The Coast is Clear

Apologies for jumping right into uncomfortable medical news, but yesterday was the day of my dreaded colonoscopy. I'm happy to report that the doctors found nothing unusual, despite my recent abnormal test. Apparently I am fit as a fiddle. Whew!

I won't bore you (or disgust you) with too many details. Let's just say the hours between about 7 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday are best forgotten. I spent late yesterday morning lying in the sun on the lawn because I felt so cold. I tried to read the latest Robert Galbraith mystery but I couldn't stay very focused. Somehow I passed the time.

Dave and I made our way to the hospital about 2 p.m. and I felt very spacey. I got a sedative -- which amazingly included a tiny dose of fentanyl, the drug wreaking havoc among opioid addicts in the USA -- but I was more awake for this colonoscopy than for any of the previous ones. (This was my fourth. As I've related before, I have a family history of colon cancer so I have to be particularly careful.) I watched the whole thing on a monitor, and the doctor pointed out various features like a tour guide.
 
And when it was all over one of the nurses, Eva, brought me hot coffee and a package of cookies, and I was so grateful. Dave and I popped into Starbucks on the way home for more coffee and a pain au chocolat. Nutrition?! I don't need no stinkin' nutrition!

I wasn't supposed to drink last night but I did have a glass of wine with dinner. And now I'm back to normal and life goes on, with the specter of cancer banished. Apparently the NHS runs a bowel cancer screening program, and I have reached (or maybe I'm about to reach) the age where I should be offered periodic testing -- so that will make it easier for me to keep an eye on things.

Remember Martin the mouse?

We don't know whether this is Martin, grown large, or whether it's a new critter entirely. But in any case, it's a rat, not a mouse. Roy the rat. We've spotted Roy a few times outside on the grass around the bird feeders, and yesterday he managed to climb up into one of them, haphazardly threading his way through the branches of a nearby buddleia. We repositioned the feeder and we'll pull the buddleia's branches away from it and stake them, and hopefully that will discourage him. We definitely don't want a rat colony in our garden. Where are those foxes when we need them?!

Sorry this is such an unpleasant post -- a colonoscopy and rats! But hey, we deal with real life here at Shadows & Light.

(Photo: Artwork by Thierry Noir, in Hackney Wick, East London.)