The laptop resided on the tall stool in the foreground.
It is over! I had a seven day preparation, that became more intrusive with each passing day. It culminated the last day with an eleven hour placement in my temporary colonoscopy office. I did not dare leave my seat, the consequences of wandering being extremely unpleasant. So I setup an office around my temporary seating, beverages (no food allowed, only clear fluids), baby wipes, easy reach to the sink for hand washing, and the laptop.
The laptop saved me. I binge watched the second season of Joy of Life (ENG SUB) on youtube, so the time passed more easily. It took a few days before I felt interested in watching youtube again! My surgery time required that I arise at 3:30 a.m. the day of surgery, to perform the final step in the preparation, I had only a few hours sleep.
The results were good, polyps removed, all small and benign.
It is certainly worth the misery of the preparation week. Those polyps grew over the last five years and, could develop into cancer over time, now they are gone, I am worry free.
The staff at the surgery cheerfully said goodbye, and “see you in five years”!
That day I slept off-and-on for the rest of the day, no pain, just feeling a bit worn out.
And oh what a glorious first meal I had. Attila picked fresh edible pod peas, blanched them for freezing, and gave me a cup of them to make creamed peas, which I had on whole wheat, low-sodium, sourdough toast. I really enjoyed that, after not having anything to eat almost 40 hours.
I am almost back up to speed now.
Today Attila is at the bank, trying to transfer his company pension to the bank. The company that administers the pension for the place he worked is extremely difficult to deal with. We want them out of our lives, permanently. That company has tormented us through two health issues, for no good reason other than they did not want to give us the benefits Attila was due. After months of negative interaction over the details of these instances, we won our cases. We hate dealing with them, just their name causes both of us instant distress. I have my fingers crossed that his efforts succeed!
The garden is growing well with all this rain and sunshine. Unfortunately the bugs are doing equally well, particularly the earwigs. They destroyed one variety of our cabbages, before Attila detected them, you live and learn. This is the first year we have had lots of rain in the spring and early summer, so new conditions exist, which means new issues to learn about.
The clematis and Granny’s Roses are in full beautiful bloom right now, and the scent from the roses is lovely. The white clover is in full bloom. I planted white clover in the lawn about ten years ago, as it improves the soil, is draught resistant, and stays short so it looks like a lawn. It is spreading this spring, which it had not done before, so Attila is not cutting the grass until their blooms are spent.
We have been enjoying edible pod peas for a few weeks. Since I could have have them during my colonoscopy preparation week, Attila had been blanching and freezing them for this winter. So far he has blanched and frozen about eleven quarts of edible pod peas. They are slowing down now, but are still producing. The climbing beans (borlotti and scarlet runner) are planted so as to share the support panels that the peas have climbed, and will flourish once the peas have finished producing.
All of the spinach and beets that I planted have been harvested and consumed or frozen. Our daily salads consist almost entirely of garden lettuce, beet greens, edible pod peas, augmented with commercially grown carrots, shredded, and onions, diced. Most of the herbs on the salad are from our garden.
Today my lunch will consist of a stir fry of garden vegetables, tossed with noodles (cooked yesterday and refrigerated), olive oil, and a bit of plum sauce that I canned last year. I love summer stir fry meals!
The Kombucha is coming along. There is a learning curve there though, as there is with most things. The first batch took two weeks to ferment, it was lovely. I then purchased a heater for the second batch, and left it for two weeks. It was vinegar by the time I tasted it. So the third batch, again using the heater, was ready in seven days. I am brewing another batch today. Attila likes it plain, but I like it with a bit of sweetened cranberry juice. I now steep the green tea for only 15 minutes before removing the tea leaves, so it will have
less caffeine in it!
The Kombucha vinegar won’t go to waste. I will use it to make my salad dressing, Attila might too.
This retirement thing is awesome!
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Tue, Jun 25, 12:17 p.m.
25°C
FEELS LIKE 31
Partly cloudy
Wind 21 SW km/h
Humidity 65 %
Visibility 17 km
Sunrise 5:25 AM
Wind gust 31 km/h
Pressure 101 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 8:55 PM
Quote
“If the Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me”
Jimmy Buffett, Song Title
1946 – 2023
I found this silly and profound at the same time, depending on how I looked at it.
Congrats on getting through the colonoscopy! I’m surprised you still had to go though so much. DH’s daughter had one a month or so ago and she just had to do a liquid diet for one day and then a one litre prep the night before. You’d think all the doctors in the province would just do whatever was easiest on the patient!
Five years ago I had my most recent colonoscopy. They used little anesthesia and I ended up waking up just as they started, so I watched as the camera moved around. There were two little filaments of polyps. They only took out one to test (which came back negative). When they take them off, the little camera filament has a lasso attachment. They lasso the polyp and tighten the lasso which cuts it off, and then they pull it through the filament to bag the sample. Easy peasy! I never felt a thing when they lassoed the polyp.
I envy the tasty eating ahead of you. I’m also a fan of edible pod peas as well as snow peas. It’s a shame you don’t find them for sale very often.
Hey! We got our front garden in. We like it very much! We have a slender Hinoki false cypress, and a Jack & Jill boy/girl holly, and some purple leaf coral bells, a purple leaf weigela, a line of mini boxwoods along the front porch, and some veronica as well as another spikey purple plant the name of which escapes me at the moment.
Today is my birthday, so we are going out for dinner to celebrate. I got some lovely old fashioned look color-changing filament bulbs for the back deck and pergola from DH. I can’t wait to see how they look!
Happy birthday Teri! I hope you have a lovely day, and a delicious birthday dinner!
Your garden sounds lovely. What great birthday presents!
The preparation was seven days because I have a “difficult” colon. Ordinary prep does not work for me, last time I had a colonoscopy it was so problematic that I had to have another test. Luckily the seven day preparation does a great job, so there were no issues this time. Interesting that you woke up and watched, you are braver than I am!
My experience with surgery at the hospital was stellar, pleasant, focused and hard working medical people there… a HUGE contrast with that hospital’s emergency department, which runs poorly, triage is inadequate in my opinion, the nurses once you are in spend a lot of their time in the “office” area chatting socially with each other, and don’t attend to patients with diligence. The doctors, once they see you, which takes hours and hours, are usually very good (some haven’t been though). They need a new manager in the emergency department to monitor the staff and procedures.
I can well imagine how glad you are to have that ordeal over! Enjoy the good eats!
Joan, I am very relieved that the arduous preparation is over, and I won’t need to do it again for five years! I am getting better at it, each time I do it I find new ways to lessen the intensity of the experience. I will be adding a cushioned toilet seat next time, and possibly a bidet function.
Food tastes better than ever!
Colonoscopies are uncomfortable but what peace of mind they usually bring when you get the results! I hope you were able to transfer the pension funds. It’s safer to eliminate the old company. Rest up!
Sandy, you are so right about the peace of mind one gets from the results. While I was there one of the other patients was in for an annual colonoscopy because cancer had been discovered. She was telling someone how wonderful the surgeon and staff were when she found out about the cancer, they certainly are wonderful there. I think most people find the colonoscopy preparation somewhat arduous, I am not alone, although my seven day prep is a little longer and more intense than the “normal” preparation. The surgeon said the prep was good.
Attila has forms to fill in and mail, the bank will do some of the work as well, fingers crossed it all goes smoothly!
Good advice, to rest up!