Colonoscopy and Endoscopy over!

Colonoscopy over!  Going in first thing in the morning is great, no chance of running late.  I arrived at 8am.  Was prepped by 8:20am.  Sedated at 8:45am and woke up at 9:45am.  My ex-husband picked me up at 10:30am, and I was home by 11am.

Post procedure I’m feeling pretty crud.  Lots of stomach cramping –  I don’t remember that from last time.  Lots of gas, and still needing to be near the bathroom. I thought I’d be all good.  I even planned to go to gym. Hahaha…no.

I am also megaflaring.  Very little sleep last night and its methotrexate day.  So that means all of my joints are mad at me, and swollen and hurting.  So it’s a couch day, for many reasons.

The good news is, the endoscopy and colonoscopy both look good. Some minor possible inflammation in my colon somewhere. My gastroenterologist took biopsies from my oesophagus, gastric body, antrum and duodenum during the endoscopy.  My last endoscopy showed gastritis and of course eosinophils in my eosophagus, which led to this whole adventure.  I’m hoping that the biopsies are clean now, after 8 weeks of a very restrictive elimination diet for Eosinophilic Esophagitis.

She also took separate biopsies of the duodenum for disaccharidases.  Disaccahridases are complex enzymes that break down complex sugars (e.g lactase, sucrase, maltase, trehelase) into simple sugars called monosaccharides.  E.g. Lactase breaks down lactose into glucose and galactose,  sucrase breaks down sucrose into glucose and fructose.  A genetic error in these enzymes will cause an intolerance, e.g. lactose intolerance, or sucrose intolerance.

As for the colonoscopy she took biopsies of the colon and ileum as there may have been some mild inflammation there, but there were no tumours or even a polyp to be found.  So that’s a very good result!

Now I just wait on the biopsy results.  The worst potential from the colonoscopy biopsies is a mild case of Crohn’s disease.  Considering the treatments I am on for Rheumatoid Arthritis are the same as what would be prescribed for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), it wouldn’t be a big game changer.  My rheumatologist has long suspected IBD.

And the worst potential from the endoscopy biopsies would be continued high levels of eosinophils, meaning that the elimination diet as not removed the cause of my Eosinophilic Esophagitis. Meaning it’s not likely to be a food allergy, but instead an environmental allergen (very hard to treat) or a medication.

Either way, I’m back in the holding pattern, waiting and seeing.  I have a follow up appointment with my gastroenterologist in 2 weeks.  At that point I’ll know more.  I believe I’m supposed to continue with my elimination diet until then.  Though I think I will call my GP in a few days and see if he has the biopsy results.  If my eosinophil count is high, I can safely stop the diet.  And enjoy my son’s birthday and eat birthday cake with wild abandon!

But essentially, its pretty good news.  All the really nasty things have been ruled out, so I can now put it out of my mind. Or I will be able to tomorrow.  Today I’ve got heat packs on my belly (and an on several of my joints as well) and I’m going to be having a couch day.  Netflix.  Movies.  Pain.

And tomorrow I’ll get back to normal life, content in the knowledge that I probably don’t have to go through another colonoscopy for at least five years.