The Medical Adventures of Dawna

Tuesday (2 days ago) I had a procedure where the Dr. looks into your gullet through a tube with a little light on the end that he sticks down your neck. It wasn't a bad experience.

The anesthesiologist was really nice and he gave me some medicine to calm my stomach so I wouldn't get nauseous. Then he came in to the little waiting room with what appeared to be a can of WD-40. He said "I'm going to spray this in the back of your throat. It will numb your throat and limit the gag reflex." (now that sounded interesting and I was wondering where I could get some for those occasional times I would need to limit my gag reflex - right Greg?) But what happened was, he said "Now this is going to taste like bananas." Really? But he stuck that long tube into the back of my neck and sprayed and OH MY GAWD! I started gagging and coughing and spitting! It may have smelled like bananas, but it tasted just like WD-40... or lydocaine because that's what it was.

So then they took me into the OR and put me on the little table. The Dr. gave me some medicine to help me "relax." I am here to tell you that was some good stuff! I think I expressed my true feelings for Dr. K. at that time... but it's a little foggy to me now. It must have been versed because Mom had that when she had this same procedure. She couldn't remember anything!

So after I had a nice little dream where the cute anesthesiologist was singing at my Christmas party, they woke me up and took me to a recovery room. I got dressed and had a piece of toast and a cup of coffee! Dr. K. came in and told me they had found a stenosis in the little area where my small intestine was reconnected to my little stomach. A stenosis is a narrowing of the opening. So he used a balloon thingy on the scope and pushed it open. Sometimes it takes more than one time of doing that to completely fix the thing, but some people have it once and it works. Hopefully that will be me. the photo shows a normal digestive system, but in mine it's different because I have a little tiny stomach now and the stenosis was in the place where they reattached the intestine to the stomach.

So now I'm eating and drinking and I haven't had that thing happen to me since. Of course it's only been a couple of days but I have been trying new foods (i.e. not soup) so I can tell if it's working. I had some chicken and yesterday Anita and I ate at Latin King and I had some pasta with prociutto and cheese and an antipasto plate of artichokes, tomatoes, white beans and boiled potatoes. It was delicious!

Anita and I went to Des Moines yesterday to finish our Christmas shopping. It was a zoo! Best Buy was the worst. There were at least a giga-gillion people there and they were just standing there. Toys 'R' Us was not so hot either. There were women with carts just standing in the aisles with a sort of dazed look on their faces. I'm sure they were just wiped out from the shopping and the kids and their jobs... lucky me! No kids, AND no job!

This will probably be my last blog before the holidays so just let me say thank you to all the friends and relatives that were there for me and supported me through my operations and all. I appreciate and love you all so much! Happy Holidays!