Back home and awake

Apparently there was some excitement in the Center for Digestive Endoscopy this morning. Just I don't remember it.

Seems I was out cold. But it turns out I didn't have a stricture in my manmade esophagus. Rather, it seems my stomach isn't digesting food properly. It's called gastroparesis, meaning the stomach is not passing the food along to the small intestines properly.

Here's a summary from the Natioanl Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Web site:

Normally, the stomach contracts to move food down into the small intestine for digestion. The vagus nerve controls the movement of food from the stomach through the digestive tract. Gastroparesis occurs when the vagus nerve is damaged and the muscles of the stomach and intestines do not work normally.

In my case, the vagus nerve was damaged when the stomach was reconstructed to replace a majoroty of my esophagus.

The excitement this morning included Dr. Levine discovering the (mmm mmm good) undigested food in my stomach, suctioning it out, then intubating me to keep me from choking on my stomach contents.

I am OK now, save a sore throat and headache.

I don't remember any of this because I was on some happy drugs via an IV. Good thing because it doesn't sound fun.

So now I'm going to take yet another med, the generic version of Reglan. I am not thrilled because it might have odd side effects.

So, if you see me twitching or drooling, if I have hallucinations, anxiety, agitation, spasms or other uncontrollable movements of the mouth, face or hands, please forgive me. I'll only be on this stuff a few weeks to a couple months.