The Third Time is the Charm

So my on/off and then back on again colonoscopy went down today, my third one. I had my first experience in 2018. In that procedure the doctor removed a somewhat large polyp that was determined to be per-cancerous. Because of that finding I had to get a follow up done only three years later. During that exam only a small benign polyp was removed so my next screening was scheduled 5 years out which at the time seemed like a long time. In reality it arrived here much faster than I realized/wanted. Boy a lot of things have changed during those last 5 years.

The worst part of the first two colonoscopies was choking down the liquid Suprep. Each sip was gag inducing. This time I was able to use pills instead, 24 of them in total to achieve similar results. Even though the pills take awhile to get down since you are supposed to wait two minutes before ingesting each one, it still was much better for me. The countless trips to the toilet are never fun but unavoidable.

I was very tired this morning due to the limited and interrupted sleep I had last night. After getting up at 1AM for round two of the prep I didn’t get back to sleep until maybe 3:30 followed by a 4:45 alarm. My girlfriend took me to the hospital which we arrived at bright and early at 6AM for the 7:30 procedure. This is the first time I had a colonoscopy done in this hospital. My first two were at a specialized surgical center.

Other than getting stuck three different times trying to place the IV everything went smoothly. It was very disorienting waking up in the recovery room after what felt like an instant. To my mind it almost felt like I was teleported from the procedure room, the anesthesia knocked me out that quick. My eyes were blurry and I felt disoriented, so much so that I thought the nurse sitting next to my bed waiting for me to wake up was my girlfriend at first. Once she assured me she wasn’t my girlfriend she told me that the procedure went well and no polyps were present, a great thing. It took maybe 15 minutes until the fog cleared enough that I could get dressed and wheeled out to my girlfriends car. I was still pretty loopy the entire way home.

My task today is to take it easy as much as possible. I am also off tomorrow which is cool. It feels good to be on the other side of yet another colonoscopy with the possibility of not needing to get another for 5 or possibly even 10 years down the road. It feels even better to not have had to pay $1800 to get that outcome.