EGD

Melody’s Medical Testing (as seen through the eyes of Adriane):

Melody was going to update everyone on her recent Medical Test, however, seeing as how she was under anesthesia and can’t remember much of it she asked me to fill you in on our eventful morning.

I had the privilege of picking Melody up and taking her to the Gastroenterology clinic at 8:00 Thursday morning for her test. She filled out some paperwork, we read last year’s Christmas edition of Good Housekeeping and waited for the doctor to call her back. Finally the nurse came to get her and escorted her back to do the procedure.

After about 30 minutes, the nurse came to the waiting room and asked for “Melody Willingham’s family” (me) and I followed her back….and then the fun began.

The first thing Melody tried to explain to me was that this (the place she was at now) was NOT where she was. She didn’t know where she was, but it wasn’t the same. I told her that was okay and that they had probably just moved her…but she wasn’t buying it… “This is not where I was!” “Okay,” I said.

She was still very groggy and slurring her speech and kept falling asleep, so, of course, the nurse came in and began to read her what she could and couldn’t do for the rest of the day. Melody opened her eyes, looked at her and fell right back to sleep. So the nurse read me what she could and couldn’t do (Can’t drive, can resume normal diet, can’t put cream on the IV spot, can apply warm cloth…oh yeah, and there might be some bloating and excess gas from trapped air…great) and made me sign it.

Melody then woke up to tell me that she had an itch but she couldn’t move her arms to scratch it. So I asked where. “There,” she said. Where? We finally established that it was around the blood pressure cuff. So I started scratching various spots on her arm, but I guess I never got the right spot, so finally she began to move her arm very slowly and after about 30 seconds, got it to her arm and scratched it herself. Then back to sleep.

The nurse came over and woke Melody up and told her that she needed to sit up and take deep breaths to get the medicine out of her system. Then the nurse grabbed her, pulled her into a sitting position and let go…I grabbed Mel as she began to slump towards the end of the bed…I spent the next 20 minutes sitting next to her on the bed with my arms around her supporting her dead wait and trying to keep both of us from falling over.

The nurse came back, took the IV needle out, and asked Mel if she would like some coffee or water. Mel opted for water and the nurse brought her a cup. She held it awkwardly, almost dropped it, laughed because she almost dropped it, then started crying. I think the crying had something to do with not being able to get the water to her mouth. So tears are streaming down her face, I took the water and she looked at me and said, “I can’t move my arm to wipe my eyes,” while still crying. I wiped her eyes, she continued to cry, the nurse brought a warm, wet washcloth, Mel wiped her face, set the washcloth in her lap, looked at me and said, “I’m bawling!” The nurse said it was probably the medicine and Melody tearfully agreed. The nurse moved the washcloth out of Melody’s lap and told her that way her pants wouldn’t be wet and it wouldn’t look like something else had happened. Mel laughed…and then a few minutes later asked me why her pants were wet.

Then the nurse moved us to a recliner where the doctor came to talk to us…but not before Mel asked me again why her pants were wet.

We finally got out to the car, Melody sat down in the front seat, looked down and said, “Why are my pants wet! Did I pee on myself??” I explained the washcloth one more time, bought her breakfast and took her home and put her in bed!