Laughing, Remembering and Laughing Even More

A friend sent me the "Journal" entry below today. I laughed until I cried.

Tonight I was thinking about this entry and laughing again, when I remembered how irritated Raymond would get with me when I would read Erma Bombeck in bed and would start laughing while he was either trying to read or go to sleep. He just never understood why I could not just read the great Erma without laughing out loud. Just thinking about how irritated he would get made me laugh all over again. I would read Lewis Grizzard and get hysterical. Raymond read him too, but he would just chuckle, and not guffaw like I would at the situations described. I just do not think Raymond could relate to the stories like I could.

I used to read Dave Barry all the time, but lost interest a few years ago. I may have to go back and read him again after the laugh he provided me today.

I hope this makes at least one more person laugh:

DaveBarry's Colonoscopy Journal: Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize~winning humor columnist for the Miami Herald;

I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy.A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point-passing briefly through Minneapolis.

Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough" reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really. hear anything he said, becausemy brain was shrieking, quote, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!'

I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called MoviPrep,which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America's enemies.

I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous.

Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordancewith my instructions,I didn't eat anysolidfood that day; all I -had was chicken broth, which is'basically water, only with less flavor.

Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep.You mix two packets of powder togetherin a-one-liter plastic jug, and then you fill it with lukewarm, water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons.) Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPreptastes - and here I am beingkind -likea mixtureof goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.

The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose watery bowel movement may result.' This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground.

MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but: Have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch?This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you havenot even eaten yet. Afteran action-packedevening,I finally got to sleep.The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic.I was very nervous.Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I wasthinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.

At the clinic I hadto sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked.

Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep. At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this,
but then I pondered what would happen if you got your self too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house.

When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,OOO- foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point. Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand. There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was 'Dancing Queen' by Abba. I remarked to Andy that of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' has to be the least appropriate.

"You want me to turn it up?'said Andy, from somewhere behind me. 'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.

I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, Abba was shrieking 'Dancing Queen! Feel the beat from the tambourine' and the next moment, I was back in the other room waking up in a very mellow mood. Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told methat it was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ. I would say "Cheers"',but some how the expression "Up Yours" had a more appropriate ring to it.