Speaking of curious doctors, I found a gem of a gastroenterologist who agreed to do a routine colonoscopy on me last year without sedation. (Can’t speak for anyone else, but the benefits of avoiding unhealthy sedation far outweigh 20 minutes of discomfort for me.)
I rolled over on my side to get into the optimum position for the procedure and then my shoulder popped out of the socket about the same time the doctor inserted the endoscope into my back end. The nurse saw me wince in pain, and I told her that I had EDS and that my shoulder had just subluxated. She informed the doc, and he got all excited and curious and full of questions about my EDS symptoms as he continued to snake all 6 feet of the endoscope all the way up to my appendix. (It took as long as Elton John’s tribute to Princess Diana playing on the radio to make the trip there!)
Following the procedure, the nurse could see the high level of pain I was in as I struggled to get my shoulder back into its rightful place in the socket, and she thought it quite curious that it was the most painful part of the unsedated colonoscopy for me.
By the way, it was also the most fun I have ever had during a medical procedure. Four or five of the staff members came wandering in to ask me what the colonoscopy felt like without sedation and the youngest of them got all excited and said, “I want to try it!” The doctor went into docent mode and pointed out all of the landmarks along the way. He took pictures of what he called all of the good “Kodak moments” and printed them out and told me I could post them on Facebook or make Christmas cards out of them. Heh…heh…heh…
So, there are indeed exceptional doctors out there. And, yes, sometimes we find them in the strangest places…
MTD