health

Endoscopy Results

Sorry I have taken forever to post about my endoscopy! For a quick review, I was diagnosed with a H. pylori infection in July, was given strong antibiotics for two weeks and had to have an endoscopy on August 16th.

About the endoscopy:

Basically, an endoscopy is a medical procedure to look inside your body. Mine was performed to look at my esophagus, stomach and duodenum to see if I still had a stomach infection.

The doctor put me under anesthesia, inserted a tube with a camera on it into my mouth, down my throat, & into my stomach and took a lot of scrapes (or biopsies) of my stomach and esophagus. I scheduled my appointment bright and early so I wouldn’t have to fast all day for the procedure. What can I say, I hate being hungry ;).

I arrived at the office, checked in, got my id band, and was ushered into a recovery/prep room where I had to change into a hospital gown.

A nurse inserted an IV with fluids into my arm and my bed was rolled into the room where the endoscopy was performed. I chatted about Spinning (LOL!) a little with the doctor and nurses before the anesthesiologist  randomly “put me to sleep” in the middle of my discussion of Spin bikes with one of the nurses. Oh well!

I woke up about an hour or so later back in my recovery/prep room. My mom was waiting for me in there and I made her take a picture (or two..) of me so I could make fun of myself later. I was a little loopy ;).  A nurse gave me some water in a Styrofoam cup. After I finished the cup my mom offered to throw it away for me but I just whipped it on the ground and started cracking up for no reason. Good times! LOLZ.

My mom and I headed home and I made her take me to Red Lobster (because we had a gift card .. yaaaay) when I wasn’t “under the influence” anymore. My throat was sore for a few days, but other than that I was fine.

The only thing the doctor said the day of the endoscopy was that I have esophagitis, which is when the esophagus is irritated due to stomach acid back flowing into it. It can be chronic or acute (chronic in my case) and causes symptoms like heart burn and ulcers. It’s pretty manageable with some diet/lifestyle changes, so I’m not worried about it too much.

I got the results about the infection about a week after the test. The biopsies of my stomach were negative for the infection!! I’m in the clear :).

I am so thankful and really learned a lot from this experience. I have a lot of compassion for others who are sick or taking medications, I became a lot closer to God, my family, & Jimmy and I really appreciate my health. I’m so glad that I don’t have the start the school year on the insane medication I had to take in July-August!

Thank you to everyone who commented, tweeted, emailed, and text messaged me during this tough time in my life. It meant more than you will ever know ❤

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Bible verse of the day: Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me. Psalm 30:2

Edited to add: If you want to talk to me about my experience with H. Pylori and the medicine I took, please feel free to email me at allie(at)southboundenterprises(dot)com. Thanks!

Aquathlon

I had been training specifically for this race for about five weeks but I was still nervous and kind of dreaded it when race day rolled around.I trained for the aquathlon by practicing running, swimming, and then running all in one workout once a week for the weeks leading up to the race. I even managed to practice at a local lake/park: I swam about 1,000 yards and then ran 6 miles around the park.

All of my stuff laid out to practice swimming + running. I also managed to lay in the sun and have lunch at the lake too 🙂

I think I dreaded the race because I had never done an aquathlon before and 48 hours before the race I was under anesthesia, with a tube in my throat and stomach (but that’s for a different post altogether).  Once I got there and warmed up a little with my sister, who ran the 5k, I felt a lot better.

Photos from the race:My 5k time: 21:56 (7:03 pace)Hannah’s 5k time: 26:37 (8:35 pace)I felt pretty great throughout the whole race and managed to pass the most people during the swim. I just kept looking at the sky and all the greenery around me while I was running and just thinking how beautiful God made the earth (<— I’m so dorky sometimes!).

I ended up placing second in the whole race and first for women.

The full results can be viewed here

The race benefited Habitat for Humanity and the awards were so cute!

My first aquathlon ended up being really fun and I’m so glad I did it!

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I feel like I haven’t posted in forever and I have a lot to say! Some upcoming posts include: recent eats, how my endoscopy went, what else I was up to this past weekend, and some other fun things!

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Bible verse of the day:  “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” Psalm 16:8