Medical Update

Had to go in yesterday for an "upper endoscopy." If you don't know what that is, it's where they shove a camera on a tube down your throat to take pictures of your stomach.

I had to be there at 6am so that meant getting the wife and baby up at about 4:30 because I had to have someone drive me home afterwards. The wife was not thrilled, the baby was up and ready before we were.

The procedure went well, the put and IV in my arm and started the drugs. Those drugs worked fast! The doc asked me if I could feel it working. I said, "I think so." Next thing I know I'm "waking up" in recovery.

The reason I said, "waking up" is that I thought at the time that I was just waking up, but according to my wife I had been awake the whole time and even talked to the doctor about his findings. Fortunately my wife was there and they gave me a nice little print out of the results, or I'd have had no idea what happened.

What? You want to see the pictures? Well, OK...

The first picture is my normal crico-pharyngeal region.

The second is a 12mm gastro-esophageal stricture where "a 51FR guided bougie was introduced for dilation successfully."

The third picture is a localized erythema of the mucosa with no bleeding in the stomach antrum.

I was still very groggy after the procedure. In fact, I had mentioned to my wife that we'd need to stop for gas on the way home. Later that evening I was going to order some chinese food, but couldn't find my debit card. As I was looking for it, it occurred to me that we had forgotten to stop for gas on the way home and I'd have to do that next time we went out. Then I asked my wife if she knew where my card was and she said that I had given it to her when we stopped for gas on the way home!