Packing for the Doctor's Office

Tomorrow is the upper GI endoscopy. Hubby and the toddler will be my ride and have to stay on the premises as a result.

Ergo, I find myself tonight packing a bag of things-to-do and snacks to keep her busy.

In her bag:

-prunes
-dark chocolate
-low sugar juice
-play laptop
-portable magic brite
-books to read
-workbooks to do for OT goals (dot-to-dot, coloring, mazes)
-crayons (a brand new box)
-Brainquest card deck

Hopefully that will keep her busy and the hubby sane for the 3 hours they'll be stuck waiting for me.

I am nervous. My first endoscopy ever, I woke up with the tube down my stomach still. When you're doped up and your body decides to ignite the fight-or-flight response because it thinks you are choking to death, nothing a doctor says can calm you down. You are beyond words.

Now that I think about it, there have been consistent problems with...what is it called? Twilight? anesthesia.

-They couldn't get me to sleep during the wrist surgery. (For good reason. I was fighting it as they'd botched the nerve block and I was afraid, rightfully so, it would wear off in the middle of surgery. It did. I ended up with general anesthesia).

-I woke up during the first endoscopy.

-I required extra anesthesia for IVF egg retrieval because of the pain (OHSS and swollen ovaries are not comfortable.)

The first experience with the endoscopy was bad enough that I begged the doctor to be sure I didn't wake up for the second one. That was the only time I didn't have a problem.

So I told this GI doc about the whole waking up thing and they just nodded dismissively. That doesn't mean they weren't listening, just that they looked like they weren't. Maybe it will be fine.

But I'm nervous. Partly because that kind of panic sucks. Partly because I don't know if my stress response is intact enough for that. I think it could be, but I don't know and I'm not really interested in finding out the hard way.