Series of (Un)fortunate Events: Chapter 14: Help is on the Way!

WARNING:  THIS POST DOES CONTAIN SOME NASTY COMMENTS ABOUT POOP.  DON'T READ IT IF IT'LL GROSS YOU OUT!  SORRY!!
 
We were approaching Christmas by this point...in fact, it was the week before Christmas.  I was angry and frustrated that my doctor was not listening to me and taking my symptoms seriously.  Through this whole thing my parents and MK were right by my side supporting me, so finally my dad sought out some help from some people on staff at the church to see if there was a DIFFERENT doctor (one that would actually DO something) that we could see.  So that Sunday at church, some wonderful people pointed us towards a doctor who found us and told us to be at his office the next morning at 8:00am, and he would work me in.  HELP WAS ON THE WAY!!!  For the first time in over 2 months, I felt hope.

So, we met with him the next morning, and he was VERY concerned about my symptoms and having a repeat episode, and he had the name of a great GI doctor that he called and got me in to see the VERY NEXT DAY!!!  Things were moving quicker (pun intended--yep, my poop was still flowing quickly--but also this doctor was moving things along and getting me the help I desperately needed much quicker).  There was finally a sense of urgency.  Another praise! Yay God!

So, we called the little clinic in Bella Vista to get my medical records that were faxed from Iowa City so that we could take them to my GI appointment the next day, and the lady on the phone REFUSED me my own records.  She gave me some story about how the doctor had not reviewed them yet, so they could not be released to me.  Let me tell you...that unleashed all the wrath and fury that my dad had been holding back this entire time.

He flew drove me to the clinic, and they continued to argue with him and me about giving me my records.  Even as a somewhat uninformed individual, I knew that it was my right to have my own records.  The fact that the doctor had not reviewed them yet just further proved what an idiot he truly was (by not reading them and understanding the full scope of what we were dealing with) and was just moving way too slowly and with NO sense of urgency.... 

So my dad demanded that they give them to us, and I literally thought he might jump across the counter and punch this older lady in the face if she razzed us anymore.  Good grief. She finally handed them over with the biggest attitude. Don't even get me started on her.  PS-MK would have totally done the same thing...he just happened to have to be at work this day.  Lucky for the lady. He really would've laid into her. No doubt.

When we looked at the date on the fax, we found out that my doctor had had the records for FOUR DAYS and had not looked at them or reviewed them.  Perhaps if he had, I wouldn't have been as sick as I was.  Ugh.  Can you tell that I have forgiven (but not forgotten) how angry this particular nurse practitioner made me for dropping the ball in so many different ways?!?  It's just unbelievable to me!!!!

So with my records in hand thanks to my dad's help (this was now December 23rd), we went to my GI appointment the next day.  This new doctor was great--he listened, he asked insightful questions,  and knew immediately that we needed to do a colonoscopy RIGHT AWAY.  He gave us two options--wait until after this Christmas holiday vacation or he would come in the next morning on Christmas Eve and do it (I don't think there was any doubt in his mind what we would choose--haha).  We chose the latter option.  What an unbelievable doctor, right???  Who does that on Christmas Eve???  A saint is what he is.  He gained our love, respect, and admiration in that one act.

So, I endured the prep work that evening which was the sheer opposite of fun.  In fact drinking that "Golytely" poop juice (pronouned Go Lightly which is a stinkin' joke and NOT funny at all) was absolutely awful.  I thought I was going to go from having the shoots to barfing. I kept it all down somehow, can they seriously figure out a way to make that stuff taste any worse???   What a long day of drinking a gallon of that junk.  I drank about half of it, and it did the trick (if you know what I mean).  For all you young people that have not had the enjoyable experience of preparing for a colonoscopy, it pretty much cleanses everything out of your colon--not just poop, but stuff that has been in there for days, weeks, months, years even.  And when you think nothing else is coming out, there's more!!!  It's absolutely crazy!!!

He did my colonoscopy the next morning bright and early and told me that I was a VERY sick girl with an extremely bad case of ulcerative colitis, which is similar to Crohn's.  Finally--a DIAGNOSIS!!!!!  So, a diagnosis is GREAT but now the question is what would the treatment plan be???  Click here for more information on UC. 

PS- I stopped pooping that very day and became a regular one-time-a-day pooper!!!! YAY!!!

Find out how in my next post...