Live Blogging From Philly: Capsule Endoscopy

7:42AM:   We have arrived!   Very long day ahead.   Made decent time getting here, though nothing is worse than getting behind a construction truck on a one lane road.    I slammed Colleen's hand in the glove compartment, but thankfully there is no injury to report.    There are 4 traffic circles on the way here (it is a NJ thing) and it surprises me that I have mastered them.

7:55AM:   Eerily quiet here today.   We are the only ones sitting in the waiting room.

8:10AM:  Typical.  We get here on time (actually early), but Colleen still hasn't gone back to get the test started.   The waiting game sucks, especially for her.

8:15AM:   Finally, she is going back to get the procedure started!   Suddenly a big rush of people in the waiting room.  Same nurse she had for all of her previous tests, which is a good thing.  I think she helps put Colleen at ease.

8:20AM:  As Colleen knows, I love WaWa (east coast thing!).  Today, it took the woman behind the counter 15 minutes to make my vanilla latte.  I am not much of a coffee drinker, but for early days like this, I have no choice.    Yes, this is a random post without any connection to today's proceedings.

8:45AM:   Colleen has swallowed the pill and is now walking around with her recording device.   The reason for this test is to look for inflammatory bowel diseases..the pill will go in places that are hard to see otherwise.    She can't eat or drink for a few hours.   No discomfort...much better than last week's tube.    

8:46AM:  I seriously don't need to hear your entire cell phone conversation.   Gosh, this woman is loud.     I do know she had a doughnut for breakfast, which is fascinating in some strange way.  She loves to curse as well.   This is quite amusing.

9:25AM:   Does anyone read the "no food or drink" sign that is plastered right at the front desk?   Seriously, this isn't a picnic area.   The smell of an egg sandwich fills the room.   

9:40AM:   This is going to be a boring day, overall.  Last week, the tube was awful for Colleen, but at least we had goals...every hour, she would go back for an image until we left.   Today, we just wait..and wait..and wait.   A different kind of torture.   Colleen definitely prefers this though.   The device she is wearing today is tight on her waist, but is otherwise painless.

2:00PM:   We went back to the car to rest then had a quick lunch in the cafeteria.  Temple WiFi doesn't reach out into their parking deck.   The horrors!    Colleen had a cup of frozen yogurt, which was quite nostalgic.   I told Colleen that I felt like a fish out of water with all of the doctors in the cafeteria and she pretty much said "Isn't that always the case?"   She has a point.

2:02PM:   A different cast of characters in the waiting room, obviously.   But the same woman we always see at the reception desk.   Does she ever leave?   Does she live here?  I must know.

2:15PM:   Less than 2 hours until we should be able to get out of here.   This day was dragging for a while, but we are hitting the homestretch.  

2:20PM:  The woman next to us is playing Candy Crush Saga as well!   Wonder what level she is on?

3:10PM:   Less than an hour to utopia!   People keep filtering in and out, but Colleen and I remain the constants.

3:52PM:   We opened the place up, and it seems we will be closing the place down.   8 minutes!  Colleen is doing fine (relatively speaking) overall.

6:38PM:  We are home!   Colleen drove the last several miles.       Number of times we heard certain songs on the radio (I counted):  Katy Perry (Roar):  52,103; Maroon 5 (Different songs):  51,955;  Mr. Seaver's Son:  11,932;  Alanis Morissette:  1.  And I only caught the tail end because Colleen insisted on listening to the 51,954th rotation of one of the said Maroon 5 songs.    The overall day was long, but painless.    Here's hoping that all of these tests over the last several weeks reveal something we can tackle head on.   We have a follow-up at Temple early in October.