|
Hello everyone, I hope all is with you! Today, I'll share with you what happened at my doctors appointment with my Gastroenterologist. I was scheduled to see my Gastro Dr. on November 8th @2:15pm. I like to call him my "Gastro Dr." for two reasons:
Well anyhow, the day before my appointment, I received a courtesy call to confirm for 2:15, but was told that I could come in earlier if I like. So the appointment time was moved up to 1:30pm. I got there at about 15 minutes before my scheduled time. It was as if my Gastro Dr. found out what happened with me a week earlier at my general physicians appointment and decided to play the same "Make Me Wait Game". My Gastro Dr. was over an hr. late!! Grrrr!!!!!! Just before he finally showed up the nurse said there was a patient he was seeing had a GI bleed at the hospital and he is expected to be at the office in about 10 - 15 minutes. I'm thinking to myself, "What in the world is a GI bleed?" So, I make a mental note to myself to look that up on the internet as soon as I get home. A GI (gastrointestinal) bleed is when certain organs in your digestive system (esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and rectum) bleeds internally, either slightly (which may or may not be very serious) or heavily (which may have serious health consequences). When he knocks on my door to let me know he's made it, he apologizes and tells me his reason for being late. He asks me, "Mr. Whatley, are you here for your 6 month follow up?" I tell him yes and then he asks me the general questions:
I told him that I'm taking Prilosec 20mg., one time a day, before meals. Then I told him that I was belching a lot more than usual before as well as after meals. He gives me a small cup of water to drink and then feels my throat as I began to drink the water. When I finished drinking the water I told him that I wasn't having any problems swallowing. My Gastro Dr. then asks me how is the Prilosec working for me. I told him that it's working very well, and that I rarely experience any symptoms except for the constant belching and occasional cough. I then asked him since it's been a year since I've had an endoscopy (a medical exam that helps the physician to look inside my esophagus, stomach, and duodenum, to detect any disorders) would it be wise to have another one. He told me as long as I'm not having any difficulties swallowing then no, I shouldn't have one. Then he takes a look at my medical chart and says that since I'm having issues with belching and the occasional cough he decides that yes, it would be a good idea to have another endoscopy. He wants to make sure that there aren't any issues that may be in the beginning stages. He also said that he wants to see what's going on with my belching and coughing since he discovered an esophageal stricture in the last endoscopy. He scheduled me to have an endoscopy for Monday, November 19th, @9:30am. To be honest with you, even though I had one last year, it still makes me a little nervous (the whole procedure that is). So, I ask you all to pray and keep your fingers crossed that everything turns out just fine. To find out what happened with my endoscopy, subscribe to my RSS feed so that you will be the first to receive my next updates. Oh, by the way, the test results on my blood work haven't come in yet. I asked the nurse about it and she said all the test results but one are ready, so they're waiting on that one. I'll be sure to keep you posted.
|
