"Mr. Dole, you grow good Raspberries!"

After five days of near-starvation for that medical procedure this morning, there's just nothing better than a big bowl of fresh-from-the-field Dole's Raspberries, sprinkled with sugar, and submerged in Avalon Dairy's 10% Cereal Cream.

 

Colonoscopy 101: It's cool to watch yourself on camera!

 This is inside a healthy colon like mine today, except mine is a slightly more greyish color, because there's a lot more miles on it than you younger people have on yours. "And how do you know?" you ask. Because: when the nurse wheeled my bed into the room, and prepared to give me the sedative in the arm I asked, "Do we really need this?" And she said, "It's not essential if you'd like to try it without." And just then Dr. Ho came in, so I asked him "Can I watch?" And he said, "Certainly! Would you like to try it with just a little sedation, or possibly none at all? It's up to you."

The nurse said, "This sedation works very quickly, so if you start without it, and then decide you want some, we can stop for a minute, and then continue." And I said, "Let's try it without any, so I'll be alert, and can ask stupid questions, may I?" And she said, "Absolutely! and I'm right here, if you change your mind."

Then Dr. Ho said, "I'm ready now, whenever you are." And I said, " Whenever you wish, Doctor." And in it went. I asked, "Should I bear down a little to help it?" And he said, "That's not usually necessary, and it shouldn't hurt, except maybe at the sharpest bends. I give a puff of air at those spots to enlarge the colon for easier navigation." And as he's talking, the camera is advancing further and further, and I'm getting the impression that we're in a big underground tunnel, much like being underground in a mine, except the walls are clean and smooth, with little blood vessels here and there, and there's no narrow-gauge railway tracks along the floor of it.

We come to a spot where there are two tunnels; one on the right, which our light reveals to be a blind end, and the other one on the left is an active one. This, as the Doctor explains, is where the old colostomy is located, and that blind tunnel is the closed-off one which once led to the colostomy bag on the outside. The one on the left, in which we see no ending, is the active colon we are examining. Around corners, past wrinkly folded spots, and suddenly we come to a spot where our large tunnel ends at a much smaller one, and Doctor Ho says, "That's it! We're done!" And I asked "What do you mean 'we're done'? I was just getting into this..." And he said, "You've done very well, and as you probably saw, there's nothing here that needs fixing. It looks just fine, and I'm all finished, as soon as I remove the camera." He did that, and I thanked him for the guided tour.

Out in the recovery area, waiting to have my IV connection removed, and the BP cuff taken off, the nurse came by to say "You surprised us today by not using the sedation. People half your age wouldn't dream of attempting this without the sedation, even though, as you know now, there's really not that much to it. And we're impressed." I said, "Thank you, Dear, and may I have my juice and cookies now please?" She said, "Yes, you certainly may! Apple or Cranberry?" I chose Cranberry, and it was absolutely delicious, after starving for a couple of days. We agreed, the anticipation was much worse than the event by far.

This is a typical room arrangement for the procedure. The monitor for the camera display, shown on the wall beyond the bed, displays vital signs along its left edge, and the camera's view in the larger screen. Dr. Ho's camera is using a large 30-inch flatscreen, and when the procedure starts, it's like we're entering a really large culvert or a small tunnel. It's really big!

During the prep for all that, while another nurse was getting me ready and taking my vitals, she was reading my Oxygen level from a panel on the wall behind my bed. I asked "How is it this morning?" She said, "It's 93, why?" And I said, "Just checking yours against mine, Dear. Mine said 93 just before I left to come over here, so this confirms that my meter is just as accurate as yours, and thank you for helping me check that."

It's been an interesting day!

Clip-on Oxygen Meter - Other test site...

Yes, I know - it's supposed to clip onto your finger. But just for fun, I put it onto a toe. It reads three to four points higher there, and I'm not sure why. It's not supposed to be looking at pressure, but rather the concentration of Oxygen. And from this, I can only conclude that my foot is healthier than my hand... which isn't all that likely.

Just a song at twilight - One of Mom's favorites.

My latest little helper.....

My latest little helper is this cute little clip-on Oxygen meter and pulse rate indicator. I've been diagnosed with Asthma and COPD, and until today, the only checks of my Oxygen level have been a couple of times a year at a Specialist's office, or yesterday, at my new GP's office, and those little meters seemed to have had better days. So today, I bought my own. It runs on one AAA battery, and it works! You can have one too, for $150.00. The gentleman who sold it to me at the specialized pharmacy across the street from our hospital, where they have everything from wood alcohol to immortal souls, and motorized chairs for those, said, "This is doctors' professional quality, guaranteed for two years." And I said, "Gee! I wish I was guaranteed for that long."

The morning snow report and flower report....

What can I say? It's a beautiful day here in Lotusland, where the men are men, and the gals are all naturally double-breasted!

Google's Doodle today...

The Unnews: Hedy Lamarr made it big in Hollywood, in spite of her brains, because girls would rather have beauty than brains because guys can see better than they can think. And like others before her and since, she was willing and able to "let it all hang out". As if it had never been seen before.

I like what Lord Chesterfield said about sex:- "The pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable!"

The sky this morning....

It's not quite this clear here this morning, but that's why I've got Stellarium on here, and its latest version is 0.14.0 just in case you have it already, but may not have checked for updates lately. It is a lot of fun, whizzing around the sky, looking at things we will never get near. And I think there's a very good reason for that, and it doesn't have anything to do with technology. But I won't go all preachy on you so early in the day. Cosmologically speaking, "it's in the book."

Daily Mass, Saturday 7 November 2015

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of death. Amen.

  O Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, look down in mercy from Heaven, where thou art enthroned as Queen, upon me, a miserable sinner, thine unworthy servant. Although I know full well my own unworthiness, yet in order to atone for the offenses that are done to thee by impious and blasphemous tongues, from the depths of my heart I praise and extol thee as the purest, the fairest, the holiest creature of all God's handiwork. I bless thy Holy name, I praise thine exalted privilege of being truly Mother of God, ever Virgin, conceived without stain of sin, Co-Redemptrix of the human race. I bless the Eternal Father who chose thee in an especial way for His daughter; I bless the Word Incarnate who took upon Himself our nature in thy bosom and so made thee His Mother; I bless the Holy Spirit who took thee as His bride. All honor, praise and thanksgiving to the ever-blessed Trinity who predestined thee and loved thee so exceedingly from all eternity as to exalt thee above all creatures to the most sublime heights. O Virgin, holy and merciful, obtain for all who offend thee the grace of repentance, and graciously accept this poor act of homage from me thy servant, obtaining likewise for me from thy Divine Son the pardon and remission of all my sins. Amen.

Music break...

A little "catch-up" (missed yesterday!)......

Nervous day, yesterday. Had to meet my new replacement general practitioner, and get checked over, and decide if I'm well enough to have my colon on camera next Tuesday morning at 09:15 a.m., to check it for spots, blots & clots. Or more particularly, for polyps, and possible restrictions resulting from an old colostomy and its subsequent repair. All this was arranged by a bright young specialist who seems determined to keep me alive "until you're 94!".... And I think I may have dampened his enthusiasm by asking, "Who says I want to be 94, in diapers, spoon-fed by some grouchy practical nurse with too much middle and not enough smarts at the ends?"

He said, "What do you mean? You don't enjoy living?" And I replied, "I'm enjoying the hell out of it, because it's better to burn out than rust, but nothing's forever, and there's a season for everything, and when your time is up, you shouldn't try to second-guess your Maker, who wrote the warranty."

So yesterday, I finally met the nice young doctor who replaced my old GP when he retired at the end of December. They moved their clinic since I was last there, and it's now in the old original building formerly housing our credit union's main branch - so I'm familiar with the new location. When I walked in, one of the three girls on reception called out "Mr. Sutton! Long time no see! Welcome back!" - and everyone in the waiting area turned to stare at this old prune standing there, saying "Hi, Darling! You're looking especially nice today. How are you?" There followed a couple of minutes of "catching up" while nothing much else got done, and then I sat down and tried to shut up. It's not easy....

The snappy new fixings there are all very modern, clean, and bright. Another of the young ladies led me into a labyrinth of examining rooms, hallways, and closets, reminiscent of our nearby Lions Gate Hospital, where you almost need a road map to find the front desk. It's ridiculous. I was shown into a rather spartan examining room, with only one interesting feature: its computer terminal. When the doctor finally arrived, I was busy on the computer, reading about NASA saying that Mars' atmosphere had gradually blown away with the solar wind. To which, I'm thinking, "Bullshit! - read the background information." - But more on that later....

The new doctor and I had a nice chat, and I brought him up to date on all my new and different medications, prescribed by the hot young Internal Medicine specialist who adopted me while I was in hospital a couple of years ago with pneumonia. New doctor says, "He's very smart..." and I said, "Yes, but much too thin. As I told him, when patients look at their doctor, they want to see the picture of health, because that tells us more than you can put into words."...and he said, "I eat lots! But I'm a runner..." - and I replied, "So run into Milestone's for lunch, and tell them I sent you over for the Eggs Bene and a tall Vodka Collins, with extra sugar and a dash of Grenadine for added color."

New doctor remarked, "It sounds like you two have some interesting conversations." I said, "Yes, and I think I enjoy them more than he does."

Before the visit was concluded, I asked, "Do you have one of those little clip-on Oxygen Meters that fit on a finger?" And he said, "Yes, just a minute while I go get it." We did a check on my Oxygen level, and it showed "95%", so we decided I'm OK for that procedure next week with the colonoscopy.

 

What is the average mean density of outer space?

This answer is taken from the site of "The Physics Factbook", edited by Glenn Elert, and written by his students....

"The interstellar medium is mainly made of lone hydrogen atoms. They do not even exist as pairs as they do on earth. I mentioned before that space is filled with hydrogen atoms. The actual density of hydrogen as it exists in interstellar space is on the average of about 1 atom per cubic centimeter. In the extremes, as low as 0.1 atom per cubic centimeter has been found in the space between the spiral arms and as high as 1000 atoms per cubic centimeter are known to exist near the galactic core.

The interstellar medium also contains cosmic dust. These particles are much bigger than hydrogen atoms. However, there are far fewer particles of cosmic dust than there are hydrogen atoms in the same volume of space. It is estimated that cosmic dust is 1000 times less common than hydrogen atoms in the interstellar medium."

May I indulge myself in some speculation for a moment, please? But first, this from an article in "The New World Encyclopedia" to add more to our references:-

"Stars, planets, asteroids, and moons keep their atmospheres by gravitational attraction, and as such, atmospheres have no clearly delineated boundary: the density of atmospheric gas simply decreases with distance from the object. The Earth's atmospheric pressure drops to about 1 Pa at 100 kilometers (62 mi) of altitude, the Kármán line which is a common definition of the boundary with outer space. Beyond this line, isotropic gas pressure rapidly becomes insignificant when compared to radiation pressure from the sun and the dynamic pressure of the solar wind, so the definition of pressure becomes difficult to interpret. The thermosphere in this range has large gradients of pressure, temperature and composition, and varies greatly due to space weather. Astrophysicists prefer to use number density to describe these environments, in units of particles per cubic centimeter.

All of the observable universe is filled with large numbers of photons, the so-called cosmic background radiation, and quite likely a correspondingly large number of neutrinos. The current temperature of this radiation is about 3 K (−270.15 °C; −454.27 °F)."

Now, for my speculations, in which imagination takes over.... If we've got very thinly distributed atoms of hydrogen, along with one-thousandth that number of particles of space dust, bigger but farther between, along with large numbers of photons, assumed to be cosmic radiation background (residue of The Big Bang) then what?  Let's stuff all this back into our Time Machine, and set the dial back to "Big Bang Minus One Second".....

I'm looking at an alternate or parallel universe, in which there's a big thermonuclear device called a 'Hydrogen Bomb' and it's about to be detonated. We anticipate there will be a huge explosion, with immense expansion immediately following ignition, and the end products will be mostly pressure, heat, light, radiation leading to radioactive decay, and to a lesser extent, space dust caused by the vaporized casing of the device, assuming it is detonated as an "air burst" in atmosphere, rather than on or under ground.

Today's "Question Everything" is: "Haven't we seen this movie once or twice before?"  I seem to recall images of an island in a ocean completely disappearing while the device was being tested prior to completion of its development. Are we nothing but 'copycats'?

Midnight Astronauting.....

Looking back toward home from Saturn...

And it looks like this...

The Milky Way on a moonless night...

From Deimos, viewing Mars, with Phobos in between...

The afternoon flower report...

The morning snow report

I almost forgot - I'm still testing Windows 10

Not your usual theme perhaps, but variety is the spice of life they say. And after several days during which I was trying to survive the flu, and not doing much else, it's nice to see that Windows 10 is still alive and well.

Something to think about...

Thank You, Holy Spirit, Everywhere You Are.

Music Break ..... Takako Minekawa

2CELLOS & LANG LANG - Live And Let Die [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

Jean-Michel Jarre, Lang Lang - The Train