MEDICAL, MEDICINAL, MAJESTIC...

What a week! 

Although the first part of this blog is not something many folks would choose to write about, I am an advocate for defensive health practices. Although this could be viewed as kind of a crappy story, it is what it is!

On the medical side, part of our health maintenance plan is to meet with our physician, every year, for a regular check up.  Blood and other routine tests are done.  A few years back, our regular doctor sold her practice to a younger and very vibrant physician.  Our new Dr. Laura O. met with each patient and recorded a detailed family history.  Jeanette and I were thrilled with her interest, professionalism and advocacy.

In my case, Dr. Laura learned that my mother had had a bout of colon cancer, late in life.  Ah ha!  That triggered a quick response and she booked me in with a gastrointestinal specialist to undergo a colonoscopy to rule out any issues. Genetics had something to do with her call to action!  That was two years ago.  The first test was clear but the specialist wanted me to return for a follow up. That happened early this past week.

Colonoscopy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

For those blog readers who have had this test, you know that the prep - 24 hours before the test - is more taxing than the test itself. However, it has to be done.  That is the crappy part I was referring to earlier.

The cleansing process began on Wednesday morning.  Twenty four hours later, Jeanette drove me to the Peace Arch Hospital, in White Rock, BC, for the procedure. 

 Fraser Health - Our Locations

By 8:15 am, I was fast asleep, the procedure happened and when I awoke, I was looking forward to a good cup of coffee....and something to eat!  A Tim Horton's coffee and a muffin were oh so good!

I'll have the results in a couple of weeks.

For the unconvinced, a colonoscopy is pain free and free of duress during or after the procedure.  Colon cancer - with regular screening - has a very, very high cure rate; well into the high 90 percentile!

A team of three delivered our new hot tub late on Thursday afternoon.

On to the medicinal side of this blog, our hot tub arrived. Hot, jetted water does have its medicinal benefits!

The team of three had little difficulty moving it from the transport vehicle on to a soft wheeled dolly and moving it into place in our back yard.  It fits in perfectly. Once the new deck is built, the hot-tub will be properly surrounded and will have a more finished look.

With the cover on....

a view from the pond....

We won't be able to use it till our electrician can hook it up to power.  We opted for a 220 volt / 40 amp hookup.  Once connected, we'll continue our landscaping re-works on our back yard master plan.  The balance of our work is more labour oriented....but the final results will be nice.  We look forward to using the hot tub and resuming the better than 16 years we enjoyed using the one we had installed at our previous home.

 

 Friday was the majestic  part of this week.  Our regular men's golf outing was happening and we opted to play the Peace Portal Golf Course located on the Canadian side of the USA/Canada border at Peace Arch - along the Pacific Ocean.   Gallery

 

And what a day that turned out to be.  I played one of my better rounds of the season.  The drives were awesome, the mid-irons equally good, the short irons were really good but the putting let me down somewhat.  Nonetheless, it was a fun round - as they always are - out on the links.  

Life is good.....!  Oh....and no more crappy stories! 

Thanks for dropping by.