“Fun” week

I think I mentioned recently I was referred to have a gastroscopy and colonoscopy. Well, today was the day and it’s now over. I’ve had a colonoscopy once before and the prep was awful but it worked. This time I had to do a special diet for several days and didn’t use the prep until 6 pm yesterday. It was slow to work and I was up most of the night and still wasn’t ready when I arrived this morning. I ended up with some extra help times two and finally was fit to go through it. The prep solution was truly vile and I had to be up at 4:30 am to do the second dose. How I finished without vomiting I don’t know. I definitely gagged after every mouthful. Anyway, it’s all over and done and I’ve been home, had an afternoon nap and it’s now about bedtime where I hopefully will actually sleep. I told my family over chat I think I slept more during the procedure than during the entire night before. LOL

Don’t have all results but the colonoscopy was perfectly fine with no issues. Nothing was noted on gastroscopy either but she did take tissue for three biopsies. I will get results through my regular doctor at some point. The point of all this was to look for reasons for iron deficiency that are not diet-related. What was rather neat in the report is there are photos done from the procedures, I definitely didn’t have that on the previous one.

I ran out of my supply of loratadine (Claritin) this week and forgot to get more so I have been using Fexo tabs that other family members use and I don’t think they work as well even though they are more potent. Since I’ve been home today I’ve developed an allergy attack condition which is the worst I’ve suffered so far this season.

Also related is that we reached the government safety net on prescriptions and it seems we are due a refund. Once a family spends a certain amount, medication prices are reduced for the rest of the year and we got there early this year. I have to go sign a form at the pharmacy to get the refund into our bank account.

In other news, my dad is in the hospital again. He went to the doctor about one issue and somehow they found out he had a large clot in his brain. He was rushed to the ER and they did a procedure to break it up and he’s recovering at the moment. I suspect he will go home sometime today. I don’t know if anything happened regarding the other issue but so glad his doctor picked up the issue. I don’t think he would have survived another massive stroke. I guess this was considered a stroke but they got to it early enough that he may have avoided any notable additional damage to the previous one. This brings back the idea of travelling home but I’m not rushing any decisions. It’s not like I can get flights out all that easily yet anyway. And getting back to Western Australia will be difficult before the state border is open to international travel again (which might not be until January or February based on current estimates on vaccination rates reaching 90%).

My exercise routine has suffered considerably this week. I haven’t been to the gym since Monday although I did get exercise on Tuesday and Wednesday. I plan to go tomorrow and do a decent workout. I suspect it’s going to be a struggle after several days but it’s got to be done. :)

That’s probably all for now so I will finish up and get to bed for a decent sleep.