29 August 2024
Wow, sometimes the medical world moves fast! I went online to MyChart to schedule an appointment with Dr. Paul Feldman, gastroenterologist and, in a daze, clicked on a date. After coming out of the fog, I realized it was the same date I was recovering from diarrhea the day before. In other words the same date as I signed up.
Joel took me into my “be there by 9:15 appointment” and we made it with time to spare. I checked in and it was shortly after that Althea showed us into an examining room and confirmed the information I had filled out online. In a first, no one asked me to fill the same info on a piece of paper. Kudos to Dr. Feldman’s office. He came in shortly after Althea left and he also confirmed some things I put in the online form. He basically said doctors have no real answer for diarrhea and that when they check the causes it comes back with a smorgasbord of possibilities.
He expressed concern about my anemia. Finally! Someone actually used the term. All my other doctors acknowledge that I have low iron, low hematocrit and low red blood cell count but never call me anemic. Dr. Feldman wants to eliminate anything going on gastric-wise and therefore wants to do both a colonoscopy and endoscopy, fortunately at the same time so there is only one prep.
We were provided with the prep info on a three page paper. We were then asked to wait for a scheduler to contact us. When he did, we both figured it would be sometime in the future – like the end of September. Nope, I’m scheduled for the 5th of September, next Tuesday.
My prep is using Miralax (328 grams) mixed in 48 oz of water. One dose is 2 days before the procedure and the other is one day before the procedure. Joel drove me to a nearby Walgreens and I picked up the two bottles of Miralax powder. The rest of the procedure is the same for pretty much every colonoscopy.
I’ve already had several offers to drop me off and pick me up but Joel immediately said he thought he was available. This is above and beyond for Joel because he lost his brother Denny day before yesterday – his last immediate family member.
An old Coast Guard buddy, Chip, sent me a link to a photo yesterday. I was a little taken aback. He asked when I joined the army. I’m not sure if it is real or simply something AI generated. What do you think?
Personally, I like the look of the WWI helmet. I notice I’m a private in the photo. Underachiever. He got it from a site that is titled “Proudly American” on Facebook.
That neatly folded flag reminds me of Boy Scout Camp Kickapoo near Clinton, Mississippi. Every evening at 5 pm we held lowering of the colors – we called it “Retreat.” The first day of camp, the staff did the honor in order to show how it was done. The entire camp formed a huge “U” facing the dining hall with the flag pole in the center of the “U.” A color guard of staff approached the pole, and while “Taps” played (we always had someone who could blow the bugle – some better than others). They never let the flag touch the ground. They then folded it to the form shown in the photo above. It was a great teaching moment. Once folded, the color guard would reform and bring the flag ceremoniously back to the dining hall where the staff always aligned.
It looked easy but it was not. Individual troops were assigned the lowering and raising of the flag every day. The raising of the colors was at 8 am. We didn’t have troops make the “U” formation but they had to have a color guard to raise the colors. Mistakes were made and the kids learned from it. Folding the flag into a tight triangle takes a lot of practice. The best I’ve ever seen was the folding of the flag from John Kennedy’s coffin that was presented to Mrs. Kennedy. It was actually very well done.
This video didn’t show how they got to the folding part but it was very smartly done. What I really hate to see is when the retreat ceremony is poorly done. All it takes is a little practice. As a kid, I started learning how to fold the flag in school and then Boy Scouts. Practice made perfect.
Last night and today we’ve had thunderstorms and rain and it looks to be the same most of the day. As you might guess, after the case of diarrhea, I’ve now had two days of constipation. I hope these procedures find out something as to why I’m cycling between diarrhea and constipation. It kinda saps your energy.
Looks like another crawl-into-bed-and-read day.
Stay tuned!
