Twilight

You know when you are in the middle of a deep sleep, and you get awoken suddenly, and the world seems like its spinning? Like there's a deep sea of objects, shapes, and colors swirling around, but its hard to make certain of anything in particular? Well, welcome to the world of conscious sedation. Whew. It is a trip to say the least.

I wish I could say that the picture above was me in the middle of my twilight sleep, however this was the picture of my rattling nerves while waiting to be called back. I look a little unkempt. :)

I was silly and spent the night before researching conscious sedation. My Karin had two scopes done in the past, but was put completely under for the procedure. I didn't know what to expect. I had ran across a woman asking if anyone else had felt the entire procedure while supposedly under C.S. She had noted that she felt every sensation of the scope and could not stop her natural gag reflex. Yikes! I think I literally felt my stomach drop when I read that. Again, not the best idea to look at horror stories a mere 12 hours before my EGD. I have learned my lesson.

Jerome took a couple pictures of me before I went back (I think he secretly thought it was funny), to have a copy of my face to show Jeffrey while I was gone.

Before I knew it, I was in the procedure room and was asking a ton of questions...

"Will I feel it?"

"Will I be awake?"

"How long do I have to wait to nurse my baby?"

"Will you tell me what you see when I am done?"

I am sure I asked more than this. I am quite the question asker!!

They explained that I will technically be out, but will still have control of my breathing. I have watched EGD's during my rotations in nursing school, but never was on this side of it, so this was all new to me. I think I would rather be back on the observing side though. :)

Anyways, the nurse turned out the light, and put the medication in my IV. Within seconds, the room was spinning. I remember saying "Oh wow, I can feel it already......."

And I was out.

The next thing I remember was broken images of Jerome, Jeffrey, my Doctor, my sweet recovery nurse, and my vomiting. Yuck. My body does not like medication very well. It responds, but it responds with a vengeance. I slept most of the way home, curled up like an infant in the front seat. My wonderful husband then carried me to our bedroom. I would have slept on the floor for all I knew, but at least I found my usual spot amongst my pillows. The next few hours, I slept the worst of the medication off. When the grogginess waned, I could feel a spot in the back of my throat that throbbed. Luckily, this only lasted until the next day.

Now two days later, I feel great. Like nothing happened. We have to wait for the results of the biopsies. He found esophagitis in the lower third part of my esophagus. That at least, is manageable with medication. So now we wait, which we are very familiar with. Karin's first scope looked normal, but the biopsies are what determined her EE. I am hoping this is not true in my case.

Are you wondering what my children were up to during my twilight sleep? This is what....

Looks like they did fine without me. However, poor Jeffrey must have post traumatic nursing syndrome because he will not leave me alone now. Thank goodness for pumps and freezers! Baby G. was in the care of my fantastic nurse Rosie. I love my nurses! They are awesome.

All is well in the Myers home!