Today had a very similar schedule to yesterday. There were several procedures that needed to be completed (although there were less than yesterday) before Dr. Lawal took me around the hospital. Most of the procedures in the morning were EGDs which are a shorter procedure (around 10 minutes) compared to the colonoscopies (around 25 – 30 minutes). One of the patients had extensive family history of colon cancer, so extra careful study of the colon was done. One of the polyps that was found is called a pedunculated polyp, which is a polyp that has a stem that connects to the lining of the colon. I have an image of this polyp attached.
Afterwards, we visited a few patients in the hospital. The first was an alcoholic who was beginning to develop complications in his liver. With extensive drinking, the liver, which detoxifies blood and the body, begins to fail and stop working optimally. This patient was experiencing this and had extensive water buildup in his abdominal area. There were around several liters of water that needed to be drained. Also, with dysfunction of the liver, water begins to buildup in the legs of the individual. This can bee visualized through pressing down firmly along the patient’s leg. If the depression remains, there is water retention. With continued abuse of alcohol, symptoms can worsen, even resulting in complete failure of the liver. Another patient we visited was having acute abdominal pain. Previous surgery had placed a stent that allowed flow of fluid from the pancreas to the small bowel. While the stent is supposed to fall out, this did not occur and there was considerable buildup of debris. This lessened the possible flow of pancreatic fluid to the rest of the body leading to pain.
Tomorrow, I will be doing this same thing, but I will be staying later so I can see more patients.