Mine must have been negative as I wasn't told not to attend my procedure on the Tuesday. But I felt rough - before you have any kind of 'oscopy in the colon, they have to 'empty' you - and it's not fun. In fact I was 'emptying' through the night, so by Tuesday morning I was pretty shattered, as well as being hungry having not eaten since lunchtime Monday.
This repeat sigmoidoscopy was so that the consultant who will perform my operation could go in and get a proper look. As well as seeing Gertrude the tumour in full colour, we saw a polyp, a small ulcer and some redness which turned out to be diverticulitis. Oh, and there's hemorrhoids too. What a journey that little camera went on!
I felt absolute rubbish on Tuesday - my belly hurt, my backside hurt, and I was exhausted. But that's one more stage in the process complete. After the procedure the best bit is the cup of tea and biscuits! And they hook you up to an oxymeter and measure your blood pressure. I looked at the oxymeter - 95%. I did my breathing exercises (cancer hates oxygen) and got it up to 100% in seconds. Thanks to Jen Tiller my breathing coach.
Next it's a consultation with the surgeon on Friday. From there I'll know roughly when I have surgery, hopefully. These are testing times for us all. I'm just hoping that I can get my surgery in before we end up in the same situation that we had back in March - with the ITU beds full of Covid patients. If we get another bad spike, then there's no way they'll operate on me (or others) and take the risk of having a cancer patient in an ITU where there are Covid patients.
So - fingers crossed for a good consultation on Friday and a speedy admission. The sooner I can get Gertrude forcibly evicted (she ignored the radiotherapy, though it did shrink her), the better.
Onwards!
Related:
- Under the knife (where I thought I'd be then, where I am again now)
- Gertrude remains
Photo credit: Ottowa Times
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