Gratitude Day 2 (and more on the Vow.)

I am thankful for beautiful weather, a slight breeze and wonderful shade that made my trip to the botanical garden fantastic this morning. (I will have pictures later, right now we are in the middle of switching out our main family computer and I am stuck typing on our laptop.)

Its a little warm here in the valley of the sun, of course, being November we have to have a heat wave. Last week it was frigidly (for us) cold for a whole day or two. That passed quickly and we went right back to the 90s. Yes, its 90 here. Ugh. Good thing we never put the shorts and flip flops away for good, it would be a total waste of time.

Today I had a doctor appointment with a colorectal surgeon. Once again I had too bare my backside to try to find out why I am still having issues with itching and discomfort. Today's appointment was by far the most uncomfortable. Wait a minute and I will get into that.

I arrived at the office a good 45 minutes early. Gwennie was with me, and wanted to make sure that this doctor would NOT be giving her a shot. After filling out paperwork Gwennie needed to poop, so we went to the restroom and I don't know why, because it is totally not normal, my bowels suddenly needed to be emptied. Maybe that office made my bowels think of the colonoscopy preparation. After coming out of the restroom I was taken back to a room, where Gwennie proceeded to ask me a million questions about every item in the room (thankfully the anal probes were hidden in a drawer, but we would get to see those in time.)

Dr. Brown (his real name, I know...) came in and spoke to me, taking notes about my issues. Then he had his assistant come in and help me prep for the examination. I had to pull my pants to my knees and lay on my left side. Then I was covered with one of those paper sheets, like you get in any exam. Only this sheet had a huge hole in it. It bared only my bottom. I was giggling about it when Dr. Brown came back in. He talked me through the exam. It was extremely uncomfortable, seriously, the colonoscopy was less invasive feeling, but probably because I was drugged during it. After a few minutes of looking around he asked the nurse for a small anal probe. I watched the nurse open a drawer filled with metal probes in varying sizes and was thankful that the one she grabbed was very small. That did not however make it any more pleasant. I was wiped clean and he left the room so that I could get my pants back on before he spoke to me about his findings.

Does anyone remember what I mentioned the issue being, way back when? If you need a refresher course here it is. Dr. Brown informed me that I have pruitis ani. Exactly what I Google diagnosed myself with back in March. Ha, I have had procedures and many exams to tell me what Google told me already? I nearly started to cry in the doctor's office. There isn't a lot I can do about this, change my diet, try to keep my bum dry and well, the biggie DO NOT SCRATCH IT. I am irked that it took this long and that I had to pay a deductible today to have him tell me that. He did tell me that if it is still causing me grief in two months to come back. I went ahead and scheduled the appointment because its been causing me grief for nearly a year now I don't really see it changing by January. At that point we will discuss surgically removing my "not so bad" hemorrhoids. Until then I have to just remain diligent and careful.