A successful procedure

After about six months of not being able to get anywhere when it comes to taking care of the problem of my butt everything seemed to happen quickly within a two-week period. Anyway, to make a long story short I went to the hospital on July 12 for an outpatient procedure. I was scheduled to get a colonoscopy, bronchoscopy, and have what the doctor called Sentinel tags removed from my rear. The anesthesiologist had me have a very quick EKG followed by a stick to get my potassium level. The potassium was a little low but not so low that they could not go through with the procedure. The potassium was probably low because the day before I had to take a great amount of laxatives to prepare for the colonoscopy. And the EKG showed one or two irregularities. The one type I already knew about from the cardiologist but the other one was the first I'd heard of it. Because of that I have appointments to get more blood drawn and see the cardiologist later this week. Since it is difficult for them to start an IV on me they first gave me some gas when I got into the OR. They said that way my body would be more relaxed and the gas would dilate my blood vessels to make it easier to start an IV. It only lasted about 5 or 10 seconds before I was out but that gas was pretty trippy. At one point someone walked by and it appeared as if they had a trail behind them. My colonoscopy was clear, they removed the skin on my butt and did a bronchoscopy. When they did the bronchoscopy they replaced my Shiley 4 trach with a Bovina 6. I guess they had some trouble doing the bronchoscopy though. First they tried going through my nose, and then they tried going through my mouth, and when that did not work they finally took my trach out and went down that way. So when I came out of surgery there was a little blood in my nose and my tongue was swollen to the point that I could not keep it in my mouth. They even gave me some sort of steroid to get the swelling to start coming down. I thought that the bronchoscopy would have been the least of my worries given the other problems. The doctor was concerned after the bronchoscopy though. He said cancel I basically don't have any muscle or fat in my trachea, so it is basically just an open hole. The concern he seemed to have is over time possible perforation. Definitely not a pleasant sounding way to go. Since his specialty is not necessarily the trachea area he told me to find a specialist. Actually, all this information is second hand so I will know more when I go to my follow-up appointment on Wednesday. I was still out of it so the doctor explained everything to my family first. Since this is something serious it is a very good thing that I started having trouble with my low pressure alarm right before I was to schedule the procedure. Otherwise, I would have no clue about this possible problem. I do not know exactly what type of position they must have put my neck in but it is still bothering me. It has gotten a lot better over the past week and a half but not back to normal yet. It took me about four days before I was able to finally get my stomach to stop bothering me after the procedure. My digestive system was basically empty so as soon as I was able to get a good amount of food in me things started to get much better. My butt was sore when it came to using the bathroom but today started to get better with less discomfort. Now I just need my neck to completely stop bothering me and find a specialist for my trach. One little bit of good news is that a good friend of mine is going to come for a visit August 6. She is only staying for 2-3 days but it should still be a nice visit. Now I need to plan some things to do.