Grugger’s Way

Christmas Eve Colonoscopy is a caption that should capture some attention, I would think.

Who expects to have a colonoscopy on Christmas Eve?  In actuality it was the morning of Christmas Eve, but still, it really puts a damper on your mood for celebrating.  Should help with holiday weight gain, though.

This was my second colonoscopy. The first was five years ago and two non-cancerous polyps were removed at that time.  Again they found two polyps and I should receive the biopsy results in the next few days.

This procedure was different than my first in that I was able to watch the entire process on the same screen that the doctor was using to guide his progress with the camera.  Last time they gave me too much medication and I was out like a light.  This time, with reduced medication, the process was so much more interesting!   If you have never seen the inside of your colon….well, wait a minute…unless you can get your head in a very strange position, a colonoscopy is the only way I know to view…in real time…exactly what is going on…in living color no less!

As a final treat, the doctor turned the camera around in there and I could see the inside of my “rear window” from the inside.

Okay.  A little too much information.

In any case, a colonoscopy for everyone over fifty years of age is one of the best deterrents to colon cancer.  Early detection, and/or removal of polyps before they become cancerous, is a key to longevity.  The process is not painful.  The preparation the day before…fasting and then taking a laxative to clean you out…is actually more uncomfortable than the procedure itself.  Believe me.

Aging Accelerates After Sixty

I’ve really noticed a difference is how my body has reacted to physical changes during the past two years.  I am just a month away from age 62.  I now feel, for the first time, like an “older” or “elderly” man.

This really sounds bad, I know, but in fact I always expected this to be happening after I turned 50.  I don’t know what “normal” is supposed to feel like at this age, since….like you…I have never been down this road before.   I felt great at fifty.

I even felt pretty good at 60.  I knew I was slowing down some, and the pace at work was becoming more difficult to keep up with.  I recognized that the 30-year-old’s in the shop were quicker on the uptake than I was.  They reminded me of myself thirty years earlier.  They treated me well…with deference even…and I wondered if I was as considerate in my thirties.   By the time I arrived home on a Friday night I was thoroughly exhausted…mentally and physically…and by Sunday afternoon was dreading the return to work on Monday morning.  So I retired just one month after I reached sixty.

The past year I have really begun to feel the early morning stiffness in the joints.  I am affected by the cold weather this winter moreso than ever in my lifetime.  I am a regular consumer of ibuprofen during these very cold days.  I still get outside.  There is a driveway to shovel and dog doo to pickup and a deck to shovel off so the dogs have some space without a foot of snow cover so they can hang out while I am off running errands.

I am spending more time at the computer because that is where I feel most comfortable; like I am accomplishing something without having to move around outside a lot.  My spouse thinks that I ought to move around outside a lot more, and that would help my aches and pains.  I don’t know.  I still hope that some yoga and stretching will slow down the aging process a little, but I realize “age” is here to stay: it can’t be reversed.

My First Doubts About Ol’ Santa

My very earliest memory of Christmas morning was when I was four years old and I, alone, at the earliest possible time of the morning, came upon that Christmas tree, all aglow in a dark room, with a toy TRAIN all set up, with the tracks encircling the tree!  The big black engine, the coal car, the oil tanker, the box car, the flat bed, and the red caboose!    This was perhaps the best Christmas present I ever received!  I still have it, 57 years later!  I wonder if my Mother will be surprised about that?  I’ve kept it all these years.

And there was another reason, perhaps the main reason, that I recall that particular Christmas:  When it came time to put away the train, my Dad went to the closet and brought down the box that the train came packed in.  Each of the cars had its own compartmented space, and all the tracks fit perfectly, even the curved ones…so it HAD to be the box for the train set…But…why would Santa need a box for the train set? And why would he put the box in our closet?

And then I remember asking myself, “How did Dad know it was up there on the top shelf in the closet?”  Come to think of it, I may have asked that question out loud…perhaps my Mom will remember that.  Because now I think I remember Dad or Mom saying that he had seen the box when he went to the closet for something else that morning.

But….I wasn’t sure what to think…but to be safe I went along with that story…I was FOUR!  I didn’t want the train set to disappear or something!  After all, we weren’t even allowed to actually SEE Santa when he brought presents!  That would have spoiled the magic.

I do remember something else from that Christmas:  On Christmas Eve, Dad told me that Santa would use our front door, since we didn’t have a fireplace and chimney.  That was a relief!

A Bright-eyed Child best expresses the Joy of Christmas Magic

No expression conveys more joy than a bright-eyed child’s excitement during the Christmas season.

I see the excitement in the eyes of First Graders during their school’s Christmas program;

I see the excitement in the eyes of pre-schoolers waiting in line to see Santa at the mall;

I see the excitement in the eyes of children of all ages as they decorate the tree;

What a joy for us to behold: the excitement and joy of a Christmas morning, when the bright-eyed child first sees the gifts arrayed beneath the tree.

How soon they grow up; how soon the magic fades, to be replaced by the cynicism of the teenage years.  Fortunately, at some point the teenager matures, and the magic returns.

And we continue to enjoy the magic throughout our lives, again and again, through the eyes of our children, and later, if we are so fortunate, through the eyes of a grandchild.