Monday, 5 October 2009

Monday 5th October 09

Up early as had an appointment in a hospital to help a friend cope with a difficult procedure.

A trip to a hospital to find out what is causing embarrassing and personal symptoms is never pleasant, especially when it means a rather invasive and uncomfortable colonoscopy. Basically, this is an endoscope, a long flexible tube which has lights and a camera, an irrigation tube, a suction tube and a port to feed down a biopsy grabber or a snare, to remove polyps etc.

My friend was not looking forward to this, in fact, was pretty terrified, and asked me to go with them to help reassure them. So I did. When the medic came into the room, he recognised me immediately as I'd performed at a charity do he'd volunteered at, which broke the ice somewhat. That also meant that I was allowed into the theatre and could watch what was happening on the screen, which was fascinating.

It was a much longer procedure than I had expected and as I was tired by the end of the day, I decided not to attend the LETS meeting; I popped in as I was cycling past and offered my apologies.

The good news is that there was nothing majorly wrong with my friend's bowel, except a bit of inflammation which will be better understood once the biopsies are investigated.

A quiet evening, highlights included doing the washing up and putting dried fruit into jars.

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