I was trapped!  The colonoscopy loomed.  No food the day before “the procedure” but drink lots of fluids.  At 3 pm, take four pooping pills.  From five p.m. on drink a glass of a Gatorade mixed with powdered pooping stuff every fifteen minutes until it is gone unless you become nauseated which I did.  I lost ¼ of what I had drunk and since it gave me a migraine headache, I took a Tryptophan and a sip of water and gave up.

            After the migraine pill did its job and the other stuff did its job, I finally went into a deep sleep around 4 a.m. and suddenly realized from my daze that something was buzzing.  The alarm buzzed for ½ hour before it awakened me.  Since I was only allowed to shower, no food or drink, no makeup, no lotion, no anything, it didn’t take long and I was ready for my driver.  I don’t know what I would do without my NR Friend Walter as we build equity with each other for times just like this when we are required to have a driver for the two-hour round trip to Surprise.

            The extremely efficient nursing staff waits until your rights are signed away, the doctor pokes his head in the door to say “Hi” and you barely remember the kid who examined you months before, get you stripped and dressed in a backless wonder, start a drip, tie you up with pulse and blood pressure devices, wheel you in to be strapped with more devices you are afraid to ask how they are going to use, then they ask, “How are you today?”  Hmmm.

            They add that you will “probably” not remember the procedure.  That was an understatement.  I barely remember being guided out the back door into the alley and being strapped into Walter’s truck!  I’m sure my conversation was scintillating until we stopped for a good breakfast at Wickenburg.  By the time I was guided back into my house, I was ready for a nap. 

            Maybe you don’t think this is a very exciting blog but on the other hand, anyone fifty and above is supposed to have a colonoscopy as a “base line” by which to judge future exams.  In all ways, everything came out in the end and I am in such good condition that I don’t have to return for ten years.

            It is a definite encouragement to keep up my skills in the future.  I may not be able to run very fast when I’m 85 but maybe I can still hide where they can’t find me.  God Bless until next week.

Minshall’s RVing Alaska and Canada (A “How to” and “Why not” book) is available thru Amazon.