Colonoscopy Yay!

I went to see a gastro doctor about my intestinal difficulties a month or so ago and we scheduled a colonoscopy which I did on Monday. I got to spend my Sunday drinking hot tea with no cream and eating jello (gag) and taking ducolax pills and then drinking an entire bottle of miralax mixed with 64 ounces of liquid. 64 ounces of liquid is a lot of liquid to get down in a few hours, but the prep is a whole lot better than it was 9 years ago when I had my last colonoscopy. That prep involved enemas, not just one but two, and no enemas are way better than two of them. The ducolax and the miralax work just fine to clean out your colon and you spend a lot of time on the toilet.

The colonoscopy went fine, I was sort of awake and could hear the doctor and nurses talking but sort of asleep and had some weird kind of dreams but couldn't really feel what they were doing. I had one moment of 'discomfort' and I'm assuming that is when they snipped off the one polyp that they found. They had asked me if it was okay if a pre-med student observed the procedure and I was fine with that, he was just going to be watching the screen so I'm assuming a lot of the talking that I heard was the doctor explaining things to the student.

The doctor thinks that my issues are because my pancreas is not working correctly which is directly related to alcohol use. I haven't had a drink in about 10 years but back in my single days there was quite a bit of beer and margarita drinking and I guess it all catches up with you. Keith is also having pancreas problems, again directly related to alcohol. He's consumed quite a few beers (and whiskey) in his life too. So, no more drinking ever for him and since I don't drink at all anymore, not such a big change for me. It does kind of make me want a gin and tonic though since I know I'll never ever get to have one again!

I go in for my follow up early next month and will probably be prescribed some digestive enzymes that should help and am supposed to eat low fat on top of my low carb diet. Most of us don't really know what the pancreas does, but if it's not working correctly your food is not being digested properly which means your body isn't getting the nutrients out of the foods and actually could lead to malnutrition despite trying to eat a healthy diet. Plus you get DIARRHEA!

Keith is going in for an MRI next week for his pancreas issues and then will go for a follow up with the same gastro doctor that I saw, who I like very much and seems to be very caring and thorough. Keith doesn't get diarrhea but rather pain and vomiting when his pancreas is acting up. If it's not coming out one end, it's coming out the other around here!

We are getting tired of doctor visits though so I'm hoping that we can get ourselves eating the proper foods and him not drinking any beer and get our innards back in shape soon!