The colonoscopy. Everything went fine. I didn't go to sleep this time either, but I was told that my gastroenterologist likes to use light sedation so that the patient isn't totally a zombie afterwards and doesn't have to spend a long time in recovery. He just wants to make sure that the patient is comfortable, even if he/she is awake. He used 8 mgm of Versed which is what I had the other time, but he used quite a lot of Fentenyl as the pain reliever. I still had more cramps this time than before. There were a couple of times that I thought I would have to say something to the attendants, but I made it through, and he got into the cecum, so we don't have to do this again for 10 years. No polyps were found. Yea! As for next ime, well a lot can happen in 10 years. Maybe medical science will advance and we'll have something like the StarTrek wand to assess people. I have been waiting for that wand my whole adult life, first as a provider of medical care and now as a consumer of medical care. Dr. McCoy never had to get his hands dirty no matter what the injury or illness. Then again in 10 years, maybe I will not be here, who knows?
I am reading a book, no a tome, entitled Greetings Carbon Based Bipeds: Collected Essays 1934-1998 by none other than Arthur C. Clarke, prolific visionary and my favorite Sci Fi Writer. His first essay in this book introduced me to a writer that I had never heard of before; Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett (1878-1957). He is otherwise known as Lord Dunsany as he is indeed a Lord, of the inherited Irish property, Dunsany and other properties. He had quite a full life in many other ways, but was a prolific writer of fantasy, essays, poetry, plays, and science fiction. He is noted for his remarkable way with words. His fantasy would influence such better known later writers as C. S. Lewis and J. R. Tolkien. You can read more about him and some others of his works at the following links: www.dunsany.net/18th.htm and http://pweb.jps.net/~sangreal/ld.htm. Other copies of his works are on the Internet at various other sites that you can glean from the above two web addresses.
Being the frustrated writer that I am and my attempts to forward that writing ability in this blog, makes me read what others have written about writing and take it to heart. Two quotes from Arthur C. Clarke's first essay struck me. They apply to writing but they also apply to life in general and our aspirations before we die. Both were written by Lord Dunsany. You can certainly see his way with words.
Of all materials for labor, dreams are the hardest; and the artificer in ideas is the chief of workers, who out of nothing will make a piece work that will stop a child from crying or lead nations to higher things. For what is it to be a poet? It is to see at a glance the glory of the World, to see beauty in all its forms and manifestations, to feel ugliness like a pain, to resent the wrongs of others as bitterly as one's own, to know mankind as others know single men, to know Nature as botanists know a flower, to be thought a fool, to hear at moments the clear voice of God.
I spoke above briefly about the end of life. One doesn't know if one will be here 10 years from now to schedule another preventative colonoscopy or even if I will be here tomorrow to go to my water aerobics class. The following poem from Lord Dunsany was written about writing as a pursuit. But I heard the words with respect to life in general. It is a short but sweet admonition to Carpe Diem.
So much, there is to catch,
And the years so short,
That there is scarce time to snatch
Pen, palette, or aught,
And to seize some shape we can see,
That others may keep
Its moment of mystery,
Then go to our sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment