too excited to eat

 After a gut cleanse for a medical procedure, I am excited to eat. Too excited to eat. 

Carma eating the most delicious dessert:
brandy-flambéd caramelized bananas in Cancun:)  

When I have to prepare for a GI procedure, such as swallowing a capsule camera, colonoscopy or endoscopy, the prep starts a week before the appointment. Normally I enjoy a high-fiber diet rich with whole grains, nuts, seeds, salads, and a variety of raw or lightly cooked vegetables. I did not get a good cleanse the first time. 

Immediately following the first colonoscopy, I made the huge mistake of going to Polly's Pies (not that there's anything wrong with that!) and ordered Cinnamon Roll French Toast. I had been on clear liquids only for a day and half and had suffered through the obnoxious formula they prescribe for cleaning out the colon. It's brutal! (I'm a big baby.) It not only tastes awful, you have to drink gobs of it all at once and chase it down with a liter of water within the hour! My body put it more bluntly--it rejected the first pint of awful medicine altogether--cast it out like a demon within 5 minutes. 

I sipped water for an hour and let my tummy settle down, and tried again. The second pint I managed to keep down for an hour. This did not get a good result, but given the urgent need for a known tumor biopsy, the colonoscopist went above and beyond his oath as an M.D. and worked it out. He only got as far as the sigmoid colon, where the tumor was seen in a CT scan, a mere 7 inches from the anus, and the tumor was too big to push past it. The first colonoscopy took all of 10 minutes, if that long, and when the anesthia wore off Dr. Chen immediately and soberly informed me that I had colon cancer. 

"I'm not surprised." No emotional reaction. I wasn't suppressing anything, I truly felt no emotional reaction to the diagnosis. "I knew it was cancer." 

What led to this moment and followed it is described in a series of posts starting with zen and the art of living with cancer. I started journaling online so that friends and family could easily find the latest update and see how I'm doing, without my having to repeatedly tell old people bodily function stories. Spare me.

Actual photos of my cancer tumor. 
Don't do what I did. Get your colonoscopy
when your doctor advises.

Further, my cancer journey is visible to all for the educational value it may have to public health. Perhaps more people will get colonoscopies sooner rather than later. Perhaps reading my journal will enlighten them as to how easily removed polyps are compared to a big, nasty tumor blocking the colon. Dr. Chen noted in his report that the inner opening (of the colon/tumor) was <10 mm. He described it as "about as wide as a dime." 

Some people have said the car accident that required a CT scan that revealed the tumor was a blessing in disguise. I said colonoscopies are a blessing. Period. Get it while it's a polyp and you won't have to be splayed on a surgery table for seven hours and hope you don't wake up with a colostomy bag. 

I can also help others who have been diagnosed with sarcoidosis, chronic kidney disease, osteoporosis, colon cancer, and/or a totally separate type of cancer at the same time. In my case, it is Non Hodgin's Lymphoma subtype SLL/CLL. Finding people who understand what it's like to live with this type of cancer is important. (See https://healthunlocked.com/cllsupport and cllsociety.org)

Back to gut cleansing and a word to the wise... do not rush to a favorite restaurant and fill your hungry belly with heavy foods. Do not. You will regret it. Painfully. The bloating and constipation that will haunt you for days is utterly avoidable! Start light. Be gentle with your gut, it has been through a lot. It has gotten irritated. It is resting, recovering. Don't make unreasonable demands of it immediately following a GI cleanse. 

Start with liquids. Clear within the first three hours. Full liquids the next three hours. (Full liquids include milk, soupy cream of wheat, creamy soups, tomato soup, pudding, and maybe a smoothie if it is not loaded with raw skins and seeds--a thin banana peach yogurt smoothie made with canned peaches, not raw with skin. Avoid skins, raw veggies, whole grains and heavy meat for the first couple of days. Seriously, these things are very hard to digest and you are more likely to get constipated because your digestive tract is not yet ready for prime time. 

Be sure to restore your gut biome with a good probiotic-prebiotic capsule that survives stomach acid. Helping your gut to regain its healthy bacterial balance will make a huge difference in a comfortable belly! 

With my most recent procedure, the cleanse went very well, I swallowed a capsule camera, and followed the nurse's instructions as to when it was safe to eat and what to avoid. Unfortunately, those instructions do not appy to a gut that has been traumatized as much as mine in recent weeks and months. I had a colonoscopy in October and had to have another in May to look for possible internal bleeding (anemia diagnostic tool), and at the same time they did an upper GI endoscopy, and then had me cleanse again 3 weeks later and swallow a capsule camera on June 4th. The procedures themselves do not bother me. What is enormously difficult on my body is the prep--it takes days afterward for my digestive tract to come back online. I learned the hard way. 

I just had to go to Urgent Care, didn't I? And they had to send me to the E.R. Of course. Because I needed another CT scan. Sit in the waiting area for hours awaiting blood test and scan results: partial obstruction in the small bowel. They admitted me to the hospital for observation and urgent care. They urgently put me back on a clear liquid diet. After the capsule passed along with a small amount of stool, they advanced me to full liquids for two meals and if that went well--if I didn't blow up and throw up again--they would advance me to soft foods and see how that goes. 

Lesson learned. Do not go back to your normal diet six hours after a GI cleanse, even when the nurse thinks the typical guidelines apply--she doesn't know the history your body had with recovering from cleanses. Listen to your body. If your gut blows up again at home and you feel like you're going to throw up again, keep calm and do not add anything at all to your stomach. Walk, casually, around the house. Take slow deep breaths. Walk it off. And when your tummy settles down a bit, lie down in a quiet, dark room so that your nervous system does not get overstimulated. Let it focus on digestion. 

Get up and walk around some more until bed time, and do not eat anything else until your belly feels soft and and things are moving along. Repeat a cycle of clear liquids, full liquids, soft foods. Don't go back to your normal diet until things are really back to your normal, and you're feelin' good!