Keeping Healthy

I'm a believer in colonoscopies.  I had my first at age 50.  Polyps were found and removed.  I had another colonoscopy five years later - it was clean.  I was told I needed to have my next one ten years later.

That finally happened this week.  The preparation is always worse than the procedure and this time was no exception.  I had to limit myself to a liquid diet the day before the procedure.  As the morning progressed I became quite grumpy, especially when I got out of the shower and smelled the bacon my husband had cooked for his breakfast.  I hauled out my sketchbook and sketched a cactus.

I had to drink the final 4 glasses of laxative 4 hours prior to the procedure.  That meant I had to set my alarm for 6 am. While knocking back that lovely lemon-lime concoction I decided to document the day by drawing the stuff I'd had to consume in preparation.

When my doctor came in to see me, she asked me what I planned to have for my first meal post procedure.  I didn't have an answer but told her I was definitely hungry and looking forward to whatever it might be. Everything went well, in fact better than the previous colonoscopies I've had.  I must have had less anesthesia.  I was alert, peppy, with no desire to crawl into the car and sleep all the way home.

I told my husband I wanted to go to the Totem Restaurant, a place up the road where my son and daughter-in-law took us for Mothers Day.  It's close to the clinic.  They have really good bacon and that appealed to me.  We sat down in a booth, got coffee and placed our orders.  I took out a tiny sketchbook I carry around with me and proceeded to draw the place's namesake totem pole.

All told, it was not a bad day at all for me.  If you are 50 or older, and have never had a colonoscopy, GET ONE!  The life you save may be your own.