No need to say, "Cheese"

So last Monday was interesting.  I found myself sitting in a doctor’s office with five other women.  My presence brought the average age down a decade at least.  Regardless of age, though, we were all there for the same reason: we were waiting on our husbands who were having colonoscopies.

Sean’s a bit young for his procedure but because of his family history his doctor wanted to take a peek.  I’d spared Rebecca any details, simply telling her Dad had a doctor’s appointment.  There are some images the ten year old doesn’t need in her head.  But Michael and Amy knew what Sean was doing.  They were very sweet to dear old Dad and didn’t make too many jokes at his expense.  When they saw how he had to prepare for the test they had compassion.

Even though there was only a slight chance anything was wrong, we were a little nervous.  I’d taken several magazine and books but found I spent the majority of my wait praying.  Praying for peace for Sean, praying for a good outcome, praying for grace no matter the results.  We have many friends who’ve struggled with medical problems lately and I wondered if it was our turn to do the same.

Thankfully everything was fine, and with that news we talked more openly about the procedure.  The doctor sent home some very clear pictures of the inside of Sean; Sean wasn’t interested in looking at his sigmoid or transverse colon but we were.  The kids and I found it interesting.  Moderately gross, but interesting, too.

Before we shelved the conversation Sean mentioned that maybe one of our kids would like to be a gastroenterologist.  Sean ran down a list of apparent perks: at 11:45 he was the doc’s last patient of the day and there didn’t appear to be much blood involved (a major perk for Sean). Plus, we can only assume he is paid well based on the bill we received.  Michael answered, “No way, Dad.  I'm not spending 20 years in med school so I can put a camera up someone's backside.  You have a company car and you don’t have to look up anyone’s bottom.”

At that, Rebecca nearly threw up because she thought the pictures we were looking at were from an X-ray.

Never a dull moment in our dear abode.