This was as horrible as it sounds.
After a horrendous experience with the front desk women at the outpatient services desk at Holy Cross Hospital (detailed in this Yelp review — the only recourse I had at 6:30 in the morning), I was taken into the prep room.
The nurses there were wonderful, and I was soon over the stress of my first encounter of the day.
They went over what this test involves, and I knew it wouldn’t be pleasant.
The first thing they had to do was numb my bronchial tubes. So, a syringe filled with a lidocaine gel was put in my left nostril. I was told to sniff deeply to inhale it, and keep sniffing it until it went down my throat, and swallow. Gag! Puke. Repeat on the right side.
Thankfully, that was the worst of the prep. But all the people around me were having colonscopies, and I know what their prep involved, so I couldn’t complain too much.
Then they put a mask on my face and I was to breathe in more lidocaine to continue the numbing of my airways.
When I was finally wheeled into the procedure room, I was greeted by the anesthesiologist who had stopped by earlier to tell me about all the drugs he was going to give me, first to put me in a twilight state, then to make sure I wouldn’t remember the procedure.
After they strapped me in, strapped my arms to my side, put an oxygen mask on my and a plastic thing in my mouth so they could get the scope down my throat, and covered my eyes, I began to feel a bit woozy. The word that kept going through my mind as I tried to make myself remember the sensations was “weird”.
One of my favorite movies is All That Jazz, the Roy Scheider movie based on Bob Fosse’s story, in which Scheider’s character deals with mortality and lots of drugs. I felt like I was a scene in that movie. It’s the best description I can give. I guess you had to be there.
Thankfully, I wasn’t aware of what followed after I drifted off into lala land. From the description of the procedure from UCSD,
- The physician can perform needle aspiration on lymph nodes using a bronchoscope inserted through the mouth
- A special endoscope fitted with an ultrasound processor and a fine-gauge aspiration needle is guided through the patient’s trachea
When I got home, I thought I’d be able to tape an interview I had scheduled regarding cannabis oil as a cancer treatment. Thankfully, the people I was dealing with knew what I’d be dealing with and suggested we schedule it at another time, as I slept most of the rest of the day, in between coughing up blood. (fun fun fun).
On Monday, right at the beginning of my show, at 2pm ET sharp, I’ll be speaking with Rick Simpson, the guy behind RSO (or Rick Simpson Oil). Find out more about it at phoenixtears.ca. Or just watch this, Run From the Cure- The Rick Simpson Story
I’m out on Friday, August 5 to meet with the oncologist and get the final results from all the tests I’ve been having, and find out his treatment plan. Next week, we head up to UF Medical Center in Orlando and the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for consults, and to the Cleveland Clinic in Weston. I’ll make my decision soon on how to proceed. I’ll keep you posted!
