Mystery Solved
Well, that was weird. I wasn’t too scared about the endoscopy this morning but I wasn’t looking forward to it either. After changing into a hospital gown and climbing into a ridiculously short bed (with sides like a crib – I felt like a big baby!), I had an IV thingy put into my arm. (These are great. When we all start getting cyborg improvements, sign me up for one of these.) The anesthetist was named Don and had the most beautiful blue eyes. He pushed a little bit of clear drugs through my “jack” and told me it would be like drinking a couple bourbons. “When will it hit me?” I asked. “About thirty seconds.” He was right. I remember looking at the curtain separating my bed from the next and being entranced by the moving colours. I next have a vague memory of being wheeled into the procedure room and having Don put a plastic guard into my mouth. Then next thing I knew, I was waking up back in the recovery room just as if I’d had a pleasant nap. “Is it my turn yet?” I asked the nurse. “You’re all done,” he said. Huh? I had to check the clock and ask repeatedly before I believed them. This was the very definition of painless. I dozed for a bit before sitting up and reaching for my mobile phone. (The picture is below.) Then I had a cup of tea and some biscuits. Eventually Dr. George came over to tell me the good news: they found the problem.

The good news is that I definitely don’t have an ulcer. No H.pylori for me! The bad news is that I have erosive duodenitis. This means that they saw some wounds where my stomach joins my small intestine. (There are pictures on this site. They’re a little gross.) And how did I get it? The major culprit looks to be ibuprofen. Yep, really. I used to take a lot of it to deal with period pain through high school and college. We’re talking at least a dozen a day or I’d be vomiting from the cramps. Coincidentally, college is also when I started having stomach problems. Funny how I never put the two together, you know? Anyway, my ibuprofen consumption dropped considerably when I went on the Depo a few years back, but I’d still take it occasionally for headaches and stuff. The damage was probably already done though. Treatment for duodenitis is basically to stop taking whatever’s irritating you. I stopped taking ibuprofen several weeks ago when Dr. Chin told me too… and I guess that’s why I’ve been feeling better. I’m also supposed to go back on Nexium for a while to help heal.

So in the end I’m mostly just happy that we were able to figure out what was wrong with me. It really sucks feeling pain that you can’t really pinpoint and then worrying that it doesn’t have a fixable cause. Big thanks go to Snookums for taking care of me and to the folks at the Inner West Endoscopy Centre for being so nice and (especially Don with his blue, blue eyes) for making a stressful procedure literally painless. Now I’m going to go nap some more. 🙂