First Colonoscopy

At my next 2 week follow up, I have now turned 20. At the appointment I only meet with the NP. He thinks that on top of everything else, I am also extremely dehydrated. He believes the next best step is to do a colonoscopy and orders extra fluids as well.

At this point, I am not too nervous. He informs me of the bowel preparation that will need to happen before the procedure. Still not too nervous. Then I go to the pharmacy to pick up the bowel cleanse and become a little nervous. The jug is larger than a gallon of milk. They tell you it's flavored with citrus to make it taste better. Ok.

Luckily, it's right after Christmas vacation and all my roommates are gone. I start the prep. This particular prep requires you to drink 8 ounces of the fluid within a 15 minute period and start over every 15 minutes. About 45 minutes into drinking this nasty liquid the runs begin. You spend most of the next several hours on the toilet. It's like someone hooked a water faucet to your butt and there is nothing you can do to control or stop it. After a few more hours of this it's all you can do to not throw up the liquid. If you throw it up, it does not cleanse you out properly and they could cancel your procedure. I finish the liquid and am in tears at this point. I believe that they try to kill you before they heal you.

Next morning, I check into the hospital. This procedure is the same as having a scope done. Except when they have you all hooked up and ready to go, you roll onto your left side and you are knocked out. 20 minutes later I begin waking up in recovery and hear the Dr. talking to my parents.

The first words I hear is that they found a polyp but no other problems to explain my symptoms. He then proceeds to tell my parents that maybe I am making up my symptoms and they should explore alternate means of finding out what's wrong with me. Great. He thinks I am crazy. I am crushed. The one person that is supposed to be on your side doesn't even think that anything is wrong with me. I finish waking up and want out of the hospital. I begin to believe him, and decide that I won't see him anymore. I have given up hope and decide that maybe I am just destined to be a sick person.