Steve's Blog Spot

Got back home about 11:30, ate a PB&J sandwich and laid down for a 2 1/2 hour nap. Ahhhh! I don't remember much about the procedure, except that it was pretty dream-like. I do remember watching the little TV screen and seeing the doctor remove 2 or 3 polyps. There was no pain at all, just a little discomfort in the recovery room due to the air injected during the procedure. This should have been called the fart room, because you could hear the other patients let 'em rip! In fact the nurses said, "Make us proud!". And I did! Overall, it has been a fairly mild experience, its anticipation was far worse than the event. The benefit far outweighs the annoyance. I'll know more once the biopsies have been performed on the polyps, although there was no concern on the doctor's part. My only concern is that this will require a future follow-up. At least I know what to expect. I think I'm gonna veg out for the rest of the day. Doctor's orders!

Only one interruption at about 1:30 am. I am totally cleaned out as of this morning! I'm still not as hungry as I thought I'd be. Rather, I'm pretty thirsty. A nice cold glass of ice water would be great! Weight loss since yesterday morning at this time: about 5 lbs. Gotta go - heading over to my neighbor's - great people who will be providing "ambulance service" for me this morning. Back in a few hours. I hope.

So far, so good. I've not had anything solid to eat today, and I am not as hungry as I thought I would be, although I have to resist the temptation to watch the Food Network! Thank God for the Olympics. Also, beef broth at 11 am and chicken broth at 6 pm have helped a lot. The purge process has also been tolerable. Not nearly as explosive as I had anticipated. In fact, it's been about the same as an upset stomach, except more numerous! The first dose of Drano, I mean laxative, was at noon, and only 30 minutes later it had snaked its way through. All afternoon has been 8 oz doses of Gatorade, 30 minutes apart, so the overall experience has been numerous #1's and #2's! It settled down just about the time for my second and final dose of that stuff. That "stuff" was only a 1.5 oz bottle to be taken with a carbonated beverage (no, not beer!), so rather than mix it, I just tilted my head back and threw it down the hatch, followed by a Mountain Dew chaser! Mmmm, good...

because I'll be on the right side of an interesting little medical procedure called a colonoscopy ! Gulp! My throat tightens just to say the word. Scheduled for Monday at 10 am. Actually, though, since I have never had one, I don't have the first-hand experience to say I'm actually dreading it. It's just one of those things in life that everyone needs to go through, hopefully only once. I guess... It's the prep portion I'm most apprehensive about, not so much the "cleansing out" part, but the fasting part! Beginning Sunday morning, no solid food. Only clear liquids. Nothing to eat all day, and into Monday! Cardboard slathered in BBQ sauce will sound good! I can man-up only to a point. Foul-tasting liquid? ok. Frequent potty trips? ok. Exploding entrails? ok. But no food? Awe, man, that sucks! Anyway, I've decided to weigh myself first thing Sunday morning, then again on Monday morning and see what the difference is. That way, when someone tells me ...

It's sucking right now! In a word - plateau. I am still sticking to my walking program - over 115 miles in July - and limit my calories to 2,000 - 2,500 a day, but the scale has stuck! However, I was expecting it, as my 75 year old fellow walking mentor, Don - the guy in my neighborhood who inspired my to get off my butt - had warned me he went through stages where there would be no weight loss, despite his efforts. (It took him 18 months to shed 60 pounds.) This seems to be supported by articles I've read on line. It seems that once you lose about 10% of your body weight, your body takes notice, and begins to try to maintain the status quo. This is logical, as eons of evolution has hard-wired into us a defense mechanism to avoid starvation. Unfortunately our bodies are still stuck in the olden days, when monster-burgers and planet-sized fries were undreamt of. But I trudge on and stay on the plan. After all, it's only been about 4 months, and it took 20 years to develop th...

but I've been busy evenings sorting through the pile of pictures and old letters that my Aunt Shirley gave me on my last visit, as well as working on posting names and dates into a family tree website. This family tree thing has been extremely interesting, especially as I've never been much of a history buff, though this is different. Based on the information I've received from cousins on my mom's side of the family, our great-grandmother's line can be traced back to pre-1700 France, while our great-grandfather's lineage goes back to Charleston, SC in the early 1800's. There's lots of ancestry around Natchitoches, LA, and along the banks of the Cane River - perhaps that's why I have always been drawn back to that area. And to top it off, our family bible is safely stored in the library of Northwestern (LA) State University! Not much info on my maternal grandfather's side, who was born in KY not far from Bowling Green. That might necessitate a vis...