Colonoscopy

Mood:

Had my colonoscopy yesterday afternoon. I really hate the prep for it, although this time it was better.Used a full pitcher of a miralax/Gatorade mix. It called for 2 weeks worth of miralax. That's a lot.I'm more used to the daily dosage. It didn't dissolve all the way when I started drinking it, so it tasted pretty bad.I had golytely last time, and couldn't stomach more than a glass of it without an anti-nausea pill. Even then, I didn't make it to the halfway mark. I only threw up once this time. It was a lot, though. I think it was a combination of how the first 2 glasses tasted/smelled, and the effects of what it did to my body.It was just too much. It was dissolved enough for the other glasses that I didn't taste/smell it. I'm not used to having regular Gatorade, and certainly not 64 oz of it. (Had to have half of it that night, and the other half yesterday morning.) If I get it, it's normally G2, which is lower in sugar. Of course, I usually get the smaller bottles, too. I think they suggest Gatorade, because of the sugar and electrolytes. Probably lose a lot of that stuff during the 'prep' process. Wouldn't you lose whatever you would take in for the Gatorade anyways? The whole thing was a mess, but I got through it.

Also, when I woke up yesterday morning, I had one of the worst knee cramps I've ever had.It locked up, too. I couldn't get it out of a bent position for a while. It was so painful, and scary. On top of the other stuff, it just added to the ordeal. I think it was because of all the nutrients I had lost.

Last time it was with Group Health in Seattle. This time it was the Digestive Health Specialists in Tacoma at their Endoscopy Center. Kind of interesting that they have a special building for it. The other building, across the street, is where I see my new gastro. It's called the IBD Center. So, a lot of the other stuff related to IBD is done there. They even have an infusion center there. It's near my gastro's office. Infusions would be for meds like Remicade. (I think it's Remicade. I sometimes get confused between that or Humeira...One of them is by infusion, and the other by shots.) Nice that it's all in one area, and that this stuff is essentially all they do. They basically had a mini movie theater in part of the waiting room. The seats were nice and cushiony, and had an interesting cozy looking design.

The nurse that checked me in and did my vitals was interesting. She really loved my coat. I was almost thinking she was going to take it from me.It's really old (several years), and the buttons to the inner lining were ripped out. So, couldn't use it after that. It's not as warm as it looks. I still like it a lot, though.

Apparently, my vitals were better than she expected. She kept telling me about how most people's blood pressures are really high, since they're really nervous about it. Mine was in the mid-normal range. Just a touch higher than what I've been lately, but really good. She was impressed. She also said my lungs sounded fine, and my heart sounded beautiful. Yay!At least, those were good.

I had to tell her about my IUD or Intrauterine Device. It's normally used for birth control, but in my case it keeps me from hemorrhaging. An amazing lifesaver. Anyways, since I told her that I don't get periods anymore because of the IUD, she said she's obligated to have me sign a pregnancy form. That was kind of funny. First, it would be very difficult to get pregnant with the IUD in place. Second, kind of hard to get pregnant without a partner... 

There were about 4 nurses, the gastroenterologist, and an anesthesiologist for the colonoscopy itself. Beforehand, they were all fussing over me. They got the IV in without a problem. Normally it takes forever. They had the heart and oxygen monitors facing me, so I watched it at the beginning. I tried to lower my heart beat as much as I could. Almost for fun, and to calm myself down. It got down to about 58. Most of the time it was around 68 to 70. It went slightly higher as I was talking to the gastro. He wanted to know more about the last one, the symptoms, etc. Last time the nurses wanted to know more about the self-publishing process, which isn't really that exciting. This time we talked about food, telling me it's ok to eat whatever I want after and to just go easy on myself, and possible restaurants to go to afterwards. Actually got me hungrier than I already was.

I felt really heavy and droopy right after they gave me the anesthetic. It really knocked me out for the whole thing. Last time they used something else, and I woke up in the middle of the procedure. Glad I didn't this time.

Later, I woke up in the recovery room, and the nurse there told me to try and pass as much gas as possible. They have to pump air into it in order to go through, take pics, take biopsies, and look around. I had so much air still in me when I went to bed, that it was very painful. Even painful to breathe.I had tried my best to 'let it out', too.

After that, the gastro talked to me about his initial findings/interpretations. It seems my colitis is in remission, but it was damaged so badly from when it was active. So, I have a lot of scarring throughout my entire colon. He said that the scarring can make it difficult to function like normal. As an example, he talked about a permanently scarred hand. The hand wouldn't be as flexible or be able to grasp like before. He said there are meds that can help, biopsies might give more insight, my gastro might have more to say, and there might be other treatments.

They took biopsies every 10cm. That's more samples than last time, which is great. Apparently, I have abnormal vascularity, too. I'm still not positive about what that means, and he didn't mention it. It was in the notes they gave me, though. It has to do with the veins being bigger than normal because of the inflammation. That makes some sense. Wouldn't they go back to normal if the inflammation is better or not there (still unsure) now?

Also, my IC or Ileocecal valve (the valve that connects the small intestines with the colon, and that's near the cecum) was wide open. It's not supposed to be during the exam. If it's stuck open, the 'waste' can splash back into the small intestines, cause infections, and other stuff. Wahoo!If it's stuck closed, it can cause constipation since it'll keep the stuff from moving on. Eventually causing obstructions, perforations, etc. I'm wondering if it was stuck closed before (maybe partially closed), and that was causing the constipation. Maybe the laxative forced it to stay open. Either way, it's weird.

I like that they gave me a copy of the pics of my colon. I always think it's a cool thing to be able to see what's inside me, anyways.I can actually see the scarring myself, and I'm not a doctor. The walls, to me, seem thin compared to other 'normal' pics of it online. That could be another problem. I still think parts of it look awfully red or 'angry'. Not as much as before, but still visible to me. The whole thing looks scary to me.I'll see what my gastro has to say about it. Also, it should be interesting to see the results of the biopsies.

Oh, and I hope I can be get on some sort of pain meds now. That's been the hardest part: the pain.Once I take care of that, I'll probably finally be able to sleep (normally, not like right now). When that happens, other things might start to get better.

Later, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. I wanted a large dish of good food, and usually they have that. After all, I hadn't had food in 2 days, and was on a very restricted diet for 2 days before that. I got their Chicken Di Pana. It had thin breaded chicken sitting in a wine and butter sauce, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. There was way too much broccoli, and the chunks were too big. The rest of it was really good.I thought it was a decent meal, too. Ate all of it, except half the broccoli. I rarely eat like that. When we got home, I had a slice of lemon meringue pie. That made things even better.

I still feel a bit out of it, very sleepy, and it's been hard to focus on things today.I guess the anesthetic is still in my system, and my body is worn out from what it went through the last few days. Maybe I'll sleep even better tonight. Also, I'm not caring what I eat today, or even the portion size. I know it'll probably bite me in the butt later, but I feel like I need to have at least one day where I don't have to think about it. I think it's worth it.

Since I basically ran out of Jdramas to watch, I decided to watch some of the movies/specials on my list. Saw Shiritsu Bakaleya: Koukou The Movie. It had been so long since I watched that series, I forgot about most of it. It was kind of cute, but not the best special.

Saw the Ouran High School Host Club live-action movie. Been a while since I saw that drama and the anime version. I thought it was pretty good. I think the series pushes gender norms quite a bit. Haruhi's dad is trans (male to female. She still refers to her as Dad), and Haruhi herself dresses and tries to act like a male student. She's one of the hosts. She was kind of forced into that role, though. She broke one of the club's expensive vases, and she couldn't afford to replace it. So, they made her join as payment. I forget why she was wearing the male uniform in the first place. They didn't know about her being a girl until quite a bit later. The only thing, that I've read, people have a problem with the live-action version is that most of the actors are in their late 20's. The characters are supposed to be in their teens...Oh, and in this movie they had a Korean actor. That was interesting. His English was a lot better than the others. They didn't speak it that often, though.

Saw the Lupin III live-action movie. I haven't watched much, if any, of the anime. The manga's from the late 1960's, and the anime was on and off starting in the early 70's until the 80's. So, it's a really old series. This movie came out in 2014. Apparently, I watched a Japanese dub. The original was mostly English, from what I've read. People were complaining about how horrible the English was, and I didn't know about it. I guess I saved myself on that. I love the actor who plays Lupin, Shun Oguri. So, I thought that would interest me enough to watch it. In addition to the Japanese actors, there are a lot of actors from Thailand, China, Korea, one from Australia, and one from America. Interesting mix. They also visited a few countries. It seemed like a big budget type of movie. The movie is based on the beginning of the story. It follows Lupin as he forms a gang of thieves to steal a necklace from his rival and a crime boss. Kind of reminded me of the James Bond movies/series (not as good, though), only they're thieves instead of spies. They only steal from the rich. It was cheesy, funny, and semi-decent. I liked it, but it wasn't that great. Kind of fluff.

I also saw Neko Zamurai, or Samurai Cat. I actually liked this one a lot. It was cute, funny, serious at times, about how important pets can be, against animal cruelty (one of the 'elders' mentioned that killing a pet is worse than killing a human), etc. It's based on the old Edo era. Kyutaro is a ronin who takes on small jobs hoping to serve someone in the future again as a full-fledged samurai. That part, and his past, reminds me of Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin. He's very serious and doesn't talk much. Except he thinks a lot, and his thoughts are heard by the audience. He's hired to kill a cat by a family. The cat is from a rival family, and is about to be 'married off' to another cat from another family. The family who hires him has a dog. Most of them also have something against cats. Anyways, just as he's about to kill the cat, he can't, and ends up taking her home. He turns into a cat lover over time, too. There's a drama of it, too. I might watch it. It's interesting, and better than I expected.

Ao no Exorcist, or Blue Exorcist's 2^nd season just started. It's following the manga, which is great. I get to see it come to life. I don't like that they started it all the way back when they didn't trust Rin. It was an annoying part to the story. Later on, I totally get why they didn't trust Shima. There are a lot of reasons behind that one. And, they've made it so we're still on the fence about him. This is based on the Kyoto arc. I'm wondering how far they'll go. Like, will they go further than that arc? Maybe they'll just start another season with the next arc. Kind of would be similar to Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) in that way. I wouldn't mind that. I'm glad it's back, though.

Gintama, my fave anime, is back now as well. So happy about this one! Although, it's bittersweet since it'll end soon. Not sure when, or if the anime will just keep going past what the mangaka has planned. That would be awesome, but I doubt it. I wish it could last for a lot longer. It's off to a great start this time. However, all the comedy was within the first few minutes. Then, it was back to the same seriousness as the last arc was. It's great, but we need more comedy mixed in with that heaviness. There were a lot of surprises, too. I saw there was a recent OVA or special. It's about a love potion where the characters fall for each other, but they're weird pairings. If I remember correctly. So, if I really want a bigger dose of their comedy, I should watch that.

Youtube (it's been a while, and I like to share what I fave. Plus, this can be an added fun thing, on top of my somewhat scary health news):

Naruto:

Fukigen na Mononoke (haven't seen too many amv's for this series, and it's pretty good):

Servamp (haven't seen too many for this one, either. A funny and cute amv. Fits a little too well with some of the characters):

Kuroshitsuji:

Mob Psycho 100 (this one's like a trailer):

One Punch Man (the first one's like a trailer, too):

Fairy Tail (I miss this anime! There's talk that it might come back soon, though. The first amv has a snippet of the dub, which is semi-cringe worthy. The subbed version's better. At least, there isn't much of it, and it's good other than that):

Happy New Year!

Mood:

Hope 2017 will be better. I know politically it might not be, but personally it might. I also want to post more often on here. Last year had a poor amount of posts. The least I've had during a year on here.I have noticed a trend that I'm posting less and less each year. Hopefully, I can break that this time. I wanted this blog to be a daily one at the beginning. Skipping only Saturdays. I think I should at least do a few a week.

This is my wallpaper for January. It's Ciel and Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler. I was thinking of a New Year's themed one, but didn't see any I liked enough to use this time. Haven't used a Kuroshitsuji one in a while, so why not this one? 

This year, my secular calendar is Pusheen themed. Pusheen is a comic cat, created by Claire Belton and Andrew Duff. First appearing in 2011 for a comic strip called Pusheen Things on their website, Everyday Cute. The original comic (from what I've read, looks like it started in 2010) had many other characters, mainly influenced by their pets and themselves. Pusheen is based on a chubby grey tabby, who was Belton's parents' cat. Her name stems from the Irish-Gaelic word 'puisin', which means kitten. She's become so popular, they launched a spin-off site dedicated her. (Some of the comics are animated/with GIFs, which is fun.) In 2013, Belton published I Am Pusheen The Cat, a collection of comic strips featuring Pusheen. There are also Pusheen sticker sets on facebook. This calendar came with actual stickers. It's cute.This month the main pic's of Pusheen with donuts around her. One's caught on her ear. The second pic's of a mini version of her hiding behind a huge donut. 

Haven't gotten a Jewish calendar yet for this year. I normally get the ones put out by the Jewish Historical Museum from Amsterdam. It's cool to look at what artifacts they feature each month. Especially the really old stuff. It's a little odd that they make their calendars 16 months long. Apparently, starting around the time of Rosh Hashanah (our New Year), another RH, and ending with December like the normal secular calendar. That means if you want one in January or December, you're always a few months late.Yet, they tend to not be available around Rosh Hashanah. At least, not locally. I looked for it at Barnes and Noble recently, and they weren't there. They usually have them. I'll probably end up ordering it online, like last year. Might do that next month. I don't know. It has all the parshat or weekly Torah readings listed for each week, is accurate for Jewish holidays (which isn't the case for many of the secular calendars), they even have most if not all of the very minor holidays, there are candle lighting times on the back, each day has its Jewish calendar day right next to it, Rosh Chodesh is listed along with the phases of the moon, etc. Very in-depth. 

Rosh Chodesh is a holiday marking a new month. Usually, a women's holiday. Each one has a name. We're in the month of Tevet at the moment. Maybe I'll mention those in the future...Our calendar is lunar or moon-based. We start every holiday after sunset, and end it after another sunset (usually when you see a certain number of stars). The number of days for each month might be different when compared to the secular calendar. Each month is in relation to the new moon on ours. I think in leap years, another month is added to the Jewish calendar. Unlike how the secular calendar has either 28 or 29 days in February depending on leap years. Our holidays seem to move around when compared to the secular calendar, as well. Like, Hanukkah seemed late this year on that calendar. It's always the same on ours. 

Here are the month-long holidays: National Candy Month, National Egg Month, National Hot Tea Month, National Meat Month, National Oatmeal Month, National Soup Month, International Creativity Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. I really love tea!Awesome that there's a whole month devoted to it. Eggs, oatmeal, and candy in general are all great things, too. I'm definitely a meat eater. I just don't eat certain kinds of meat, and it's not all the time. I love beef, chicken, turkey, and duck. Haven't had duck in a while. I think I really liked buffalo when I tried it a while back. Sometimes lamb is good, too. Have to be in the mood. If fish are in this category, I love salmon, tuna, cod, and more. Soup is really versatile. I think I like stew more, though. Cool there's a month devoted to creativity. That should be celebrated. 

Hanukkah ended yesterday. I used my fave menorah for half of it. It has 2 angry-looking lions holding up the red tablets with gold Hebrew lettering, and the bottom part where the other candles are is green with gold cups. I think it looks cool. Anyways, I ran out of Hanukkah candles halfway through the holiday. I had plenty of Shabbos (Yiddish for Shabbat or our Sabbath or Day of Rest) candles left. There's only one menorah essentially made for Shabbos candles, or at least candles in that shape. They're bigger candles. It's a lot more traditional looking. It's silver with branches coming off of it. Also, it's tall, and slightly bent. I think it was one of the things that Mom got for free. She worked at a Judaica shop, and they couldn't sell anything that had even a slight rip, a little bit bent, missing a little piece, etc. So, the employees could take anything that was. She got several books this way. The challah board with a bread knife on the bottom was another one. A little piece of one of the legs had fallen off. She super-glued it back, and it was/still is good as new. If you look at the menorah from far away, it doesn't look bent at all. It makes it slightly more dangerous when lighting the candles, though.A couple of the cups are bent in such a way that they're too close to each other. It was really easy to clean it, though. Impressive on the last night, too. Actually from the night I started with it until the end, I'd say that was quite spectacular looking.

I had a sufganiyot or a jelly-filled donut on Saturday. It was raspberry-filled. These are popular to have during Hanukkah, especially in Israel. It's an oily food, and we usually eat oily foods during the holiday. Normally, I get a powdered sugar one, I think this one just had a regular sugar coating. It wasn't actually called that at that local bakery. The same place I got the cinnamon roll last month. They also had one other jelly-filled donuts called Angel Creams. It didn't list what it was filled with. Looked like apricot, but who knows? I like lemon-filled ones. Sometimes cherry is good, too. The raspberry one was pretty good.

Also, had potato kugel that came from a box the first night. I had wanted to make latkes, but didn't have the energy and didn't want to make them from scratch. Kugel essentially is a casserole. Some say it's like a pudding, but that really depends. A lot of people think of the sweet kind when they hear kugel. I hate the sweet kind. There are noodles, raisins, cinnamon, sugar, cottage cheese, usually sour cream, etc. I really don't like those last 2 ingredients. Even if I did, it's such a weird combo.Potato kugel is basically a very simple potato casserole. Potatoes, sometimes onions, garlic, salt, eggs, and more. For someone who loves potatoes, it's usually amazing.They only had me add water, oil, and eggs to the mix. It has to sit for about 15 minutes, and put in the oven for an hour. That's the hardest part, especially with that smell. Came out pretty good. The box was very old, and it said best by April 2015. So, maybe that's why it seemed slightly stale. It stuck to the bottom of my tongue, too. 

I was sick, and still am, throughout the entire holiday. Kind of sad. I've been trying to eat bland, but tasty, food lately. Also, have had a hard time eating at least 1200 calories. (From around the 29th until today it's been different. But, I think that's because of holiday stuff.) Not much in the way of tomatoes, heavily spiced things, less fried things, etc. Stomach has felt really horrible during that time. A very fiery stomach, feeling like I need to throw up every other day (not just my 'norm' of nausea), temp fluctuating greatly throughout the day, and more. I'm getting really tired of this stuff...

My colonoscopy's on the 11th, so I have to wait until at least then to see what's going on. Probably won't have word of what to do next for a while after that. I have this feeling that they'll find something. I hope they do. I've had dreams where they tell me they couldn't get through half of it, because it was blocked up with something. Like a thick viscous liquid, or some unknown hard substance, or there was overgrowth.After their nurses got my email, they mailed me a grocery list, a schedule for when to start the liquid diet, and then for when to start the laxative. Turns out I can have Miralax for it. They want me to mix basically 2 weeks worth of the Miralax with 64 oz of Gatorade. That's a lot of both of those.I'll have half of it the night before it, and the other half the morning of. They want me to take dulcolax, too. 2 of them with the night Miralax mix, and 2 in the morning with that mix. I think the procedure's in the afternoon. I probably won't be able to eat or drink until then. (After taking the laxative stuff.) That's a long time. They give suggestions for the liquid diet. They stress not having anything with a red dye in it. (Makes sense.) They suggested things like chicken broth, popsicles, jello, and tea. Got some root beer float popsicles. They sound interesting. Also, got lemon jello. They didn't list pudding, so to be on the safe side, I didn't get it. Lemon jello's good, though. Also, got some vanilla chai for one more tea option.

We were going to celebrate NYE at our friends' place. The same people that invite us to Thanksgiving and their Passover seder, too. Apparently, both the other guests and the hosts were sick, so they called it off. That's ok. It's sometimes nice to celebrate at home.I got a salmon onigiri or rice ball for dinner that night. Also, a slice of warmed mincemeat pie for dessert with whipped cream. Good stuff, too. Later, had some beef in blankets (a kosher version of pigs in blankets), plain potato chips with chipotle salsa (painful later, but I didn't want to care about it for at least one night), chocolate raisins, pickled herring on crackers, and red bell pepper tapenade (also on those crackers). Also, had tea and sparkling apple cider. We watched the local fireworks on TV. People were setting off their own in or around the neighborhood. It was really loud. I don't remember that many fireworks going off around the neighborhood during NYE. I know they do it during the 4th of July, but usually not as crazy now. 

Today's been colder than normal, and the next couple of days will be, too.The forecast keeps pushing the snow later and later during the week for the past few weeks. It hasn't done it yet, and it feels eery to not have it, when it gets so cold. I decided to wear my Hillel pullover sweatshirt hoodie, because of the cold today. Haven't worn it in a long time. It was really tight/small on me when I first got it. Now, it's huge. Actually, covers my butt, unless my jacket makes it ride up. It has stylized writing (like Hebrew letters, but it's in English) on the front upper left corner that reads: WSU Hillel. Yep, I went to WSU. There's the WSU cougar logo on the back next to a big Star of David. It also has WSU Hillel in bigger letters below the cougar and star. I'm being very open with my religion if I go out with it. I did, and no one said anything. Which was great. It always makes me at least a little nervous, but I should be more out with it.

Went to my dad's hair appointment. I thought since I haven't had a haircut in a while, I should try and schedule one. I think it's been since April 2015. They told me never to wait longer than a year between haircuts. I've been bad about that.I think before that it was maybe early 2013. Between that haircut and the one before that, it had been 7 years. At least, I'm not waiting that long. I was trying to grow it out during that time. Anyways, the receptionist suggested that I get a DevaCut. Stylists who have gone through the training of that, specialize in curly hair. They apparently cut each individual curl. I had a free consult for it. She said it will probably take 2 hours for my hair. It sounds like it'll be really pampered.It's only a little more expensive than a regular haircut. She said she'll have to cut at least 2" from the ends. That's how damaged it is. It's ok as long as I can keep it somewhat long (which I think it will be), same style, and it's just really a trim. Sections of it are uneven. Some parts are really long, and some really short. Most of it goes to midway down my back. The before and after pics I saw online of the DevaCut were really impressive. The curls looked healthier, and more pronounced. Should be interesting to see what mine will look like. I'll have it done in February. I got compliments at a restaurant afterwards, and hadn't done anything with it yet.

She gave me some samples of the Deva products. A 'low-poo', conditioner, mask, and styling cream. They say that regular shampoo is very harsh and damaging, especially for curly hair. So, they have a cleanser to replace it with that doesn't have that harshness. Normally they recommend 'no-poo', but they start people off with 'low-poo'. No-poo doesn't lather, and low-poo has some lather. They feel that people might need something in between to get more used to it, and then move to the no-poo. This 'poo' thing sounds really gross to me.Why not call it something like: 'no-sham' or 'low-sham'? I think I read that it's mint based. The conditioner is olive oil based. I've heard that's really good for your hair. I'm not used to masks, so that might be interesting. I've already used the low-poo and conditioner. (I used my regular calming spray and styling mousse after that.) I think it feels softer, there aren't very many hard flakes, and it has kept its shape. Not as frizzy. I plan to try all of them tomorrow. They told me that the amount I was given was enough for one use, because of my hair. Knowing how little I ended up using of the low-poo and conditioner (I really tried to use as much as I could), I think they gave me about 4 uses. Maybe they think my hair's bigger than it is?