Adventures in Modern Health Care

Batty, awaiting his colonoscopy

I've been exploring the health care delivery system lately.

It all started with a pore on my nose.

For several months I had an enlarged pore, right on the tip of my nose. It didn’t hurt but would seep for a couple of weeks, then heal over. After a couple of cycles of this I went in for a checkup.

First, a general physical (my B.P. was high), then a referral to a dermatologist for my nose (biopsied) and, finally, a colonoscopy follow-up (the previous one was five years ago.

So, what did I get for my efforts?

The nose was benign, it’s fine now, it healed on its own.

The blood pressure meds worked—too well. I've already halved my dosage. We’ll be monitoring it, I suspect I’ll halve it again.

The colonoscopy was fine too—at least that’s what they tell me. I was completely out for the duration (yay Fentanyl!) and pretty loopy the rest of the afternoon. I don’t think I’ll have another—they aren’t recommended for non-risk geezers. While being prepped I did have some ruminations on my future health procedures: I’m not looking forward to it.

Image: Václav Oujezský, Wikimedia Commons