Scared about a screening medical procedure(trigger warning?)

Hi LadySlippers,

Thank you. That's very helpful. And yes, I will be following the prep to the letter. I'm very good at following directions. Someone is looking forward to having chicken broth and Jell-O on Sunday.

I was able to talk to a person today who answered all of my detailed questions about what will happen, and I will also be able to ask more questions when I go in Monday morning. So now we all have a step by step explanation of what will happen there. I saw my T today, and my main fear about telling him was that he would say something that would upset me (I mean, he has probably had one, but I don't want to know about it! Or I wouldn't want his opinion about any of this). Then I would be stuck being more upset than I already am. But he was careful and supportive, so that was good.

Now I'm watching videos about it on YouTube, since that seems to be helping someone in here.

Ha! About your T having had one .Glad he was supportive but didn’t share personal experience.
TMI I think .
Sounds like you’re finding ways to prepare and feel safe. That’s a good thing.
For us the prep was more difficult than the procedure, but the ultimate goal is to keep you healthy and avoid some other more difficult or invasive situation. So it’s very worth a not so great day or two.

Jello and broth is the way to go . And then .... real food again in a day .
Hang in there and ask them all your questions .

LadySlippers wrote:Ha! About your T having had one .Glad he was supportive but didn’t share personal experience.
TMI I think .

Once at the end of an appt, I told him about a show I was going to see, and asked him if he had seen it, and he said it was great and started singing his favorite song from the show. I was really upset because it interfered with me figuring out what my favorite song was and also when I heard the song that he had sung (not very well, by the way...), then that was all I could think about rather than what was happening in the show. It's not like a casual friend just sharing their opinion about something.

So, it's not quite the same thing, but I didn't want him to say something that I would be stuck knowing and thinking about.

Hey good luck with this. After I wrote I realize i had sedation because I couldn't drive home and i don't remember in what form it came in so....there you go. I must have dissociated.

I think the rules are as such because of the litigious society in the US. if you panic and they puncture you - lawsuit. So I guess just go with general?

Be sure to tell them you might react. Then they will prepared and maybe even feel happy if you don't.

TheGangsAllHere wrote:
Once at the end of an appt, I told him about a show I was going to see, and asked him if he had seen it, and he said it was great and started singing his favorite song from the show. I was really upset because it interfered with me figuring out what my favorite song was and also when I heard the song that he had sung (not very well, by the way...), then that was all I could think about rather than what was happening in the show. It's not like a casual friend just sharing their opinion about something.

So, it's not quite the same thing, but I didn't want him to say something that I would be stuck knowing and thinking about.

I get that. Thanks for sharing . I also thought I was hyper sensitive when T shared some things and it really affected me/us.

Oops-always thought I was hypersensitive ( not “ also “ thought I was hypersensitive) but see my response isn’t so unusual ( therapist sharing things and me/us thinking about it over and over).
I also dislike it when others who saw him shared things about him with me , perhaps what he said in their session.
Not sure why but perhaps you nailed it saying it’s not like a friend sharing.

I had some difficulty getting my T to understand exactly why what he said felt like it ruined the show for me. As far as he was concerned, he was just being conversational/social when we were pretty much finished with the appt, and I'm still not sure that he totally gets how significant every little thing he says or does is for me.

He was very careful yesterday not to say anything upsetting, but then that sense of him being careful felt to some parts like he was being distant and not caring about us, so we ended up getting upset anyway. Definitely planning to talk to him about this--but I have to wait until Friday, which seems like forever.

It’s really hard to balance this. The whole too much information stuff vs boundaries feeling like cold walls and for us abandonment.
Yup-waiting a week is so hard. He sounds like a good therapist and will definitely understand how you feel as he fine tunes his responses.
I’m sure the anxiety over test on Monday isn’t helping matters any.,

LadySlippers wrote:It’s really hard to balance this. The whole too much information stuff vs boundaries feeling like cold walls and for us abandonment.
Yup-waiting a week is so hard. He sounds like a good therapist and will definitely understand how you feel as he fine tunes his responses.
I’m sure the anxiety over test on Monday isn’t helping matters any.,

Thank you--this was exactly what I needed to hear tonight. I really need to think about how to find a middle ground between what feels intrusive vs. withdrawn. I block and mistrust any good feelings he tries to send my way (while desperately trying to absorb them at the same time), and then he backs off to try to respect my boundaries and I do feel abandoned. Thanks for your confidence in him when my point of view feels so shaky and changeable, and validating that I have a right to expect him to try to fine tune his responses. That helps so much. And of course, anxiety stirred up about Monday has become non-specific and is affecting everything right now.

SamsLand wrote:Hey good luck with this. After I wrote I realize i had sedation because I couldn't drive home and i don't remember in what form it came in so....there you go. I must have dissociated.

Thanks, Samsland. There's definitely a part that feels like we should just be able to handle it without sedation, and would be very interested in watching the images on the screen. But there's no way I can lie there awake with that tube having to be put in. It's not even about pain/discomfort. There are parts down to the very littlest one that I'm aware of (actually, especially that one, who is about 1 1/2-2) who are panicking at the idea of someone doing that, and will do much better being asleep for the whole thing.