Intestinal Bleed

[Birdie]

Alysia....

LOL...LOL...LOL...

[Randy]

yes, I remember the sinus one too, it was ugly looking.

[Randy]

Just thought I'd give everyone an update on my bleed episode. I went to see the GI specialist last week, He went on holidays for three weeks after the camera pill procedure so wasn't able to see him until now. The photos turned up with nothing. No tumors, no polyps, scars, or sign of cancer. Everything looked normal. He thought a blood vessel probably burst and this caused the bleeding and it was able to clot on its own. He told me this is not unusual in older people(I'm 65 but don't consider myself OLD) He thinks it is safe to travel since I have not had any problems since. I'm still a little nervous about that though. I do not have any plans to go anywhere so I'll just wait and see. My hemoglobin is still low but it comes up with each blood test so he doesn't think that indicates any bleeding. Every one assures me it has nothing to do with Wegners as I do not have any other symptoms. I'm not sure though. My Rheumatologist told me to come back if I had any weird symptoms but all appears to be normal so I will just watch carefully for anything out of the ordinary.

[Birdie]

Just thought I'd give everyone an update on my bleed episode. I went to see the GI specialist last week, He went on holidays for three weeks after the camera pill procedure so wasn't able to see him until now. The photos turned up with nothing. No tumors, no polyps, scars, or sign of cancer. Everything looked normal. He thought a blood vessel probably burst and this caused the bleeding and it was able to clot on its own. He told me this is not unusual in older people(I'm 65 but don't consider myself OLD) He thinks it is safe to travel since I have not had any problems since. I'm still a little nervous about that though. I do not have any plans to go anywhere so I'll just wait and see. My hemoglobin is still low but it comes up with each blood test so he doesn't think that indicates any bleeding. Every one assures me it has nothing to do with Wegners as I do not have any other symptoms. I'm not sure though. My Rheumatologist told me to come back if I had any weird symptoms but all appears to be normal so I will just watch carefully for anything out of the ordinary.

That's all great news.

Now from a techie curiosity perspective, how'd the pill camera work out? So big it was hard to swallow? I get from your post that it worked but did you see the pics? Were they any good? Did it require retrieval to view the images? Did the camera taste bad? Etc... OK, so I'm really curious about this...

Thanks,
Gary

[Randy]

The pill is about the size of a large vitamin pill. It was easy to swallow and tasteless. I had to wear a satchel with a sensor in it. It pics up the images and at the end of the day they load the images from it, into a computer. I didn't see any of the pictures, but he said they turned out very clear . There are something like 50,000 of them. It takes picture every few seconds. It must take quite a while to review them. Must be boring too.

[Birdie]

The pill is about the size of a large vitamin pill. It was easy to swallow and tasteless. I had to wear a satchel with a sensor in it. It pics up the images and at the end of the day they load the images from it, into a computer. I didn't see any of the pictures, but he said they turned out very clear . There are something like 50,000 of them. It takes picture every few seconds. It must take quite a while to review them. Must be boring too.

Thanks Randy.

With the exception of taste, which was attempted humor, those were exactly the answers I was curious about. That technology is amazing. A few years ago it was impossible. Reminds me of the 1960's movie, or maybe it was a TV show, where they shrunk a small submarine and crew then injected it into a person.

[Dirty Don]

Jumping on a techie bandwagon: my ENT allowed me to watch as the camera went in, down, around, and what felt like 'through' in real time - she had a computer screen & I had a wall flat screen above me to watch: 'see that, that's evidence of Wegeners'; see that, that's nothing but your sinuses are a wreck; see that, your esophagus has lots of mucous'. Other than some shifting around of the camera, it wasn't so bad. Sooooo much fun, I'd rather watch cartoons...BTW, I had results and dxes immediately...always left with something to work on & avoid cameras!!!!

[Alysia]

I remember Phil's post, saying he liked that camera watching, and wanted home version, to watch on Friday's nights...

[Randy]

They did the camera scope into my stomach too. They had to put me to sleep though. I gaged on it so badly that was the only way they could get it to go down. What I find amazing is that if they had found anything he told me they could go in through a blood vessel with a camera and what ever they use to repair it. Its amazing that they can work with equipment that small. Computer hard drives are getting smaller and you can pack more and more onto them. I guess it's similar technology.