and at 6 pm the first dose of  intestine cleaning medicine was taken and it took 2 hours to feel the effect and purging of 4-5 times for the next 3 hours before it finally stopped. And the next day about 5-6 am the second dosage was administered, thereafter no more food and drink were allowed. Waiting for the colonscopy with empty stomach and feeling of uncertainty was an agony. On that day, the operation or surgical room was fully occupied and the examination was scheduled at 9 am was delayed to almost 1 pm. When I was inside the room, the beeping of the equipment that measured heatbeats, the display digital screen, and the long rod with its scope for examining intestine seen dangling all the way from top to almost touching the floor level, needles and syringes to admininster sedative medicine lying on the nearby table created a familiar scene that appears only in TV programs that mean serious business. While waiting for the surgeon to come in for the scoping job, I was tossing around on the bed with occasional changing of my lying positions just to relieve my nervousness and smoothen my breathing rhythm .Sleeping on one side of my chest wth my legs curled up in a ready to be examined posture for too long was simply not comfortable.

The final hour came and I said my prayer while the sedation jab was given and I was half conscious and could feel the examining tool forced through, perhaps a narrow portion of my intestine that caused some slight pain. The nurses said I was mumbling something that they could not comprehend. It was finally over after about 40 minutes and I was relieved when the result was declared well and clean with 2 small minute polyps removed. During the same process of the colonscoping,  the internal piles were banded and that created an uncomfortable feeling at the anus area and now I could fully understand what the expression of " Pain in the a ..."  means exactly!

It is really a great joy to know that you are blessed with a healthy body and all the other things in the world just do not matter to us anymore at that particular moment. I had that exact feeling when this examination was over. Hallelujah and thanks God! My wife and children had a sumptuous meal for celebration!

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