under another sun

So up early after a night of pooing water. Up and after doing a quick covid test, registering it online, and having a shower and Lorraine drove us off to the hospital. Couldn't find anywhere to park, so I bolted from the car and went straight to the colposcopy department for my 8am appointment. All fine there, apart from the bit where I was being interviewed by the nice male nurse and given a blood pressure reading, which I told him would be high because of hating to have my blood pressure done. It was, so he kept taking it which kept climbing. He then suggested I have some sedation before the procedure, which I reluctantly agreed to. Charming consultant, who needed a nurse to push at various parts of my guts to navigate his probe around them. He said my intestines were unusually long and loopy. However there was nothing sinister there to be found. Which was obviously excellent news. Sat in recovery sipping sugary tea and enjoyed the relief of another mini-ordeal melting away. Real...

Got up early, after a while started working with Keith, having taken Lorraine a cuppa in bed. All going well and both fairly cheery till he got a rather disconcerting call about a medical matter. Luckily Keith was working half a day today, but I stopped early too and will have to do more over the weekend. Lorraine off to Bolney School for the last time, to have a handover meeting with the new head called Emma. She then went to see Sarah for a cup of tea and a chat. Sarah trying to get her bairns to call their former head teacher Lorraine, which is a bit weird for them. 'Low residue' fibre free food. White toast breakfast, and then white spaghetti with a bit of cheese and olive oil for a late lunch, and that would have to be the last food till tomorrow.  The evening given over to preparations for tomorrow's colonoscopy. I drank two unspeakably rank 500 ml drinks over a couple of hours, designed to flush out your GI tract. A vile faintly fruity flavour with a salty undercurre...

Up well before seven, getting myself clean and making my ablutions ahead of colonoscopy this morning. Lorraine drove us to the hospital, keeping me calm. I was rather nervous but the staff very kind and put me at my ease. Was given a mild sedative, which I didn't seem to notice at the time, but made me feel woozy for the rest of the day. The main news is that things looked okay: no gut cancer which was a big relief. And one less thing to think about. However they had a hard job as my guts seemed to be in a tangle and they kept turning me over and rearranging my stomach. While this was going on I found myself talking to the Portuguese nurse about Pessoa the poet, and Saramago, the novelist. Conversations you don't expect to be having with a garden hose poking out of your backside. I was wearing unpleasant little shorts with a bit split in the backside. Very kind African nurse afterwards, to when she was discharging me, having given me water, tea and biscuits, gravely reminde...