Today 15March2023: Wednesday with Colonoscopy

I am writing this on Thursday morning, taking another day off as I need to do more self-care and rest one more day. By the end of Wednesday, I was exhausted, still having some memory issues from the general anesthetic, and went to bed early and slept through until 7ish, which never happened to me.

I am having trouble writing today as I am still out of focus.

I spent the evening, starting at 2AM, drinking that unpleasant bowel prep solution, lime flavored with a strong soap taste, and then experiencing the effects. I had gone to bed at about 11ish and did sleep until my alarm woke me. I had no rest until about 4:30, when the effects slowed. I then slept for an hour. I showered, dressed, and just as I sat down, Uber let me know that my driver was early. A gal in a clean car took me to Portland, and we had no real traffic until we neared the tunnel on 26. My driver, pressed through by changing lanes occasionally, got me to the doctor’s office early. I rated her high and gave her an excellent tip on the Uber app. I checked in, and they commented I was early–I had a ninety-minute wait. While waiting, I used the restroom and was proud of my clarity–it was hard fought.

The process is more assembly line than a medical procedure. But, there is close attention to safety and clarity of purpose with some required rituals of identification for each step. For example, I had to agree that I was me by stating my birthdate often, and medical folks, including the doctor, would say this is so and so, and we are here to do this procedure and then would read my bracelet to see that it matched what he said.

The general anesthetic, Propofol, was one I had experienced before, and I told the nurse I was interested to see if I had the same experience. I watched the nurse push the drug, and she said I would be asleep soon. I had felt a strange taste, and then I awoke again, and everything was over. The IV was gone, and I commented that I was surprised. I was awake when they removed it, but my memory is missing. I dressed and was happy but unable to manage with dexterity getting ready. I went slower, and I was able to dress. I moved slowly and was politely lectured not to drink alcohol today and not to make any important decisions.

I told the nurse I was fine as I had just turned over all my assets to the other nurse, who waved and smiled at that comment. Yes, my smart-ass was still working despite the anesthetic. After the eye-rolling from the nurse trying to be serious, they found me a radio taxi home and sent me home.

The results, I have, dear reader, made you wait for is the doc found three polyps and removed them. It is unlikely any being severe. Pathology will come in a week or so. The doc will see back in three years.

I arrived at the house in the taxi without issue and with no real traffic. I then chopped up 1/2 a fresh green pepper with 1/2 an onion. Next, I sliced up some good locally made ham from Olympic Provisions and heated all that in olive oil. Once wilted, I added egg beaters and cheese and made a Denver scramble. Next, I got out an NYC poppy seed bagel (frozen as I could not eat them all before the colonoscopy), toasted it, and covered it with cream cheese. I later added a cup of apple sauce to get a balanced meal. Finally, I made liberal coffee in the French Press.

I ate all this and watched another Battle Ship New Jersey video. The curator for the battleship is doing videos of the interior of the SS United States, the fastest Ocean Liner ever built. This is a ship I have often wondered about, and the last of her kind (SS France, later SS Norway, was scrapped in the 2000s after a boiler explosion). There is a small hope that the SS United States can be turned into a convention center (or like facility) and be preserved (the ship is in Philadelphia). Much of the interior was acquired by museums, and some parts are in private collector hands (a coffee press from the ship for sale for $200 on eBay).

After eating my eggs, bagel, and apple sauce, I went to rest. I managed to sleep until the afternoon, waking up a few times. One of the side effects of the anesthetic I was experiencing was anxiety, and I was full of nervous energy, so I tried to keep calm and do little things. I managed to make corn muffins. I reviewed the expenses in Quicken for the last two months, updated any uncategorized expenses, and corrected some automatic applications of categories. I went outside and took pictures of the roses and tulips, waking up for 2023. I ordered more electronics from Sparkfun, including replacing the amp I destroyed (blue smoked that last one).

I also learned how the new power boards I acquired from Sparkfun worked. I was planning only 1A 5V, but that might be weak as I was learning from my reading. I got out the board, found a larger LiPo battery, and plugged it all in. The power switch does not work when the micro-B USB is used (WTF!), and I will need to use a button like I planned. I plan to have the radio charge a backup battery and still play without power for about an hour or longer. I also found an AdaFruit version in my collection of the same type of powerboard and thus can use it if using the Sparkfun board becomes too complex for my simple application.

I decided not to connect anything together and just read–the warning about making decisions still being valid.

Dinner was with David and Michelle Smith at Swagarts in Hillsboro. They picked me up (no driving allowed) after forgetting I needed a ride. We had a great dinner, my lamb being just a bit spicy (this is mild!), and the Smiths getting an all-meat entree (not what they thought they ordered), but we mixed and matched, and it worked.

David finally received my Christmas present for 2022. I had acquired cheaply two US stamps and put them in a small plastic frame with a magnetic cover (the best for this kind of thing, I think), and you could see both sides of the stamps. The stamps are the US#1 Franklin (1847) and the CSA#1 (1861) Jefferson Davis stamps–only fifteen years apart and are the first stamps for the respective governments (Confederate stamps considered a subset of USA). It took me six months to find the frame in a store (ordering glass or fragile plastic from Amazon is just not wise).

I was stumbling and tired when the Smiths returned me to the Volvo Cave. I went to bed soon after that.

Thanks for reading.