Whew...what a day...

Lets see... we started off the day going to get blood drawn for SEVERAL tests - I ended up having to give 6 of the large vials, and 6 of the smaller ones... and should hear back on all of those in about a week.

From there we went and checked into the hospital. It's amazing to me the amount of paperwork you have to fill out for a proceedure that it supposed to take all of 15 minutes! It always cracks me up too when they ask you if you feel safe at home... with your husband standing right there... if you didn't feel safe at home - I certainly don't think you'd feel safe to say it at that moment either. John and I always get a laugh about that - and tease each other all the time about it... if he accidentally nudges me - I'll be "I'm not safe at home!!" and we laugh.

Anyway, they took me back to the area where they do the tests, and I filled out some more paperwork and got all set up with the IV and machines needed to monitor my vital signs during the proceedure. They wheeled me to another room and we waited for the doctor to arrive. From there I got my instructions and "happy drugs" (that didn't really work) - I don't really remember them putting the scope in or anything like that, but I do remember a few times where I'd sort of cough or gag a little - and they'd just tell me to relax and breathe.

They took me back to the prep area where I had to wait for 30 minutes in "recovery" so that the drugs could wear off a little more so you can walk out. John came in and talked to the doctor, and come to find out - they didn't see any ulcers or strictures while they were in there. It all looked great, and I have the nasty pictures to prove it.

They told John to go get the car and I got dressed - I was ready to walk out the door, and the doctor called back to tell them to send me over for an ultrasound of my abdomen. I walked right in and got that done - then we were able to come home.

Basically, for now I'm back a couple of steps in my diet plan - eating the protein shakes again, and staying away from meats. I'll hopefully hear something from the docs on my ultrasound in the next day or so - and from there I go back to the gastrointerologist in two weeks for an update.

For now, I'm still groggy and don't feel great - but I'm trying to function. It's back to work tomorrow which hopefully will be uneventful, but we all know that it probably will stink...as it normally does.