The story started about one month back when 贝 did a colonoscopy first. He has been feeling some mild pain at his stomach. After checking his gastric and taking medication for almost six months, the condition was still the same. The doctor said that because of the location of the pain, the cause might by the gastric or intestine. So he heeded the doctor's advice and decided to do a colonoscopy. The result turned out to be fine and he could now focus the treatment on the gastric.
After he has gone through the procedure, he has been urging me to do it too. Since young, i've been having long-term constipation; i do not defecate everyday. The frequency is irregular. Sometimes i can go everyday, while most of the times it maybe every 3 to 4 days. As dad died of colon cancer, i'm highly susceptible to the same illness and my inability to defecate everyday is one of the nagging point for mom.
Two weeks back i broke my record -- i didn't have bowel movement for 5 days. Then i finally decided to visit Dr. Chia at Johor Specialist Hospital. After a short consultation, Dr. Chia thought that since i have a family history of colon cancer, it is best to do a colonoscopy just to make sure of my condition. He told me that people like me are advised to do a checkup every three years starting from the age of 35. Since my constipation is getting worse, then I should do it now even though it's 5 years earlier.
I agreed to do the procedure and was given a dietary instruction and a bottle of oral saline laxative:
Instructions and Laxative for colonoscopy
- Two days before the procedure -- rice and meat, no veggie and fruits
- One day before the procedure,
→ until 5pm -- congee and meat, no veggie and fruits
→ 7pm -- drink half bottle of the laxative diluted in one glass of water, followed by six glasses of water until 10pm - On the day of the procedure, 5am -- drink the remaining half bottle of the laxative diluted in one glass of water, followed by four glasses of water until 6m
After taking the laxative, i waited patiently for it to take effect. The exciting part started about one hour later at 8pm. I didn't feel any pain in the stomach but could hear the growling sound. Then there was this urge to fart but the feeling was a bit different from normal fart as i could feel something waiting to ooze out.
Anyone who had diarrhea (generally known as lau sai) before should know the feeling. I rushed to the toilet and the diarrhea marathon finally began. From then on until 9am this morning, i had more than 15 times of diarrhea. Initially i wanted to keep a record of how many times i went, but it became so frequent that in the end i simply lost count. C'mon lah, when you are practically urinating shit with your ass hole, who can still keep count of such thing?!Of course, as expected, i couldn't sleep well and gotta wake up early to take the remaining laxative to wash off whatever that was left in my stomach. What was unexpected was the pain that i gotta endure due to the excessive wiping. Uh huh, after wiping my ass so many times, i think the delicate skin around that area must have been wiped off and it was so painful even until now! Towards the last few instances, i really couldn't endure the pain of wiping anymore that i gotta wash it and just let it dry by itself. Even when water touched the ass, i could feel the pain... so that was what i gotta put up with for hours: painful ass dripping with water and wet pants! My advice to anyone who's gonna do colonoscopy -- don't use toilet paper; use water instead and get ready to change your pants many times.
The time finally come and mom sent me to the hospital. After registration, at around 10.20am, i was asked to changed into the patient's clothes, with my pants and panties removed of course.
Me in patient's clothes
Then the nurse injected a small needle tube at the back of my left hand, which was meant for the anesthetic jab later. The injection was quite painful because it was right at the vein and the needle tube was a bit bigger in size than the normal needle.
Needle tube at the back of my hand
I waited for 30 minutes in the patient's clothes (without panties!) and with the needle tube in my hand before Dr. Chia finally showed up.
Dr Chia in operation attire
I was the third patient Dr Chia attended to. When i was asked to go to the procedure room and lie on the bed, i was feeling quite nervous. After all, i was never a fan of having anything shoved up my anus, no matter how small that thing is. After i've lied down, Dr Chia asked me how was i feeling. Just as i was telling him that i was feeling nervous, i saw the nurse injected something into the needle tube. Then Dr Chia asked me to turn sideway to my left. As i turned... ...
... ...
... ...
"彬啊，彬。。。" I was awaken by my mom and realized that i was already out of the procedure room lying on my back in the bed. I saw that the needle tube was already removed from my hand and there was a plaster at where the needle tube was.
Plaster and needle hole on my hand
I checked the time and it was about 12.45pm. Oh, that's nice. I didn't feel a thing during the colonoscopy. Thanks to the sedative, i just dozed off and slept soundly for almost an hour. If it's not for my mother, i might continue sleeping because i was so tired from the diarrhea that kept me awake through the night.
While i stood up, i could still feel a bit dizzy. Not sure it was due to the after-effect of the sedative or the lacking of sleep. I changed back to my clothes and was relief that there wasn't any pain in my anus (only around it due to earlier excessive wiping). My mom and i went to see Dr Chia for the result. He showed us the pictures of my large intestine and told us that i have a healthy colon.
Pictures of my large intestine (pls look away if it's too disgusting for your eyes)
He prescribed some medicine for my constipation and arranged for another consultation one month later.
Medication
I was glad that there wasn't anything wrong with me until i saw the bill (RM885)... What a price to pay for having someone poking something up your anus to look inside your intestine!
Medical Bills
So, there, that was my exciting story of my very first colonoscopy. Can't imagine that i have to go through all these every three years! One thing for sure is that i would not be wiping my ass so hard next time. Hey, everyone gotta learn from their lessons!
