How Was Your Summer?

 Mine was shitty.  No really!  I had chronic diarrhea from mid-July till mid-October.  Actually, I had it before that, but it went away by itself after a month.  This time it was two months and no end in sight.  I told my primary care nurse about it, and she referred me to a specialist.  After waiting another month for an appointment, he finally got to the bottom of the problem.  He did that by performing a colonoscopy, which means in English that he shoved a camera up my ass.  It wasn't as bad as it sounds.  I understand it was a really small camera, but you couldn't prove it by me because they rendered me unconscious for the procedure.  The day before was pretty rough though.  I couldn't eat for 24 hours, and I had to take three different laxatives that flushed out everything that I had eaten for the previous 24 days.  I thought it strange that he would prescribe laxatives for diarrhea, but it was necessary so that he could see what was going on in my colon, which in English means guts. 

Turns out I had three things wrong in there, colitis, diverticulosis, and a polyp that could have been cancerous but turned out not to be.  He cut the polyp out with some kind of tool that was operated by the same wire as the camera and sent it off to the lab, which is how he found out that it wasn't cancerous.  He said the diverticulosis shouldn't cause me any trouble if I consumed plenty of fiber, which should keep it cleaned out.  I can get the fiber by eating bad tasting cereal in the mornings, or by taking one of several over-the-counter supplements.  I opted for one of the supplements.  Then he sent me back to my primary nurse who prescribed an anti-inflammatory steroid to take care of the colitis.   I think it already has, but I'm supposed to take the whole four-week regime of pills.  I'm about halfway through that now, and everything seems to be coming out in the end.