Last year I discovered that what I thought was just a general run down feeling was really a medical problem.
A series of blood work by my primary physician showed that I was anemic, not just a little, but enough to send me to a gastroenterologist.
The dreaded colonoscopy had been done the year before, but this doctor had more tricks up his sleeve. After reviewing my blood work he said that an endoscopy was in order. They wanted to try to locate any place I might be losing blood that might be causing the anemia.
He said he would insert a tube with a camera down my throat. “You want me to swallow what?” I asked, alarmed as he explained the procedure.
He reassured me, “You will be given an anesthesia, Propofol, you will have a little sleep and in 15 minutes it will all be over.”
“Wait, Propel, wasn’t that the drug Michael Jackson was taking when he died?” My mind was racing, this wasn’t sounding good.
After he scheduled everything, I went home and checked it all out on the computer.
“Propofol is a very good anesthetic for milder sedation used for outpatient surgery because it puts people in a semi-conscious, drowsy state. “It has a very quick onset, but also wears off quickly. It’s like a switch. There’s little, if any, anesthetic hangover. And it doesn’t cause nausea or vomiting. And there is some loss of memory, which is a good thing,” according to www.health.harvard.edu.
“Check, sounds okay, they will be there monitoring everything,” I thought.
“Endoscopy is a nonsurgical procedure. Using an endoscope, a flexible tube with a light and camera attached to it, your doctor can view pictures of your digestive tract on a color TV monitor. During an upper endoscopy, an endoscope is easily passed through the mouth and throat and into the esophagus, allowing the doctor to view the esophagus, stomach, and upper part of the small intestine,” according to www.webmd.com.
“Well, I will be on camera, he he.” I relaxed. Little did I know that my doctor would also give me the photos of the inside of my stomach, Geez.
Does everybody check out these things on the computer, I wondered?
It all turned out fine and no bleeding was found. I was put on iron pills and in three months I was fine.
So this year I go back for those tests again and I am anemic again.
Well this was the kicker.”You want me to swallow what?” I was in disbelief.
“A camera contained in a pill that you swallow it in the morning, it will go through the small intestine and emit 1,000’s of pictures to a belt you wear as it goes through your system. Eight hours later we take the belt and read the pictures,” said the doctor.
“Wait, you really want me to swallow a camera, for real?” I couldn’t even wrap my mind around it.
“Oh, we do a lot of these, don’t worry,” he said in that patronizing tone. “This is the only way we can see the small intestine. It is not visible during a colonoscopy or endoscopy.”
So it is back to the computer.”Small Bowel Capsule Endoscopy (Pill Cam SB), This procedure involves ingesting a large pill which will pass naturally through your digestive system while taking pictures of the intestine. The images are transmitted to a data recorder which saves the images. You will wear a large belt around your waist. After 8 hours you return. The images are then downloaded to a computer so that your physician can examine them. The capsule will dissolve and pass through your system,” according to www.gipractice.com/pill-cam.php.
I don’t know how long I sat and looked at that capsule. I could see the little black camera inside it and it seems like I changed my mind a hundred times before I put the magic bullet in my mouth and swallowed it.
My biggest fear was it would get stuck inside me and they would have to operate to get it back out.
As I sit here, they have called me with a negative report, couldn’t find any bleeding. So it was uneventful, no pain, no stuck, and it’s back to the iron pills.
Oh, the magic of modern medicine. Share with me any new procedures you are having. Do you check it all out on the computer, too? I am listening on the record at quaintancecarol@gmail.com.
