So, I had routine physical exam at my doctor's this morning. That most fun experience whereupon you put on one of those backless shortie night gowns and get poked and prodded and tapped with the little rubber hammer, and then that delightful portion of which I will not speak save to say that KY Jelly is involved ...Apparently everything is more or less in working order.
I had blood drawn, got a couple of vaccines -- been twelve years since my last tetanus injection -- and the latest vaccine for old folks, against shingles. I was ready to pass on that one until I read the stat sheet which allowed that, if you had chicken pox, which pretty much everybody my age has, and you live to be eighty-five, your chances are fifty-fifty you'll develop shingles; one out of two people, not such good odds. Shingles is a particularly nasty ailment and very painful, so I'd rather not.
That was the easy part. The nether-cam exam still looms in my future, but that's at least a month or six weeks out. First I have to go talk to the gastroenterologist and be instructed in the way to drink enough liquid laxative to evacuate an entire football stadium ...
Better than the option, but ... ick ...
My mom had shingles last year. It's STILL giving her problems. She said it felt like someone hitting her in the back with a hammer.
ReplyDeleteHerbie's Oyster (herpes zoster). The virus that causes chicken pox lies dormant, never going away. It can flare up, usually in older people, and works the nerves. It is, by all lights, extremely painful, it itches, and sometimes continues long after the rash has gone away.
ReplyDeleteIn the U.S., they offer the vaccine to anybody over sixty. In Japan, they start offering it at fifty.
The missus just had the nether-cam procedure and, while not a lark, wasn't too bad. The evening before was inconvenient but nothing more than that. She was out for half the actual procedure and groggily watching the second half. Her recovery was speedy and anti-climatic. No worries, mate. Unless they actually find something.
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