Archives for January 2007

This is Thursday Thirteen #32

1…. Early yesterday morning I swallowed a camera

2…. It’s true. I went to the hospital to do it.

3…. The medical test that I’m currently undergoing is called a Camera Endoscopy.

4…. The Camera takes 5 or 6 photos of my intestinal tract every second as it travels through my system.

5…. I’m doing this test so that the doctors can have a good look at my Crohn’s disease since they can’t see it at all when they do a normal gastroscopy or colonoscopy. It’s always been assumed that it’s deep in my small bowel. This is the only way to see the inside of the small bowel without having extensive surgery.

6…. So, yesterday morning I went to the hospital and got fitted with a halter that would hold the machine that would record what the camera was seeing (a hard drive?), and the very heavy battery pack. it felt like what I think a parachute halter would feel like.

7…. Then the really nice nurses in the endoscopy department started putting all the electrodes on my chest and abdomen in order to record exactly where the pill was in my body as it took the photos being stored on the hard drive.

8…. I had been told that the clinic did camera pill tests every Wednesday. It sounded like they did them every Wednesday, but considering that it took three nurses to figure out exactly where to place the electrodes and to fit me with the halter I don’t think they do the camera pill test all that often at all.

9…. Once I had the electrodes and the halter on they pulled out the pill that I had to swallow. It was / is about the size of a very large calcium pill (bigger). Look at your baby finger – ok the size of the pill is from the tip of your baby finger to the first knuckle, and the width is about the width of your ring finger. In other words it’s not a small pill.

10….The camera, before I swallowed it, flashed with a bright light several times each second. I joked with the nurses by asking them if I’d be able to stand in the dark and see it flashing inside me as it moved through my system? I did actually test my theory but I’m sorry to report that I didn’t have a funny abdominal light show going on, on the outside, but I know there’s still one going on, on the inside.

11…. I was home again by 8 am, but since I didn’t sleep well last night I fell asleep on the couch from 10 am until 1:30 pm Starving the whole time because I wasn’t allowed to eat until 11:30 am but of course I slept though that time. Before I fell asleep I had fantasies about eating, I was so hungry!

12…. I had to go back to the hospital for 3 pm to give them back the halter and pay for the test. $1100 for this little experiment folks and it’s not covered by our Ontario Health plan or by our Insurance company. We put it on Visa, and I have no idea how we’ll pay it off. I just hope that the pill reached the end of my small bowel before the data collection stopped, or else they might not have gotten as much info as they need to really help me.

13…. The test is so expensive because the pill is only used once. If you read one of my posts from yesterday I was worried that I might be swallowing a pill that someone else had pooped out the week before, but that’s not the case. Relief! Now I just have to wait for this darn thing to pass out of my body.

I didn’t feel well all day. I don’t think it’s because of the pill but I had major fevers all day and still have a fever as I write this. I also haven’t gone to the washroom since before I took the pill so I’m hoping that it didn’t get stuck anywhere. The camera pill is the exact same diameter as the small bowel and if I have narrowing it’s possible that it could get stuck. Let’s hope it didn’t.