Monday, May 19, 2008

Up yours!

Last week was a very special week. Angelo got to get a colonoscopy on Tuesday! Yippee for him! For those of you who may be wondering what that is, it's when a doctor (hopefully a qualified one) shoves a giant hose with a camera on it up your rear to inspect your colon and intestines. Angelo is a very lucky man, this was his sixth one! He's a pro now. Angelo has ulcerative colitis which basically means his intestines are very angry and irritable and don't like anything around for very long. You know that song that goes, "when your sliding into first and you feel something burst! Diarrhea! Diarrhea!" Well, that's like Angelo's theme song. If you are ever wondering where a bathroom is just ask Angelo because he will have already scoped out the place for one. Because of his condition he has to get a camera tour every couple of years to make sure he doesn't have cancer. This year went well. The hardest part according to him is the "cleansing process" which began with a fast on Sunday starting at midnight. All day Monday all he could eat was beef broth and non-red jello. On Monday evening the real fun began. That's when he got to take some pills which began the free flow of anything that was left in his system. This process includes lots of "get outta my way" moments. It is also an excellent time for him to catch up on any reading because he basically gets to sit on his "special throne" for hours. Once we got the hospital on Tuesday morning things went pretty smoothly. It is always kinda funny because he is always the youngest person by decades in endoscopy so the nurses always like him. After they got him situated and his IV put in they wheeled him to his procedure room. I got to stand there with him and they began to sedate him and it was quit amusing. At first the sedation medicine didn't really do anything for him and so the nurse gave him another round. He didn't seem that affected still so she left to go get some more. As soon as she left the room Angelo face got real relaxed and then his eyes got really heavy and soon his mouth gaped open. When the nurse returned I laughed and said I think that last one worked. Soon after that I left for the waiting room and then they called me in after he was done. It's always kind of amusing when I go back in to see him cause he's still and drugged up and when Angelo is like that he just rambles on about weird stuff. After he woke up fully we were able to go. He was told to not operate machinery or sign legal papers that day. That was disappointing because we were so looking forward to taking a ride in our forklift.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

How awful!! I am glad it went well. I hope to never get one of those done!! I remember watching the guy that got it done on Oprah - ughh!!!