We came in the department 30 minutes early. Some paperwork had to be done and a few questions had to be answered. One of the things that bugged me early this morning was the question, "Are you employed?" addressed to my mom. Well, I digress. Just imagine what I thought about that line.
I was accompanied by the nurse to the hallway. My mom had to wait outside. I waited for a while in the couch and then transferred to the armchair for the IV. An older woman came before me and I just stared. I wanted to see what would happen. I was a little scared but I kept consoling myself that all the pain would only be in the IV. I would be sedated in the whole procedure. When it was my turn for the IV, the nurse found my veins too thin. It took her a few minutes to finally insert the IV. It was really painful! There was a time when the needle was being pulled back and forth through my skin. I thought it was weird but I figured that she knew better than I did. Also, have you ever seen your hands find something underneath the bed sheet? That was how a part of the IV insertion went. The hand moving left and right like a wiper was the needle while the bed sheet was my skin. It felt bad. I can't believe the woman before me only took seconds for her IV! I pretended to be strong for the people looking at me... and well, for myself. True enough, I believed I was strong and endured the brouhaha of the IV.
After a while, I went to the gastroscopy room. I met my anesthesiologist here. I met my doctor and fellow beforehand. If I'm not mistaken, there were around 6 people in the room with me during the procedure. I laid on my left side with my legs curled (favorite part!). Fetus position-ish. They placed some heart monitors, bp monitor, and oxygen. I thought the oxygen was pretty cool. When it was put in my nose, I breathed through my mouth for a good 3 breaths because I thought that the oxygen would surge fast into my head. Well, paranoid me. It wasn't like that at all. The air just flowed gently out of the tubes. Last time I had oxygen, I wore a mask, not the tube. I was given local anesthesia after that. Mouth spray. I had that a couple of times already so I was okay with it.
Before the procedure, the nurse said some of the patient's history (oh yeah, 3rd person) for everyone in the room. I thought that was cute. I was rooting for her good speech in my head. Well, it's not really a speech. I was just happy that she was there, standing confident and talking. Right after her lines, I felt like my right hand was being chopped slowly. Staggering pain coming from the IV. It almost felt like Twinrix was being injected into my hand. It was the sedative. I don't really remember which happened first, the speech or the sedative. It doesn't really matter. Instead of moving my hand away, I jolted my head to the direction of my right hand. I might have looked like an owl who just saw its meal. Haha! In hindsight, I should have moved my hand instead of moving my head. Either a nurse was holding my hand firmly or I was too careful about my already painful IV to wiggle it around. After the pain, I laid calmly again. After maybe 3 seconds, I was sedated. Goodness! How strong must that have been?!
I woke up in the recovery room feeling high. I saw my mom and I asked her to take a picture. Tears were falling down from my eyes and my nose was snotty. I don't know why! I had to ask for tissue. After a minute or so, my mom left and I tried sleeping again. It didn't work so I just closed my eyes and placed the blanket over my head because the light was too bright! Not much help really but it was something. I sang Firework in my head. Half-worrying I might have forgotten. After many attempts, I got the song right and tried giving sleep another try. Still didn't work. Though I felt like I was floating, I told the nurse that I was okay. They removed my IV (much to my dismay, removing it didn't remove the pain) and I went straight to the bathroom! I went to my mom afterwards then to the doctor's clinic. My doctor discussed the results and I am for ultrasound in 2 weeks!
My right hand is bruised as I type this. My throat feels okay. My eyes feel sleepy. I am okay, technically. It was cool having experienced it, though I really didn't know what happened. I only hope to be fully okay soon enough. :)
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| Me at the recovery room. Still high from the sedative. |
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