Back from Cleveland

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

Firstly..thanks for calling Karyn, it was good to talk to you in

person...I did ask Dr Carol Burke, the GI who did my EGD but she

deals specifically with FAP so she recommended a Dr Cronwell in the

Pancreas Specialist section of Cleveland Clinic. I will get his

details over the next couple of days. I didn't see the doctors

(Burke and her resident) after my EGD. That was disappointing to me

because I have come back home with not much information on the EGD

and the CT that I had.

The good news is that I don't have to have the remainder of my colon

out. The surgeon performed a flexible sigmoidoscopy on me first

thing in the morning visit. I told him " um..excuse me, I didn't

prep for this because I wasn't told about it " to his reply...that's

okay, we'll provide you with a couple of enemas..

They are so much better than having to drink yukky stuff to clean my

out..mind you with only 8 inches of colon, I don't have to drink

half the stuff the average person does when needing their colons

cleared *L*

There were about 15 polyps in there and he said that wasn't cause

for more drastic surgery. I don't know if he heard me mention, or

thought it important that those had grown just since December 14th,

and that means either plenty more are due to grow or I will have the

same amount but those ones will just get bigger. Either way, it was

his opinion I was going to follow and he said no, so I am free of

surgery for that for now thank goodness. I cried when I was lining

up to fill out the paperwork for my appointment (guess it just

became the reality really fast catching up with me) and then I cried

when he told me I didn't need to have it..and I know those were

relief tears..and told him he just made my husband a very happy man

indeed *L*

I do know that I they found 12 polyps in my duodenum which they said

were small, but that is just what the nurse read off some papers to

me, which I think I was supposed to keep, but with everything that

followed next I don't know where they went to...

They gave me 3mg Versed and 75mg Demerol to start the sedation..I

don't know if I got more, but I didn't wake up thank goodness...when

I came to in recovery, everyone was a fluster because I had to be at

the CT area within an hour, and I had to drink 2 bottles of the dye,

which most hospitals have the decency to chill. This one didn't.

They handed them both to me,and told me to drink the first one

within 20 minutes. During this time, I had almost finished the first

bottle and stood up to get into the wheelchair someone had organised

for me, because I couldn't walk in a straight line. Then he got me

to the fancy elevator area, and I felt really queasy, then downright

sick. I told him I was going to be sick and he ran to get some

towels and a bowl...too late, just as 3 of the elevator doors open

and tons of people spill out into the lobby, I spill my insides out

over their marble floor and all over me ughhhhhhhhhh..all that

lovely dye gone to waste *LOL*

He came back with a nurse and wet and dry towels and they tidied me

up...I was sick again, but made it down to the CT area. There whilst

waiting, I finished all but 1 inch of the second bottle, and that

was it...found where the bathroom was just in time...up came the

second bottle of the stuff. Then I got called into the CT room,

where the radiologist seemed a bit peeved that i was still in my

civvy clothes and not in hospital attire *L*...what did it matter..I

could change there which is what I did..sheesh *L*..she then said

that she heard I had brought up one bottle of the dye...to which I

told her..ummm...make that both bottles, and don't think to try and

give me another one because i'm ready to be sick again. I just

couldn't keep anything down. It was definitely a combination of the

pain medicine, and I had also come down with what my daughter had

caught the day before I left..

I don't know what they have found if anything. I shall send an email

to the coordinator and ask her to send me the findings of my CT scan.

I had to hang around at the airport for 4 hours before my flight

left. I tried to get an earlier one back but I had just missed it,

so I just sat and read a book. Then I had to drive the 1 1/2 hour

drive home. It all just disappeared from my memory when my daughter

ran to me when I got inside and threw her arms up and said..I missed

you very much mummy...

To which I got to tell her that mummy doesn't have to go to the

hospital for surgery now, and next time I go on a plane, it will be

to take her to Disney World in a couple of months time.

So all in all it's been a pretty good diagnosis for me and I just

need to keep up my annual monitoring which is no biggie for me. Oh

one thing the surgeon found is that after the sigmoidoscopy and

having to flush my colon some, he asked me how many BM's I've been

having daily..I told him about 5-15 per day..and they have been

getting smellier by the day for the past 6 months. I also told him

that lots of them float and are stringy. He saw that in what he

flushed and told me that my pancreatitis might have done damage that

other docs haven't seen because it appears my body isn't absorbing

the fats from my food anymore.

It's a shame my scales don't agree *L*..I pinched a roll and said if

you had seen me back in 2003, you could tell how much weight I lost

to pancreatitis, since my duct was fixed I have put it on plus

plenty more. He wants me to go on Creon, one before each meal to see

if that makes a difference. So looks like I might be asking

questions like those posted previously...unless I just remember the

advice everyone else has given to those using Creon *S*

Take care everyone,

Ward

PAI Administration Support Staff

dceward@...

[Guest guest]

,

I am so glad to hear your good news! I know you are so relieved! God bless

you!

Angie in SC

" The happiest of people don't necessarily have the

best of everything; they just make the best of everything that comes along

their way. "