1. I was up at 4 a.m. to drink the last of my colonoscopy preparation liquid and, as instructed, I followed it up with a quart of water. My two previous colonoscopies have been early morning procedures, but, today, I didn't have to be to the medical center until 1:30, so I returned to bed and slept as long as I wanted to. Even though the afternoon procedure meant that my fast from solid food would end up lasting about 70 hours, I preferred being able to have plenty of sleep before I went to the hospital to going up the very first thing in the morning.
2. I showered and shaved and put on clean (loose fitting) clothes and felt remarkably spry during my barely ten minute walk to the medical center. I was assigned to Room 1 for the preliminaries and was very impressed with how not only professional and knowledgeable, but how caring, nice, and cheery the nurses and the anesthesiologist were. All my vitals were good. I was especially happy that, even though I was under some stress, that my blood pressure was good -- and it got better when they took it again in the room where I was scoped.
I knew it would be easy to talk to Dr. Sarkis. I knew him a little bit from when he lived next door to Mom for about a year about eighteen years ago. He expressed his condolences that Mom died and told me that she was a great woman. After the procedure ended and as I awoke from the deep, blissful sleep of being anesthetized, Dr. Sarkis told me that he removed one benign looking polyp and that I should return in five years.
The nurse named Kelley assured me that if Dr. Sarkis didn't like the look of the polyp, he would have told me. Nonetheless, of course, we won't have confirmation of its benignity until the lab report comes back.
So, things look good.
3. Earlier in the morning, I had cut a pork roast in half, creating two less thick roasts. I then cut these two halves into strips, salted the strips, and cut the strips into small chunks. I also prepared a marinade, without a recipe, composed of olive oil, sesame oil, sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, half a lemon juiced, honey, salt, and pepper. I also cooked a small pot of rice. My hope was that when, thanks to a ride from Carol, home from the medical center, that I'd feel like finely chopping some onion, celery, and garlic and frying it in hot oil and then stir frying the pork chunks.
Happily, I did feel like doing this cooking. I actually broke my fast a little earlier with a few crackers and a toasted English muffin and a piece of toasted Dave's Killer Bread, but the pork stir fry was my first meal since Monday evening and, as I had hoped, the marinade was a fun combination of sweetness, heat, and saltiness. The pork was tender. The flavors may not have been perfectly balanced, but I'll keep working on that.
By the way, today was a very important day for Christy. She visited an orthopedist and wrote about it as her next entry in The Shed Notebook. Let me invite you to read it, here.
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