Sunday, November 25, 2012

Manning-up (for myself) a dirty little story


    Hi All,   Did ya miss me???  Sorry about the absence, I have two computers and both went down L  I had to rebuild the program from the bottom up on my laptop and the tower had to be taken to a tech (software issues also).  Just didn’t see trying to write a post on my phone so I took a bit of a break (other than jumping in with a few tweets).  At least I did some constructive things over the past 12 days…

    I cut a hell of a lot of firewood (3 overflowing truckloads).  I ran into one of the local farmers a while back that had a lot of treetops in one of his pastures left from when the loggers went through. To the loggers and the farmer tops are trash, something not worth dealing with… To me its pure gold, I used one gallon of gas and a half gallon of chain oil and now I have enough seasoned wood cut and on hand to last me through December (and possibly through January).  An easy $1,000 saved this winter on heating, ya got to love that…

 
      This is just one of the four piles in the pasture and I’ve only gotten about
half way through it.  I’d say the next 2-3 years are covered…
 
     I also got my medical and dental checkups out of the way.  I’m getting old so I got to keep an eye on what’s happening, plus I’m not sure what is going to happen with health care in the future.   This brings me to something I’d like to share this week, one of the checks I had done was a colonoscopy.  Not that I was having any issues, no signs of any problems but I’m 51 years old and I’ve heard you should have one done when you turn 50.  To be honest with you, I had no clue what they would be looking for or what the procedure actually involved but I figured it was time to man-up and get it done.

     First I had a short consult with the doctor he told me about the basic procedure and how long it would take (15 minutes to 1 hour).  I wasn’t sure what a polyp was so he told that it’s a growth on the wall of the large intestine (sounded like he was describing something like a skin tag). Also he said I would be sedated during the procedure and would not feel any discomfort.  Then the nurse sat with me to go over the preparation, it sounded a bit complex until she gave me the written guide (the step by step guide was easy to follow).

    Starting 24 hours prior to the procedure I could only drink liquids, chicken/beef broth, soda, green tea and Jell-O (no red-dye).  I thought this would be rough (I love to eat) but a warm cup of broth really hit the spot when needed.  About 16 hours prior I started drinking the prep solution (MoviPrep) 8 ounces every 15 minutes for 1 hour (4 x 8 oz.).  Within an hour things began to move, there was no real discomfort but I stayed close to the bathroom (the urge hits fast and powerfully). 4-1/2 hours later I had to repeat the MoviPrep solution, another four glasses in an hour (again the urges hits fast and powerfully).  I wasn’t allowed to drink anything after mid-night (by that time the bathroom urges had subsided). 

   The day of the procedure I arrived at the hospital around 07:30, they checked me in, got me changed, checked my vitals and started an IV drip.  By 9:00 they rolled me into the procedure room.  I was given an injection in the IV drip and within 20 seconds I was GONE!!!  Next thing I remember was coming to in the recovery room at 10:15, feeling rested and alert.  No discomfort, I couldn’t tell anything had been done.  When the doctor came in to talk with me he said there was one polyp found and they were able to take care of it right away.  Nice to get it taken care of while it was a small growth vs. colon cancer.

    So Guy’s/Gal’s if your getting around 50 years-old get a colonoscopy done, its no big deal and maybe like me you can stop something before it does become a big deal…  For the rest of you if you have someone in your life turning 50 pass this along to them, maybe it will get them thinking.

 
There’s an additional bonus.

Despite what some of you may think, I AM NOT FULL OF S#!T…

I have a note from the doctor…J

The TOMCAT
 

Additional Information
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/colonoscopy/

                   

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