Quick me update

 Kind of doomed myself to a week of being too busy to blog by saying in my last post down there that I might have time to blog, didn't I? Ah well, just enjoy these pointless photos of saskatoon leaves with raindrops on them while I talk medical at you for a while, then.

Yep, medical. I don't do it very often, so I think you can put up with it for a few paragraphs.

 The reason that I wasn't around to blog this past weekend or yesterday was that I was erm..., busy doesn't seem like the right word, but I guess I'll go with it... preparing for the next step in the Journey of the Exploded Gut. For those new to the program, I'll give you the brief summary. Last November I went to Emergency with abdominal pain only to wind up in surgery because a diverticulum that I didn't know I had ruptured. Hmm. That really is the short version, isn't it? Doesn't exactly go into the whole finding myself in the ICU with a tube down my trachea because I didn't wake up well from the anaesthesia or spending a week in hospital trying to get used to caring for my brand new pet stoma.

Look up stoma on your own if you don't know what I'm talking about. This isn't meant to be a post about the wonders of ostomy surgery. Even though it is a wonder, actually. Without it there likely wouldn't be a me anymore.

Anyway.

Yesterday? Yesterday was the official Dee Has Her First Ever Colonoscopy day.

Woo hoo.

For those of you who haven't hit 50 yet and haven't gone through it (and if you have hit 50 and haven't gone through it, you're an idiot who's effing around with his/her health for no reason), the procedure itself is no big deal. My Dad was nice enough to come into the city to drop me off and pick me up, I was called in almost immediately once I checked in, the drugs didn't hit me hard enough to make me completely out of it (or car sick -- we had a bucket on standby because my history with cars after sedation isn't a great one), and the whole scoping was done in less than twenty minutes. Bear in mind that it included two different entry points, since the doctor had to go in both through the stoma to check the colon and also through the back passage (gotta love euphemisms sometimes) to check the rectal stump. Twenty minutes was pretty quick.

Rectal stump, by the way, is one of my least favourite phrases in the English language now.

Yeah, the procedure was fine. The prep? That was interesting. Again, for those who haven't experienced it, you get the pleasure of not only living on a clear fluid diet for a day, but also paying somewhere in the range of thirty dollars for a jug containing a handy little powder known as polyethelyne glycol 3350. When you look THAT one up (that's right. I'm not doing any linky work for you today) bear in mind that most of the websites describe its use as a laxative for occasional constipation. For a colonoscopy you use it to completely clean yourself out. You drink a lot of it fast, and then a little while afterwards you start gushing. Literally gushing, And I can tell you that first hand, because being on an ostomy pouch I got to watch it happen.

I've finally found a reason to be thankful for the pouch.

Instead of being tied to the bathroom for an afternoon, I just had to empty my pouch as it filled. Meant that I could actually do other things on Sunday, which was nice. I should make it clear, by the way, that the cleaning yourself out part was the worse part of the whole experience, and even that wasn't bad. The gastrointestinal lavage, as it's officially called, doesn't cause cramping or anything. You just have to be prepared to inhabit the john for a while, that's all.

In other words, if your doctor tells you to get a colonoscopy done, just effing do it. It's no big deal.

Really.





Oh, so I suppose you want to hear the results. No polyps, no biopsies, a little minor swelling in the rectal stump, and otherwise a clear bowel. Yay me. Next step? An appointment with the doctor to discuss reversal surgery. Can't say that I'm looking forward to more surgery, but as handy as the pouch was for the colonoscopy prep I can't say that I'd miss it if it went away.

I'll keep you posted.



We're done talking about my colon now. You're welcome.

And so much for quick.

Quick cat update

Yeah, trying to keep this less wordy than yesterday because I'd like to get a bit of drawing done yet this morning. So. First off, there's this:

 Apparently it's not an unusual occurrence for Bob the Belly. It's certainly an... interesting look, though.

And below you'll see his brother. If Tom looks like he's saying take the shot already, that's because he pretty much is. Tom has less patience for the camera than Bob does to begin with (I haven't quite decided whether it's because of the beeping sound or the flash. Maybe I should try putting it on mute and seeing what happens), but this photo took longer than usual because I'd just come in from taking yard pictures and had the wide angle lens that I use as a macro on the camera. Hard shot to line up, then, and it ended up a bit fuzzy in the end anyway. I'm surprised that he stayed still for so long. That's not at all normal for Tom.

Speaking of which, the cats accidentally ended up with new nicknames today which probably won't get used but which I find kind of funny. Early this morning Tom was tearing around like he usually does, and I made the comment to Dad that I thought his cat was on speed. TOTALLY JOKING OF COURSE, she says before some clueless animal rights idiot stumbles upon this and self-righteously tells all of her (generally a her, unfortunately) clueless friends that something has to be done about these people who are giving drugs to a helpless cat.

Um, anyway.

The though of Tom on amphetamines naturally had us wondering what mellow Bob must be taking. With his chilled-out personality it could only be marijuana, right? He's very much whatever, bro. The kind of cat that would be good for therapy in a hospital or nursing home, I think. Nothing really phases him.

So there you have it. My dad's cats, Weed and Speed.





Blogging may (she says extremely tentatively) happen a bit this week, unlike the last couple. And of course now I've doomed myself to be incredibly busy and not even get my own work done, let alone lunchtime blathering.

Sigh.



Way to go, Dee.

See you when I see you, I guess.

Purple things! And... I dunno. Maybe something else.

 Get the feeling that I'm not feeling terribly blathery? Well, I've said it before but whenever I take a break, intentionally or not, from blogging I either find myself absolutely brimming with things to say or absolutely empty. Today seems like the latter, but I'll keep typing and see what happens.

First, I suppose I should be identifying the purple things, right? This first one is Viola tricolor, better known as Johnny Jump-ups. It's a naturalised import from... oh, probably England. I'll look it up later, maybe. Naturalised is a fancy biology way to say escaped (from gardens, often) invader. Some invaders are nasty and can disrupt ecosystems (like Purple Loosestrife or... oh, heck here's a link to Alberta's noxious weed guide. That's easier) , but these little violets don't hurt anything. I have kind of a soft spot for violets anyway. Pretty, hardy, and you can eat them too. Yep, pretty much any member of the violet family is edible.

 This one is Moss Phlox (Phlox subulata, but don't even ask me which variety after all these years). This is a cultivated plant, but I know that at least  one species of Moss Phlox grows wild here in Alberta. Erm, not here here, exactly, but in sage-ier areas of the province. Oh, I see here that one's probably Phlox hoodii. And why should you care? You likely don't I expect, but I remember hiking up a place called Thumb Hill years ago with a group of interpreters at a conference. Thumb Hill is known for its First Nations tipi rings and long history of sacred use, but as we went up someone noticed that the Moss Phlox was in bloom. Someone else misheard that as Moss Floss, and we had a pretty good laugh about "what kind of a name is Moss Floss for a plant?" until we reached the site and the utter history and majesty of the place caught up with us. As we came down the sun was starting to set and the coyotes were howling at each other. It was so much like a movie set and soundtrack that it was hard to believe that it was real.

Here's pretty much the last Pasque Flower or Prairie Crocus (Pulsilatilla patens, depending on which book you consult) of the season. I've said before how much I like these things. The purple is so gorgeous. I find them really hard to draw, though, because they're pubescent (botanist for fuzzy). You don't want to make them look smooth, but you don't want them to look like they have thorns either.

That's a petunia. Scientific name? No freaking clue. Let me look. Ha. Figures. It's Petunia sp. This particular flower is from a Wave Petunia plant, so the thing (the plant, I mean. Not the flower) will go on to fill up the planter.

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of petunias. They don't smell right. Still, they're colourful. I'll admit that. And when you buy a variety like this one, it's a lot of colour with not much effort.

And finally, one of my favourite wild purples, Purple Clematis (Clematis occidentalis. You'll probably find it listed as Blue Clematis because botanists have historically declared purple to be blue, but don't let that fool you. It's purple). This particular one is a volunteer in my dad's yard; that is, no one actually planted it. They're robust plants, though. There's another one in the yard that's growing up through a crack between the planter that the begonias are in and the driveway. It's been hacked down a couple of times for various reasons, and it still comes back.

I'm not sure what it was about this year, but the wild clematises were absolutely loaded with flowers. I did have a photo of this entire plant, but I didn't like it so this is all that you get. Just imagine this times about fifty on a plant that's only about a metre high (climbing, that is. If it doesn't have anything to climb it creeps instead), and you can see how beautiful it was.

And there you have it. And there were actual words besides. Maybe I should just blather about plants all of the time? Nah, that sounds too much like my job. And besides, the only reason you got all of these plants at once is that I want to clear my nerdstick of some old pictures (not that these are old. It was just last month) so that I have room for more recent pointlessness.

And maybe some spiders. There's been a distinct lack of spiders on the blog lately. Right now, though, there's a distinct lack of lunch. Later, folks.