My trip to London, and what I did there
Jul. 6th, 2007 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wellinghallCut because it's (a) squicky and (b) long.
On Wednesday morning, I had my final solid food (poached chicken and boiled potatoes). Then I saw Creatrix out of the house, and packed for the trip to London. I dealt with some work emails and made a few phone calls to the office, then rang my grandparents to thank them for a card (which was when my grandmother asked me about the iron).
To the station, and a long conversation with the chap at the ticket office about the best & cheapest way to get tickets. It turned out (by comparison with Creatrix) to be not quite the cheapest, but I'm not blaming him - there were lots of options available, and he can't have that many people wanting to make that particular journey.
Into Farringdon by First Capital Connect, and then out again to Northwood Hills, via Baker Street. (A bit of free advice - don't use the loos at Farringdon!) My mother in law gave me tea, then lunch of chicken stock and jelly.
The afternoon was spent taking the bowel prep, drinking vast amounts of water, and dashing to the loo. Creatrix arrived in the evening, and they sat down to a delicious looking dinner - Creatrix's mother being nearly as good a cook as Creatrix - while I had, you guessed it, chicken stock and jelly. The rest of the evening was then spent as a re-run of the afternoon. And so to bed.
Thursday started early (partly because the MiL lives on a main road). The taxi came at 7.10, to take us to St Mark's hospital. We got there about 7.30, which gave us plenty of time to look at their glossy (and actually quite interesting) annual report.
At 8.00, I went to the first reception, and checked in; then to the second reception, and checked in again. Nurse F appeared after a few minutes - I had been talking to her for a while about the tests, and she had seemed very pleasant and helpful, and it was a pleasure to meet her in person. She took all my details, asked me a few basic questions, and took some basic obs (blood pressure, pulse, oxygen). She also told me that Dr S would be doing my endoscope - he is the senior endoscopist there, which makes him one of the best in the world - he has quite literally written the book for a lot of things.
Then the capsule endoscope. This involved (a) sticking sensors onto my stomach; (b) attaching them to a recorder, much like an external HDD; (c) waving the capsule near the sensors, to check that it was being picked up; (d) swallowing the capsule; and (e) checking that the sensors were still picking it up. After that, all I (or the nurses) had to do was to make sure that the sensors didn't fall off, and that the little blue light on the recorder was flashing twice a second. (In a new innovation, they - and I - could look at the pictures from the capsule in real time. They only did this occasionally, though. Later on, a nurse will have to sit down and watch all six hours of it!)
Then some Emla cream, to numb my hands and arms, and some Temazepam, to calm me down. Then a nice lie down, during which I started to feel rather yawny in a pleasant kind of way.
Then at about 10.00 I was wheeled into "theatre" - not technically a theatre, but the room where the endoscopies are done, and everyone seems to know what I mean when I call it that. The canula went in - I was pretty calm beforehand, but very rough afterwards. This is a distinct step up from normal, when I am terrible beforehand as well. So I'm half way there!
I had the upper and lower endoscopies under conscious sedation, combined with an amesiac. I have very vague memories of them finishing one end, and changing over to the other, but that's about all.
I started to come to about 12.00. A couple of nurses came to say hello and keep an eye on me. After a while, they brought me tea and biscuits. Then they took obs again. Consciousness continued to return, and by about 1.00 I was able to get up and walk through to a room where Creatrix was waiting.
Nurse F kept popping in and out, and checked that the capsule had descended into my large intestine. Then at 2.00 I was free to get dressed and go. Nurse F kindly arranged a taxi for us, without realising that we were only going back to Northwood, not Harlington. The taxi driver took some time to understand this! While we were waiting for the taxi, I got a sandwich and a bun from the tea room.
Then back to the MiL, more tea, dinner, and bed.
Up betimes again on Friday - exchanged anniversary presents - and into Farringdon, just in time to catch a train to Luton (for my work) and Bedford (for Creatrix's). I actually managed to get into the office before 9 o'clock!
There were - wait for it - fifty-eight emails waiting for me this morning! I'm plowing through them, together with the twenty-three more that have arrived since then!
The upper endscopy showed some small polyps in my stomach, but none big enough to be worth removing :-)
The lower endoscopy showed no polyps in my large intestine :-)))
I don't know yet what the capsule endoscopy showed. This checks the small intestine, and that's where PJS sufferers are most likely to get polyps.
Memory of the day - nurse F's face, when she asked, "How many centimetres of your small intestine did they remove in 2002?" Me - "1.7 - " - and you could see her thinking, "Well that's not very much." Me - " - metres" - and you could see her face change!
On Wednesday morning, I had my final solid food (poached chicken and boiled potatoes). Then I saw Creatrix out of the house, and packed for the trip to London. I dealt with some work emails and made a few phone calls to the office, then rang my grandparents to thank them for a card (which was when my grandmother asked me about the iron).
To the station, and a long conversation with the chap at the ticket office about the best & cheapest way to get tickets. It turned out (by comparison with Creatrix) to be not quite the cheapest, but I'm not blaming him - there were lots of options available, and he can't have that many people wanting to make that particular journey.
Into Farringdon by First Capital Connect, and then out again to Northwood Hills, via Baker Street. (A bit of free advice - don't use the loos at Farringdon!) My mother in law gave me tea, then lunch of chicken stock and jelly.
The afternoon was spent taking the bowel prep, drinking vast amounts of water, and dashing to the loo. Creatrix arrived in the evening, and they sat down to a delicious looking dinner - Creatrix's mother being nearly as good a cook as Creatrix - while I had, you guessed it, chicken stock and jelly. The rest of the evening was then spent as a re-run of the afternoon. And so to bed.
Thursday started early (partly because the MiL lives on a main road). The taxi came at 7.10, to take us to St Mark's hospital. We got there about 7.30, which gave us plenty of time to look at their glossy (and actually quite interesting) annual report.
At 8.00, I went to the first reception, and checked in; then to the second reception, and checked in again. Nurse F appeared after a few minutes - I had been talking to her for a while about the tests, and she had seemed very pleasant and helpful, and it was a pleasure to meet her in person. She took all my details, asked me a few basic questions, and took some basic obs (blood pressure, pulse, oxygen). She also told me that Dr S would be doing my endoscope - he is the senior endoscopist there, which makes him one of the best in the world - he has quite literally written the book for a lot of things.
Then the capsule endoscope. This involved (a) sticking sensors onto my stomach; (b) attaching them to a recorder, much like an external HDD; (c) waving the capsule near the sensors, to check that it was being picked up; (d) swallowing the capsule; and (e) checking that the sensors were still picking it up. After that, all I (or the nurses) had to do was to make sure that the sensors didn't fall off, and that the little blue light on the recorder was flashing twice a second. (In a new innovation, they - and I - could look at the pictures from the capsule in real time. They only did this occasionally, though. Later on, a nurse will have to sit down and watch all six hours of it!)
Then some Emla cream, to numb my hands and arms, and some Temazepam, to calm me down. Then a nice lie down, during which I started to feel rather yawny in a pleasant kind of way.
Then at about 10.00 I was wheeled into "theatre" - not technically a theatre, but the room where the endoscopies are done, and everyone seems to know what I mean when I call it that. The canula went in - I was pretty calm beforehand, but very rough afterwards. This is a distinct step up from normal, when I am terrible beforehand as well. So I'm half way there!
I had the upper and lower endoscopies under conscious sedation, combined with an amesiac. I have very vague memories of them finishing one end, and changing over to the other, but that's about all.
I started to come to about 12.00. A couple of nurses came to say hello and keep an eye on me. After a while, they brought me tea and biscuits. Then they took obs again. Consciousness continued to return, and by about 1.00 I was able to get up and walk through to a room where Creatrix was waiting.
Nurse F kept popping in and out, and checked that the capsule had descended into my large intestine. Then at 2.00 I was free to get dressed and go. Nurse F kindly arranged a taxi for us, without realising that we were only going back to Northwood, not Harlington. The taxi driver took some time to understand this! While we were waiting for the taxi, I got a sandwich and a bun from the tea room.
Then back to the MiL, more tea, dinner, and bed.
Up betimes again on Friday - exchanged anniversary presents - and into Farringdon, just in time to catch a train to Luton (for my work) and Bedford (for Creatrix's). I actually managed to get into the office before 9 o'clock!
There were - wait for it - fifty-eight emails waiting for me this morning! I'm plowing through them, together with the twenty-three more that have arrived since then!
The upper endscopy showed some small polyps in my stomach, but none big enough to be worth removing :-)
The lower endoscopy showed no polyps in my large intestine :-)))
I don't know yet what the capsule endoscopy showed. This checks the small intestine, and that's where PJS sufferers are most likely to get polyps.
Memory of the day - nurse F's face, when she asked, "How many centimetres of your small intestine did they remove in 2002?" Me - "1.7 - " - and you could see her thinking, "Well that's not very much." Me - " - metres" - and you could see her face change!
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-06 05:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-07 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-07 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-06 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-07 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-06 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-07 05:34 pm (UTC)I got Creatrix a Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers DVD - "The Barkleys of Broadway". She got me a tie. I have also arranged a day's falconry for us :-)
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Date: 2007-07-07 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-07 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-07 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-07 01:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-07 05:32 pm (UTC)I realise now that I should have asked before leaving when the other results will be available. I have a clinic appointment planned for 1 October, and I'm sure I'll get them then; if they show anything major, I suppose I might get a call before that; but I don't know just how much before. Still, I'm doing a reasonable job of not fretting about it.