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Friday, September 5, 2008

Good Bill of Health!

Friday, was Procedure Day! Patty arrived right on time bearing flowers his morning. She is the best friend a friend could ever have; and as I've said before she has been in my life since we lived across the street from each other practically since birth when my family moved into their first home in 1941 till we both turned 18. Then I moved away. But no matter how far a part we have been geographically, we are never further away than a phone call. She now lives 30 minutes south of me. At times like this I call her my Nurse Curity. She drove the 15 minutes to the clinic. I was feeling great when I woke up, hunger was not an issue as I feared it might be. But I was ready to get this over with. The clinic is really new and nice. An attractive place, and all the nurses were friendly and helpful and caring. I was put in a room (really a curtained off area from a larger nursing station) and told to undress and put on a green gown opening in the back, obviously! The curtain that gave me privacy was a large one and it held these words: "Be Gentle With Yourself, you are a child of the universe no less important as the trees and the stars; ....and something about there not being any doubt that all that is happening in your life is as it should. Words like Strength and Courage, were in there too. It all felt very reassuring. Up above on the ceiling was a back lighted photograph of white blossoms on branches full of green leaves against a blue sky. I wondered how I might make it into a quilt. It was comforting to stare there. My only rough moment or two was getting an IV put in, by a very nice caring Kim. It poked, I jumped, kicked Kim who had to do the IV all over again in another spot on my arm. I am very needle phobic. But in truth that and yesterday's drinking the amount of medicine were the "hard parts" of all of this for me. I was then wheeled into the "procedure room" that I guess is a small operating room. I remember the big light that another nurse told me would warm my feet. I had a blood pressure cuff put on. And they changed the sugar water drip to the "date rape" medicine drip and although the nurse told me they'd be able to talk to me to tell me to move or change positions, I have no memory of anything after that conversation. The next thing I knew I was awake in the first room again, my Patty was there and I was getting dressed. I was also told I had a clean colon, and a clean bill of health. No problems were found! I left there a tired but relieved woman. All of this took from arrival time/checking in at 8:30 a.m. and dressing to leave at 10 a.m. They said the procedure itself took 15 minutes, but I do not even recall the doctor touching my body. So, would I recommend this procedure! YES!!!!! It's important and if you aren't a baby about drinking 9-18 glasses of cold water with medicine in it, you can do it. That was the hardest part. And I am grateful I am not in the -1%!

12 comments:

  1. Congrats on getting thru this and getting a clean bill of health.
    So glad that is over for you now.
    Go Party. :))

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  2. PS.Very nice of Patty to come thru for you. Life long Friends are 'Gold' you know. :)
    "Make new friends but keep the old,
    these are silver those are Gold."

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  3. Glad it is all over and you are clean. Healthy. and now you get the bill. :) Patty is a dream friend. How miraculous to have known her so many years. She's a doll. Rest up this weekend now and take it easy.

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  4. Yes, I have a friend of gold. She just called me to see how I was doing...;-) And I knew she would, had just thought of her. We are like that.
    The bill interestingly enough was just $50 co payment, the insurance pays the rest.

    Thanks for your nice thougths and wishes, Cris and Suki.

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  5. Well done, congratulations on the clean bill of health. Thank you for your kind comments, I really am new at quilting and want to combine it with embellishing and photograghs. Only problem is, living here which is very basic for this sort of craftwork.
    On another note, I have just found a friend who I met when we were student nurses 37 years ago in England. She now lives in Oklahoma and has 4 kids and grandchildren! I am so looking forward to catching up with her.
    Take care
    Jude
    x

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  6. Hey Lynniskynni, I'm so happy for you and with you, that you got this behind you and with a clear bill of health, oh how good is that to hear and know! And I find it also great that you write about it here, so that it can take people's fear away a bit, de-mystify the process etc.
    I didn't know that a colon looks that smooth-surfaced:) and so very clean:):):) It looks just good!
    Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy yourself, feeling free and healthy and beautiful which you are, inside and outside!
    Love
    Andrea

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  7. Jude, thanks for your good wishes.
    As for the quilting what you have already shown is excellent work, and I can only imagine that you will accomplish all you want to accomplish there in Crete. I wonder what the old market places there have to offer in embellishment parts!?
    Also, am happy for you finding your old friend in Oklahoma of all places!

    Andrea, I do hope I dymystified this process for many. The fact that you don't remember any of it afterwards is interesting. It's as if all the worry before was for nought. And of course in my case it was. You are too sweet to me with your compliments! ;-) Thank you.

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  8. Congrats on being clean. I love the idea of having those words written on the curtain. Thoughtful and reassuring.

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  9. Wow, I miss a few days of reading and I find colons! Hope yours is OK. Sounds like you weathered the procedure. Sending you healing thoughts
    Terry

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  10. congratulations on being healthy :) fasicnating how the fear of the procedure is almost worse than the fear of the results (at least it is in my case) ... and then when it's all over - you realize, there was stress in not knowing! Now you know all there is to know - have good results and all is good :)

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  11. Yes, Elspeth, the words on the curtain and the flowers over head were very helpful for me to see...

    thanks Terry, my colon is seems is clean and healthy...

    and yes, Honour, the fears are huge for me ahead of time and are coming out in dreams now...the weird drug they gave me that caused amnesia was strange too...but is slowly leaving my body. I am fine now. Back to normal.

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  12. thank god, may you stay this way for the next 60 years....

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Thanks for leaving your comments as I love hearing from you. Your words of encouragement are why I continue to draw!