Short News & Merry Christmas Wishes

Hi friends, I hope you are all enjoying the last few days before Christmas.  I have been very busy and a few things have kept me occupied.

I need a fair bit of medical and dental work and I've been trying to get some of it out of the way before the New Year with limited success.  Friday I went through a colonoscopy.  It is my first one and I'm hoping I don't have to do many of these in future.  I'll have to wait and see what the doctor says about it all in the New Year.

I was very anxious about undergoing the procedure.  I didn't feel I could properly prepare for it because I had only a short time from getting the information to undergoing the actual procedure.  I had eaten a lot of  beans, nuts and corn earlier in the week.  All of these foods must not be eaten for 7 days in advance.  At least these are the guidelines prepared by the cancer agency where I live.  I not only felt rushed but I also felt anxious about possible pain or other complications.  But the nurses at the hospital tried to reassure me that I needed to just relax about it all and that it wasn't too late to stop eating the foods on the "no list".

After getting friends to pray, I felt more settled and went ahead with everything.  I thought my anxiety would only increase if I put it over to the New Year. I found the hardest part of this was not eating for about 40 hours. It ended up being such a long time because my procedure was rather late on Friday afternoon.  However I managed it and and everything went very smoothly from start to finish.

I was awake and watched everything on screen. It was very interesting and the doctor cut out 3 polyps.  I do not remember the doctor giving me any sedative though he says he did. In any case, though I did experience some discomfort, it was not so uncomfortable that I needed heavy sedation. Some of the patients in the recovery room afterward were like zombies and some were very ill from the medicine. I've been in that state myself after surgeries and so that is something else I was worried about.  Fortunately I didn't have to experience it.

The polyps will be sent to the lab for examination.  But at my age polyps are common and the doctor says they "are not cancerous". That was music to my ears. When I asked him how he could tell he said it was the appearance. I am just glad the procedure is now over. If I have to undergo it again, I will know what to expect and do next time.

The other thing that kept me busy this week was preparing and sending Christmas cards and a few parcels. I've been doing this over the past three weeks and I always find once I get started, I want to send out more and more.  I'm now out of time for sending anything more through the post.  Fortunately I sent out everything I wanted to and now I just have to deal with the cards and parcels that will be given in person next week. 

I've also been very busy liaising with people in Kenya who are helping and assisting the family in Kenya that I wrote about here.  I will write a longer post about what we've done in a few days and let you know the outcomes for these precious ones.

Right now in the final lead up to Christmas, I'm just taking things easy; resting, wrapping gifts, enjoying snack foods and doing a few errands. The small tree, lights, wreaths, bells and baubles all went up late last weekend. I will be preparing Christmas dinner as always but because I didn't know exactly which days I would be away this year (much dependent on the mountainous road conditions), I am only dining with a family member or two.  But it is all very easygoing and spontaneous. We may have Christmas dinner before Christmas Day or after Boxing Day. It is all organized around visiting my mom on Christmas Day and spending a night with her to make sure we have a good visit.

Sending you my very best wishes for a lovely Christmas with loved ones and friends.