Dave's scary procedure

Dave has had digestive problems for such a long time and finally got his colonoscopy and endoscopy yesterday. He was worried about the procedure (for one because he's not a fan of needles), yet very anxious to hear the verdict. The doctor was very surprised that they didn't find anything at all abnormal during the procedure. You never really want to hope that anything is wrong, but it sure would have been nice to get to the bottom of his issues (so punny).

It all looked good, so the doctor ordered some more tests to see if the problem lies in the small intestine. Dave was really funny waking up and kept asking me how long I had been there waiting for him. He must have been worried they wouldn't call me to pick him up! He seemed to be coming out of the anesthesia slowly, but Dave is always a pretty sleepy guy, and besides that, he always tells them to give him lots of drugs to completely knock him out. As I said, not a huge fan of medical procedures. :)

All seemed fine and he got up enough to get dressed so we could go home, then had to wait for the doctor to discharge him. I was going over his chart with the nurse and we both looked over to see Dave slumping over in the chair and looking quite pale. They laid him back in bed and immediately hooked him up to the IV and monitors again. His heart rate was 58 when he came in for the procedure, and it was now at 35. The nurse called for the head nurse and doctor to come, and they both did immediately. They gave him some drug to increase his heart rate, but that didn't work at all. His ears were purple and his lips were blue, along with his fingernails. Scary. They wanted to rush him to the ER to get an EKG to look at his heart. The doctor was even going to ride with us in the car to watch Dave. The colonoscopy was done at a medical center where they only do routine procedures, so they didn't have the heavy equipment. I don't think they see stuff like this every day because they were pretty worried.

The doctor wasn't certain that was completely necessary, and when Dave heard him talking about it, he started wiggling his feet around to make his heart rate go up so he wouldn't have to go to the ER! It worked to bring it up to an acceptable range so they let us go home, but made me take his pulse every 30 minutes and they called 3 times yesterday to make sure he was okay. He seemed fine, but I was so worried to let him go to sleep at night, because I wouldn't be taking his pulse all night. They called me once to check up on him again this morning, and then again this afternoon to schedule an appointment with a cardiologist.

So, the good news is that the colonoscopy and endoscopy looked great. The bad news... hopefully Dave doesn't ever have to be sedated again! Makes me realize just how lucky I am to have him in my life and I'd sure like to keep it that way.