Monday

[Stans]

And back to the grind. It was a truly great weekend, one that I will remember for a long time. 58F this morning, looking for cloudy skies and mid-60's today, rain tonight and tomorrow. Y'all have a great day.

[No105_Archie]

clear calm and cool....maybe I'll just start saying ccc........that's until it goes to rdf or fcs ( farking crapppy snow )

[Donster]

Morning all. At hospital (non - emergency). Will create my usual morning daily posts as soon as I get out of here and back home.

[Herr Soren Fick]

Doktor Katzenjammer vill be zeeink you zoon zo do nicht move. Hav gut day unter Zhe New Vorld Order®. Herr Donzter entjoy zhe ekzaminazion by Doktor Katzenjammer. He ist very zhorough und vill nicht mizz einy nook or kranny. Zhink happy zhouts. Bwahahahaha!

[The Dude]

Morning all. At hospital (non - emergency). Will create my usual morning daily posts as soon as I get out of here and back home.

Donating your rare blood today, Herr Babengrupenfuhrermeister?

<insert Achmed joke about donating blood here>

Nice weather here. Warmed up after the cold snap we had.

[Donster]

Doctor Inga Svenson was "foamin' for my colon". She said it "vaz ein lovely colon und zhat ve zhould ezamine it at mein plaze after vork und zum homemaden Sauerbraten und spätzle and bottle of schnappz." "Ok" I said, staring and at the same time drooling while gazing upon her cleavage, which was formed by two huge breastesess that were putting excessive strain on her Stopemfromfloppin black leather bra.

[cobraj]

ouch! afternoon all. 1 down 2 to go!

[Stans]

Colonoscopy eh? Well...

Dave Barry's colonoscopy journal:

I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy. A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis . Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, quote, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!'

I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called 'MoviPrep,'which comes in a box larg e enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America 's enemies.

I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous. Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor. Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, and then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons.) Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.

The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose watery bowel movement may result.' This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground.

MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but: Have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.

After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep. The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.

At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked.

Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep. At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this, but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house.

When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point. Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand. There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was 'Dancing Queen' by Abba. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' has to be the least appropriate.

'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me.

'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.

I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, Abba was shrieking 'Dancing Queen! Feel the beat from the tambourine' and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood. Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that it was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ.

At least you did it on Monday morning, so you know the scope was clean and as sterile as it can ever be.

[Donster]

Clean? I don't know. With my Combatsim provided medical coverage, all I saw them use was an old fire hose with a brass nozzle at the entry end and a vintage WWII Anti-Aircraft searchlight. I don't remember much after that. Except now I can breathe through my ass now.