Monthly Archives: November 2007

Colonsocopy … What Was the Big Deal, Anyway?

General

When I went to my doctor couple of months ago for a followup visit to get some prescription refills, he strongly suggested once again that I get a colonoscopy. Knowing that I probably had put this procedure off too long, I consented and made an appointment. The procedure was scheduled for this morning at 7:45 a.m. I wanted to get it over with as early in the day as possible.

The dread about a colonoscopy was mostly driven by my experience with a sigmoidoscopy that I had done about six or seven years ago when we were living in Colorado Springs. The bowel prep for that procedure was absolutely miserable and lasted for several months afterwards until my hemorrhoids were reasonably healed. The doctor assured me that this time I would not have any problems with the colonoscopy. Nevertheless, I was definitely not looking forward to the procedure.

It turns out the good doctor was right. The bowel preparation was straightforward and my hemorrhoids probably don’t have a clue that it happened. Here’s the sequence I went through leading up to the procedure this morning and the procedure itself (at least what I remember of it).

Starting on Tuesday, 27 November 2007, only clear liquids could be taken for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Nina stocked up at the grocery store with white grape juice, apple juice, cream soda, and water. There was plenty to drink and I didn’t really feel like I was hungry until after the procedure this morning.

At 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, I took four bisacodyl tablets. These were to “loosen the stool” and were supposed to take about six hours to be effective. In my case it was four hours and then one urgent bowel movement. It felt like everything emptied at that time … but no cramps or other side effects.

At 3:30 p.m. I took one Reglan 10mg tablet. This drug is used to treat nausea and I suppose it was in preparation of the two-hour procedure to follow.

At 4:00 p.m. I disolved a 225 gram bottle of Glycolax powder into two quarts of apple juice and drank the first 8 ounce glass of the solution. Every fifteen minutes I drank another 8 ounce glass. Glycolax is a prescription laxative, but seemed to be tasteless in the apple juice. By 6:30 I had finished the apple juice and had started making trips to the bathroom to void my bowel. They were urgent trips, but no cramps or other distress. There were lots of bowel sounds, but definitely no cramping and no forceful bowel movements. By 8 p.m. that was also pretty much finished. I had one more movement about 10 p.m. and woke up at 4:20 a.m. for my normal get – up – in – the – middle – of – the – night trip.

This morning I was to stop drinking anything by 5:45 a.m. That was no problem. I got up at 6:45 a.m., showered, and we were at the clinic by 7:45 a.m.

The preparation was finished and had been uneventful other than needing to be fairly close to a toilet from about 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. the night before.

The procedure itself was also unremarkable. I put on a hospital gown (that tied in the back, thanks to the help of the nurse). She started a saline IV drip and I laid down on a bed to wait.

About 8:30 they wheeled me into a small, fairly dark room where the doctor and a couple of nurses were waiting. They hooked up a blood pressure monitor, a blood oxygen sensor, and an EKG. The doctor asked how I was doing and had me roll over on my left side while one of the nurses fluffed up the pillow. The doctor asked if I was “ready for the happy juice?” I said I was and the next thing I knew he was helping me to roll onto my back while they were disconnecting everything. It was finished. He said that I had been there about twenty minutes.

I promptly went back to sleep and woke up in the same bed, but back in the small room where I had started. The nurse came in and said that I had been there about fifteen minutes. She checked my vital signs and took out the IV. I rested there for another ten minutes or so and she said I could get dressed. That was at about 9:15 a.m.

After getting dressed, the nurse met with Nina and me to go over what had occurred. The doctor had removed three small polyps out of the sigmoid portion of the colon. Those would be sent in for testing and they would send me a written report in about two weeks. She gave us a list of symptoms that, if they occurred, I was to call the clinic. She also said that I would have be passing a fair amount of gas from the air that had been put into the colon so the camera could see.

By the time we got home at about 10 a.m., I definitely needed to pass some gas! That was the only time I had any cramps. A half-hour later even that was finished.

I did a lot of procrastinating and worrying for nothing. All of the folklore around the pain and discomfort of a colonoscopy is just that … folklore.

Winter Has Arrived

General

Winter 2007

It started snowing around 6 a.m. this morning. The forecast didn’t say anything about snow, just high winds. By 9:30, when I took this picture, we had about an inch of snow on the ground. By noon the snow had stopped and this evening most of it has melted. The winds did arrive and the snow has moved south. Utah will finally get some snow for the ski resorts.

The dentist worked me over this morning and my mouth is very, very sore. It’s probably a good thing that I’m not eating anything today because even soft foods wouldn’t work, my mouth is so sore. The prep for the colonoscopy is underway. This is NOT fun.

Dog Update

General

Dog Door

The new dog door insert is finished and Bradica (the dog) is using it quite successfully. It fits into the sliding patio door and has Plexiglas down to where Bradica goes in and out, keeping most of the warm air in the house and the cold air outside. The only issue is that it has to be taken out to close and lock the patio door at night or when we are not at home. It does come out very easily, though, so that’s not a huge problem.

The diuretic from the vet has helped. She’s not quite so bloated and is getting around a bit easier. She even slept on her tummy for a while yesterday. However, she’s a bit more bloated today than yesterday, so we may need to increase her dose of diuretics to help reduce the fluid. Meanwhile, the vet called today to check up on Bradica. I was quite impressed. That’s good customer service.

Tomorrow will be a crappy day … pun intended. The tooth scheduled for a root canal on Friday is giving me a lot of problem. The bridge that’s supposed to be cemented to the tooth is loose and bad stuff is going on up inside the bridge. I’ve been taking Tylenol almost like candy to keep the pain down. The dentist has time available tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. and this time I’ll probably be OK with the injection … I wish. But tomorrow also marks the beginning of a prep for a colonoscopy scheduled for Wednesday morning at 7:45 a.m. I can’t have any real food tomorrow so Nina stocked up on a variety of clear liquid drinks for tomorrow. I’m looking forward to getting the tooth fixed, but the rest of the day will likely be a pain in the nether regions….

Bradica (The Dog) and The Vet

General

Bradica (the dog) is fourteen and is really showing her age. She no longer can do stairs and can only amble along at a very slow pace. She’s got something bad going in as well. She’s become quite bloated and is having trouble breathing. She sleeps a lot and works at getting into a position where her head is lower or higher than her body. She cannot sleep on her belly, either. She falls down quite often and sometimes when she collapses on the tile floor she can’t get back up without help. On Thursday evening we found her at the bottom of the stairs to the basement. We think that she probably fell down the stairs as she’s not gone down the stairs voluntarily for several months now. Getting old is a no fun!

We took her to the vet this morning because of her distended bowels — she’s put on more than six pounds in the past couple of months. There are several likely causes, none that can be treated. She’s for sure got congestive heart failure happening. The vet took some fluid samples that will be checked at the lab to see if anything else is going on, like cancer or liver problems. She is now taking a diuretic in hopes of giving her some relief. That means she will be going outside much more often.

Earlier this summer I built an insert to put in the sliding screen door going out to the deck. We had been leaving the door open with the screen partially open, but had a bird get in the house on two different occasions. The insert has a small opening for Bradica to go in and out and the rest is screened off to keep the birds and bugs out.

Now it’s turned cold and a new insert is needed in to go into the patio door. Rather than being a screen, this insert needs to be a window. So I picked up the material at Lowe’s today and started building the insert this afternoon. The basic construction is finished and the first coat of stain is on. Monday I’ll sand it down and put on the second coat of stain, cut the Plexiglas, and it’ll be done. Bradica will be able to go … and the heat will stay. I recorded a short Seesmic update….

Potential Fires … There Might Be A Theme Here

General, ,

Nina had gone uptown for a couple of errands and to collect yarn (that’s a story by itself … one for her to tell) and I was working on a Request for Information response when a neighbor called. She wanted to know if we had a cell phone number for their neighbors across the street, Troy and Dianne, because there was some kind of an alarm going off in their house. The couple who live there are friends (Troy and I “exited” from our last employer at the same time last summer) and his wife Dianne is Nina’s secretary in the prison Relief Society. So it would be possible that we had a cell phone number, but we didn’t. However, his parents live in the area and I was able to find their phone number and called them. A few minutes later Troy called me on my cell phone. They were in the Salt Lake area for the Thanksgiving weekend and he wanted me to go check out his house. They have a special lock on the back door that takes a combination, so I went over to their house and he talked me through opening the door. From outside it sounded like every smoke alarm in the house was going off. It was pretty loud outside!

I got the door opened about the time that Troy’s father arrived. We walked through the house to find everything OK, except all six smoke detectors upstairs were alarming. We got those stopped and found that one of the detectors was malfunctioning. They’re all wired together so if one goes off, they all go off (we have the same wiring configuration). There is certainly no way anyone would be able to sleep through all that noise!

So, all is now well in their house, except for one smoke detector that will have to be replaced. But it got me thinking about the overall situation. They were out of town and no one in the neighborhood knew how to reach them. The neighbors who heard the alarm did try to look in the windows (all the blinds were down) and probably would have called the fire department if they thought there was any smoke coming out.

So what if the alarms were going off in our house? A good friend of Nina’s has a key to our house, but she lives more than a mile away. There’s also one in a lock box on the outside garage door; someone would need the combination to open the lock box. However, if anyone heard the alarms, it would be someone in the neighborhood.

Maybe the right solution is to post something somewhere (perhaps in the window by the front door) with my cell phone number? That way someone could call in case of an emergency when we weren’t home. Would that be a signal for thieves? A couple of homes in the neighborhood have been robbed when the family was gone on vacation. I’ll have to do some thinking about this.

Giving Thanks

General

Nina and I just got back from the Pocatello Womens Correctional Center (aka the prison). Thursday evening is the normal Relief Society meeting at the prison but because Nina’s counselors were going to be with family, I went with her instead. I’m in the process of being cleared as a volunteer at the prison … just need to attend a training class in January so that I can assist in the future if needed. Today was Thanksgiving so Nina spent the day yesterday baking cookies, brownies, pumpkin bread, and making Rice Krispie treats to take to the inmates and guards at the prison this evening. All of these treats for the inmates have to be individually wrapped and have to be consumed during the meeting. No food can be taken back to their cells. As an activity she took a craft up for the women to do. Once the craft was completed, the women were allowed to take it back to their units and keep it. The craft took a little preparation work. It was a picture of three candles. Then yarn was glued onto the outline of the candles. After that tin foil was pressed down on the paper to make indentations around the yarn. Then using Sharpies colored markers, one colors in the indentations and the result looks pretty much like a small stained-glass window. It’s very clever.

But, the inmates can’t have scissors or play with glue. The Young Women in the ward did the part of putting the yarn on the paper as part of their service project last week. The inmates could then put on the tin foil and color the craft. They had a great time and were particularly happy that they could take the finished product back to their rooms when they were finished.

My part in this was to sit at one of the tables and kind of help keep order. It was very interesting listening to the girls chatter about their day and whatever came to mind. They apparently had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner with real turkey today. They talked a lot about the things they were thankful for. One girl said she was thankful that she was still alive and that if she wasn’t there in prison, she was sure that she wouldn’t have been alive today. They were thankful for family who visited them. They expressed over and over again that they were thankful that we had come up this evening and that we cared for them. It was pretty humbling. Most of them know Nina (she’s been in the Relief Society at the prison for more than two and a half years) and two different girls said to me that they knew that Nina cared for them and was interested in their well being.

Well, I also know that she does as well. She more than cares for them … she is passionate about them and their well-being. Many of these girls have destroyed their family relationships and have little or no contact with family. Others come from situations so dysfunctional that a caring or loving relationship could never exist there. Most of them have had to become manipulative in order to survive and don’t know how to live otherwise. In all of that, Nina truly cares for them and goes far beyond the mark in filling her calling and is a perfect role model for them. I was very thankful to have been there with her this evening.

It has been a day for thanksgiving, for sure. Nina prepared a delightful Thanksgiving meal this morning. We loaded it in the car about noon and drove over to Soda Springs where mother had a lovely table set ready for the feast. And feast we did. We left much of it behind for them to snack on for the next couple of days. Some of the good stuff came back, however. In fact, as soon as I post this I’m going to get a piece of pumpkin pie. That should be a good “night time before going to bed” snack!

We have a white board on the inside of the door to the garage. It’s intended for reminder notes, usually for things that we need to buy at the grocery store. As I was taking things out to the car, I noticed that Nina had begun to make a list of all the things she was thankful for. It is a long list with family at the top (noted by name). Some of our family have gathered in Chandler. Others had their holiday at home. One met with a number of other families at the church for a community dinner. All were safe, warm, well-fed, and having a good time. I too am thankful for family. I’m thankful to be alive. I’m thankful to have been at the prison this evening … and even more thankful to come back out again and come home. I’m thankful for a Heavenly Father and a Savior who love me. I’m getting a bit teary eyed. Time for some pie….

All The News That Fits…

General

PHS Undefeated

The headline says that the Pocatello High School marching band is undefeated. I was stunned at the headline! How are they undefeated? Was there some kind of a battle, like “band football” or something? No one on the staff wanted to take credit for the story, either. Most articles in the Idaho State Journal are written by a person whose email address is put at the end of the article … this story is by “Journal Staff”. I’m not sure I would want to take credit for the headline, either.

Now if the band would only march somewhere besides at the Red Rocks Marching Competition in St. George, Utah. What is a parade without a band? The annual Night Lights Parade will be this Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. Some 60 entries will be in the parade … but no band. Maybe that’s how they stay undefeated?

Whew …. x2

General

I came home from the dentist this morning (we’re on first names up at that office, I’ve been there so often) to hear a strange buzzing sound in the hallway. I tracked the noise down to the doorbell chime unit. I popped the cover off and the solenoid that fires a metal plunger out to hit the chime was making the noise. It was also very hot! I touched it and burned my finger!! So I disconnected the wire coming from the doorbell button out on the front porch and then removed the unit from the wall. I let it cool down and then inspected the unit. The metal plunger had at one time a plastic knob on each end. The plunger had gotten so hot the plastic knobs had melted. I suspect this thing could have gotten hot enough to set something on fire. So, I disconnected the transformer in the basement and then took off the doorbell button out front to find it was stuck in the “ring” position … along with a door knob tag from the FedEx man that he had tried to deliver a package and a tag from the Idaho Power guy saying that our power will be off tomorrow (Tuesday) from 9 to 11 a.m. One or both of them had rung the doorbell before leaving. The button got stuck, the metal plunger heated up, the spring that should hold the plunger out of the solenoid came off, and the whole chime unit started heating up. It was a good thing that I came home and noticed the noise!

That meant, of course, that the doorbell chime unit along with the button had to be replaced. The FedEx package could be picked up after 3:30 p.m., so about three this afternoon I drove over to Lowes to get a replacement unit. I wanted to know if there was a unit that had a thermal sensor and would shut down if it got too hot. No such thing available. That should be an opportunity for someone! I bought a cheap unit, picked up the FedEx package, and came home to do the installation.

That’s when I discovered the stove was still on. One of the gas burners was busy warming up the surrounding air … fortunately no pans were on the burner. I asked Nina about it and she reminded me that I was the last person to use the stove when I “made” some Ramen noodles for lunch. That’s right … moi. Dang. Two opportunities today to burn the house down.

The doorbell has been replaced. The stove is off. I think I’ll stay out of the kitchen for a while, though.