August 24, 2011 - Upper Marlboro
Serry and I were biking yesterday on the Indian Head Rail Trail in southern Maryland. We stopped by a wooden deck overlooking a lake to check out the birds and butterflies when the deck and surrounding ground began to shake. For a moment we thought a train or something was causing the shake, but since there are no trains anywhere near, we quickly realized it was an earthquake! We'd never experienced an earthquake before (and figured we never would), so it was kind of amazing to feel the earth move like that. When we got home we found a couple of things had fallen off shelves and a few pictures hanging askew, but no damage of any kind.
Others were not so lucky. Serry visited a friend this morning who had a dresser topple over and a TV fall from a wall, among other things.
One of our friends was kayaking on the Patuxent River when the quake occurred. She said when it started it felt like a huge fish brushing the bottom of the boat, and then bubbles rose. Finally, the river seemed to erupt, with churning water and waves, something that never happens on the placid Patuxent.
An article today in the Washington Post said the quake lasted about 30 seconds, but it seemed to last no more than about 5 seconds where we were. Perhaps that's because we were in the country, where there were fewer things to shake than in the city, or perhaps it lasted longer in some places than others. Whatever, since we weren't harmed, it was an interesting experience, one we never expected to have--certainly not so close to home.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Colonoscopy
August 11, 2011
This entry has nothing to do with traveling (other than my "journey through life"--poetic and deep, huh?). It's really more of a journal entry about something interesting that happened to me. Perhaps no one else will read it, but I'll read it sometime and be reminded of the incident. I found that by reading my blog entries of our cross-country trip, I was reminded of things I had forgotten. So here goes...
In June I had a routine colonoscopy. I had my first one about three years ago, during which the doctor found a couple of polyps and was able to remove them with the colonoscopy tube. They turned out to be benign, but when they find any you're supposed to have another colonoscopy in about three years (rather than ten).
Anyway, when I woke up after the one in June, the doc told me she found a flat polyp which she wasn't able to remove. She advised me to contact one of her associates who is skilled at removing the flat ones.
A regular polyp is like a little mushroom on a stalk. The tube snaking through the intestines has a cutter on the end that allows the doctor to snip and remove the polyp. They need to be removed because they can turn cancerous if allowed to remain. As I understand it, there are two ways to remove a flat polyp. The good way is for the doc to somehow squirt a saline solution on the flat polyp with the colonoscopy tube in hopes of lifting it enough to be able to get under it and snip it out. If the saline solution method doesn't work, the polyp has to be removed via an endoscopic procedure which involves removing the part of the intestine that has the flat polyp. This means you wind up with a colostomy. It will probably be only temporary, but yikes! Who knows how long "temporary" might mean? A minute would be too long as far as I'm concerned.
I had the saline solution procedure on August 2, and I'm happy to say it was successful, and the polyp was benign. Nevertheless, to be sure he got everything, the doc wants to take another look in six months. Another opportunity to drink a gallon of the awful stuff that cleans out the intestines. Better than getting cancer, of course, but only barely.
This entry has nothing to do with traveling (other than my "journey through life"--poetic and deep, huh?). It's really more of a journal entry about something interesting that happened to me. Perhaps no one else will read it, but I'll read it sometime and be reminded of the incident. I found that by reading my blog entries of our cross-country trip, I was reminded of things I had forgotten. So here goes...
In June I had a routine colonoscopy. I had my first one about three years ago, during which the doctor found a couple of polyps and was able to remove them with the colonoscopy tube. They turned out to be benign, but when they find any you're supposed to have another colonoscopy in about three years (rather than ten).
Anyway, when I woke up after the one in June, the doc told me she found a flat polyp which she wasn't able to remove. She advised me to contact one of her associates who is skilled at removing the flat ones.
A regular polyp is like a little mushroom on a stalk. The tube snaking through the intestines has a cutter on the end that allows the doctor to snip and remove the polyp. They need to be removed because they can turn cancerous if allowed to remain. As I understand it, there are two ways to remove a flat polyp. The good way is for the doc to somehow squirt a saline solution on the flat polyp with the colonoscopy tube in hopes of lifting it enough to be able to get under it and snip it out. If the saline solution method doesn't work, the polyp has to be removed via an endoscopic procedure which involves removing the part of the intestine that has the flat polyp. This means you wind up with a colostomy. It will probably be only temporary, but yikes! Who knows how long "temporary" might mean? A minute would be too long as far as I'm concerned.
I had the saline solution procedure on August 2, and I'm happy to say it was successful, and the polyp was benign. Nevertheless, to be sure he got everything, the doc wants to take another look in six months. Another opportunity to drink a gallon of the awful stuff that cleans out the intestines. Better than getting cancer, of course, but only barely.
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