Colonoscopy

Women are supposed to start having annual mammograms once they turn 40. I was 3 months shy of 42 before I had my first one. Men and women are supposed to have their first colonoscopy once they turn 50. Paul is having his first colonoscopy tomorrow. I knew that Paul couldn't drive after the procedure, and so I planned to drop him off and pick him up, but he was told they expect someone to wait in the hospital. Nadia is thankful Paul was told this because it means I'll be paying her to babysit for the first time. Although I have paid other babysitters $10/hr, I really don't think others would pay a twelve-year-old that much to babysit. I said I'll pay her $4-5/hr. They said Paul will be there for 2.5 hours tomorrow, and we will be spending one hour on the road. I told Nadia I'd pay her $15 to babysit Oliver tomorrow. I'm thankful that she can call me on my cell phone via the Echo dot if needed. Since tomorrow is the last day of the Kids' Café program, I asked our neighbor if she was planning to take her kids to the park to pick up their meals tomorrow. She's going to take my three kids with her two kids for that errand. I appreciate her assistance! Paul hasn't been able to eat anything today. Usually turning older doesn't phase me, but knowing I will have to go through this in 2022 doesn't make me exactly excited about turning 50. At least you usually only have to have a colonoscopy every ten years rather than every year like the mammograms. Hopefully Paul's procedure will go smoothly tomorrow and he will be allowed to go 10 years before he has one again. He's having an EMG on Wednesday and another EMG next week. We're hoping they determine the cause of his numbness and tingling. Oliver hasn't been to a doctor in a full year. He is scheduled to have his annual physical on Wednesday. I'm very thankful that the frequency of Paul's medical appointments over the last two months is an aberration from the norm for our family. Paul was tested for COVID-19 yesterday in preparation for the colonoscopy, and today we received the good report that his result was negative.

Nadia objected to Paul taking our picture because our outfits weren't coordinated, ha ha!

We took a break from jigsaw puzzles while we were at Aunt Janet's house, but we've been doing them again since we got home. I looked through all the puzzles we own to figure out which ones we had never done. Nadia did two 500 piece puzzles by herself (Winnie the Pooh and Snow White). Paul, Nadia, and I did a very, very hard 500 piece Snow White puzzle (not the same as the one she did herself). Today Nadia finished a 750 piece Toy Story puzzle that I started yesterday. Paul did some of that one. There are three puzzles left to attempt for the first time - a 750 piece Incredibles puzzle, a 1,000 piece tiger puzzle, and a 550 piece Harry Potter puzzle that looks very hard as almost all the pieces are black. Prior to the pandemic Nadia was never willing to attempt a 750 piece puzzle, but she's done two of them so far this summer (with some help), and now she routinely does 500 piece puzzles completely by herself, if it's not one that is harder than usual. Oliver has done up to 150 pieces by himself, and Ian has done up to 300 piece puzzles by himself. I can say with assurance that I spent more time doing puzzles over the past 5 months than I have ever spent on puzzles in entire year in the past. Listening to audiobooks while putting the puzzles together greatly improves the experience in my opinion. Chris Grabenstein is one of Nadia's favorite authors. We listened to two of his books last week - Stuck and Riley Mack and the Other Known Troublemakers. Today we finished an Anna Hibiscus book and began When the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. Nadia is greatly anticipating the release of the newest Mr. Lemoncello book later this month, which is also by Grabenstein.