After my colonoscopy, I went back home to the farm for a few days. It was nice to get away from the phone calls and appointments and to get out of the city for a break. I spend my days with my sister-in-law and my nieces and nephew. I feel bad because I don't have the energy to interact with them as I wish I could. The little ones want to play and I end up napping. Thank goodness they can all sit on my lap and I can read to them. I hope they don't remember Auntie being like this...it won't be a fun memory for them if auntie just sits in the lazy boy and observes them playing instead of playing with them. But it the end, I think the few days away were helpful and needed.
On March 24, 2009, I go for my Small Bowel Follow Through X-Ray. It is a painless procedure. You drink crap and if I remember correctly for this exam, I had to chew on these "pop rock" type things to cause a fizzing action in my stomach. Then I had to literally flip myself around on the exam table a few times so that they were assured that it was all mixed up in my system. Who knew gymnastics would be a requirement for this exam! They take a bunch of pictures of my small bowel and I will get the results next week.
March 26 and 27th we had two big nights out. The first night we went to the Jubilation's dinner theatre with a group of friends for a fun night of the production "Corner Gassed"...a spoof off the Canadian TV show "Corner Gas". It was nice to get out and to interact with people, have a good meal and to watch a funny production. As fun as it was, by the end I was done. Again, exhausted, cold, headache, diarrhea, sore, massive tingling in my face and hands etc. But it was good to get out and try act normal for an evening.
The next night we were celebrating our friends 50th birthday. The party was in a home setting which was nice as I could stay seated most the night and interact with people that way. My friend and I like to have a glass of champagne for special occasions and when she asked me if I would share some champagne with her in honor of her birthday, I agreed to a very small glass as I remembered the New Year's Eve experience. It was more so I could have a little toast with her. I had a few little sips of champagne and didn't really think anything more, it was just a couple of sips. About 10 minutes later as we were visiting, people started to look at me funny. They started asking me if I was okay. Other than the usual symptoms, I didn't feel anything different or new. I asked them why they were asking me this. They brought me to the bathroom so that I could look in the mirror. My face had exploded into some kind of bright red rash, something I had never seen before. Great. We took pictures so that I could show my doctor at the next appointment. We didn't know what to do. Luckily, it calmed down with some time but seriously, what was that all about?!?
On March 30th, I went back to see Dr. Cadili (Gastro specialist) for my follow-up appointment to go over the colonoscopy biopsy and Small bowel follow-through x-ray results. Everything came back normal. Again, I remind myself that this is a good thing. But it is so hard to hear when you want to know what is going on with your body and to fix it. I try to stay positive....here we go again. In the end Dr. Cadili tells me that I most likely have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and I should be careful of what I eat. Be careful what I eat...if he only knew what I try to avoid (diary etc) to no results. Again, I have a hard time stomaching that diagnosis. It is another one of those ones that they throw you in as a catch all because they really don't know what is going on with you. I tuck the words IBS into the back of my brain in the category "Filed, never to be looked at again"
Okay April is upon us...what will that bring about for me?
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