My First Tattoo

I'm thinking this title will catch more interest than most. Might even draw double digit clicks.

If you've made it this far and are hoping for a picture, you will be sadly disappointed. No pictures of this are likely to ever be taken, and if they are, it won't look that exciting. 

Last week I went in for my second colonoscopy. 

I see eyes glazing over already.

I last wrote as I was about to start the prep. It went as expected. I opted for the pills over the goopy drink. As I was halfway through the second batch of pills at 3 am as my family was blissfully asleep, I started dry heaving, so I slowed down (as instructed) and kept taking them.

The waiting room was fairly boring. The TV was blaring a TV show that I would not have been surprised if it was really an SNL skit about two adult women going through a child's obstacle course. 

Oh the things you fixate on while trying to relax.

It was really loud, and no one was watching so a woman about my age asked if it could be turned off. She was given the best answer I would have ever expected: "No, because we use it for confidentiality to block out conversations we are having, but we can lower it a little." I was impressed with the thoughtfulness of the explanation. That thoughtfulness carried through every experience I had with staff and the medical team at Princeton Gastroenterology Associates. 

While waiting for my turn at a table, a staff member walked by with lunch for a co-worker. They quickly put the bag away, recognizing all of their patients were starving! As I waited to be put under, the anesthesiologist asked me what food I'll be eating afterwards. Someone else asked me about the book I was reading. Another person apologized for taking two stabs to get the IV to work.

Back to the tattoo, as I woke up nearly an hour later (better than the two hours the first colonoscopy took, still much longer than most), Dr. Shriver told me she had to put in two staples and tattooed the spot where she took out a 30mm polyp -- yes, after only three years I grew a polyp that is nearly an inch long. I was sent home with a card to share if I ever need an MRI. As for the tattoo, I'm picturing something cute like the one Phoebe got of "the world" when she and Rachel went out for tattoos.

Now I await my results, and reach out to Dr. Google. On the one hand, the size of the polyp is scary. But, time is on my side. Since I was last cleaned out only three years ago, and colon cancer is slow growing (often taking a minimum of 10 years to develop), I should be able to relax and feel confident it was caught in time.

Still, the doctor's words that "we'll wait for the pathology report before deciding what to do next" keep pinging around my head. 

I'll update this post after I have official word. Meanwhile, it will be a long 1-2 weeks.

Schedule your colonoscopy now. 

UPDATE: All is good. The 30mm polyp was not really a polyp (then why write polyp on the report?) but something they want to keep an eye on in the future. The others were "precancerous in the benign state." Come back in three years.