Last Week's Appointment

Having inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) requires you to go to see your GI doctor at least twice a year. With me, I have to have a flexible sigmoid scope every year. I didn’t understand in the past why. I asked last year, and my doctor said that they are looking for cancer. In my mind, I was confused because that was one of the about five reasons why they removed my whole colon and gave me a j-pouch. So for the whole year, it was bugging me to ask what he meant. Well last Tuesday and Thursday, I had my chance. Let me explain:

Sigmoid scope to check for cancer

Last Tuesday, I went in for my twenty-fifth sigmoid scope. The day before I did clears. I really struggled since I was so hungry. On the day before, I did a modified bowel prep. Instead of eight cups of Mira lax and Gatorade, I only had to do half. The reason I did the modified bowel prep is that I go to the bathroom so many times a day already! At ten o’clock, I took two stool softeners. After midnight, I did not have anything to eat. When I arrived at the hospital, I asked my doctor about “cancer.” He explained that the “cancer” would show up in the one inch of the rectum that he left in me. Oh! That makes sense now. There could not be cancer in my colon because I don’t have a colon. The quick procedure went flawless, and no cancer was detected. I left the hospital ready to eat and sleep. That I did.

Good appointments for both my wife and I

I returned Thursday for my normal six-month appointment. It just so happened that it was two days after my procedure. This time I brought my wife because it just so happened she was able to get an appointment with him. She has a very mild case of colitis, but her old GI never got back to her, yet was renewing her medication every month. My doctor usually doesn’t take new patients, but last Fall, I almost begged him to see her. He said, “ok.” Her appointment was at 2:00, and mine was at four.  We hoped that he would see us together, but we were prepared if he could not. I brought my I-Pad and my books to keep me busy in case we had to wait in between appointments.

It was a great day. My doctor spent about an hour with her. They went through everything. He also didn’t know he was seeing me that day. He thought I was only there to support my wife. When he went to shake my hand, I explained to him that I did have an appointment with him. He did his semi-annual examination on me. He told me that when he did the procedure the day before he found a small ulcer in the small bowel just about the j-pouch. He was not worried about it, although he did send a biopsy to pathology. So we both left his office accomplished. We celebrated a good bill of health with dinner and drinks downtown!