Boy was I nervous. Would it hurt? How much would I feel? How much would I remember? How long would it take? All of these people are going to see my butt. But even worse than that, I need an IV. OH GOD DO I HATE SHOTS! Especially IVs, those needles are HUGE! But, I got through the IV, was wheeled into the room, they asked me to roll over onto my side in the fetal position. All I could think was "Here it goes, this is it, I'm going to...." Then nothing. I was asleep, dead as a door-nail. When I woke up I was back in the room with my boyfriend sitting next to me playing his DS. I asked him what happened and he said that they had brought me back in about 15 minutes ago. That was it? It was over? All that hype for that? Let me tell you, if a colonoscopy is something you're afraid of because they tell you things like you will be awake, blah blah, don't let it get to you. You're either dead asleep or you don't remember much of anything.
Now, I know anesthesia works differently for different people, so maybe other people will have a different experience than I did. But honestly, it wasn't bad at all. In fact, since then, I've had to have 3 more colonoscopies and now they're nothing (except those damn IVs). After the colonoscopy I was officially diagnosed with Ulcertive Colitis, a disease where your colon becomes inflamed and irritated. I was glad to know what it was and even happier when she gave me medication. I thought, finally, this pain is over. I started taking the pills three times a day like I was supposed too and for a while, they worked. I felt no pain, no cramping. I was no longer having to go to the bathroom several times a day and for once, I felt better. Sadly, that did not last. After being on the initial medication for about 3 months and having great success with it, the symptoms did come back and they came back worse than ever. So I was put on another medication in addition the first one, to no avail. After the pills stopped working, we moved onto the next step, IV medications (I just could not escape these damn IVs). This is when things started to roll downhill quickly.
You probably could have guessed that the IV medication did not work....of course. So I was put back onto the pills. I was bleeding so much that my hemoglobin level became dangerously low (it was at a 7 and should have been at 14). So I needed to get a blood transfusion (guess what THAT required? Yup, an IV.) So I did that, which took about an hour. When I got home, I threw up and knew that this process was far from over.
On Thanksgiving Day was when shit hit the fan basically. I was still bleeding, still cramping, having a hard time eating and sleeping, weak from blood loss. On this day is when the vomiting started. It started to happen daily, usually after dinner. I could feel the strength just being ripped from my body and the doctor could do nothing but give me more pills. In no time, I was vomiting after everything I ingested, including water. VERY quickly, I became dehydrated, malnourished, my hemoglobin level continued to drop, I was dying. Never in my life had I been so afraid of dying. Three days after Christmas, I was rushed into the emergency room at DHMC.
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