A Brief Digression 10: Colonoscopy
I have mild ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome.
It has been four years since my diagnosis (though it might have started even earlier, but various doctors kept telling me, 'You're young, so you'll be fine. You won't get cancer at your age,' so I never had it checked... It's suspicious, as I was once taken by ambulance shortly after giving birth to my eldest daughter twelve years ago). Since I hadn't had an examination in about three years, I received the go-ahead from my primary doctor to 'let's do it,' and I underwent a colonoscopy this past Saturday.
The day before, I bought the examination meal on Amazon and ate things like porridge and crackers.
'Mom, are you eating that?'
'Mom, you poor thing...'
My children felt sorry for me, but it couldn't be helped for the sake of my health.
On the morning of the exam, I drank two liters of liquid laxative at home. It was truly awful. It had a strange taste, like an incredibly disgusting version of Pocari Sweat...
Drinking it, going to the bathroom, hanging out the laundry—well, I was busy...
A silver lining in the midst of this misfortune? was that the clinic was a four or five-minute walk from my house.
It's near an incredibly plain station with no supermarket, but I'm grateful the hospital is close. It would be perfect if the pediatrician were also nearby, though... Oops, I've digressed.
So, as I had anticipated, there was indeed a polyp, and they removed it. It seems there was some bleeding when they took it out...
'You might have some bleeding when you go to the bathroom, but please don't worry about it.'
Since they removed a polyp, I was told to eat easily digestible food for a week. It seems they are sending it for a pathology exam, so I have to go back to hear the results (sweat).
And this is where the hell began 😱
My stomach hurt a little.
Since they removed a polyp, I can understand that.
But what was even more troublesome was my chest.
Because I was given a sedative, the doctor told me to refrain from breastfeeding for 36 hours, so I was taking a temporary break, and my breasts were engorged.
No matter how much I pumped, it wouldn't completely ease the pain.
It hurt.
It just hurt so much.
Moreover, the baby was crying as if to say, 'I want Mommy. I want milk.'
Even when I left him with Daddy, he would scream, 'Waaaaah! Waaaaah!'
'It's no good. He says he wants Mommy.'
Oh, come on‼️😱
But it's true that even though he cries his heart out when it's just him and Daddy, when he sees me, he feels relieved and stops crying, even without breast milk.
He knows his mommy. How cute 🩷 ← Proud parent
As a mother, I want to feed him.
My chest hurts.
The baby is crying.
My heart hurts, too.
And yet, for his sake, I cannot breastfeed. What a situation.
I had no choice but to have Daddy help me give him formula and soothe him...
Eventually, the baby fell asleep.
'Stomach pain' is something that happens often in my life, but having 'chest pain' at the same time was a rare occurrence.
My children would playfully cling to me, or the baby would try to use my chest as a pillow, but it was impossibly painful...
Then, the next day, I had to take my two older children to their lessons... Usually, the time I spend at a cafe while waiting is a relaxing break, but this time, even that was painful.
The staff at the shop must have wondered why I was frowning occasionally...
Until the ban was lifted, it was hell for both mother and baby 🥺