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Sep. 21st, 2018 10:53 am
Swings and roundabouts
All in all, prepping for the colonoscopy wasn't as bad as I expected. I started to worry a bit when felt heartburny drinking the polyethylene glycol because my antacids were contraindicated, but that went away on its own. If I had to do one thing different, I'd start drinking the PEG earlier because it took about five hours for it to really kick in, which kept me up well past midnight. I slept more than I thought I would which unfortunately meant a late start and getting stuck in traffic on Ashland. At least my Hyderabadi driver was fun to talk to, if a little conservative in his views.
It wasn't until I was on the gurney that I found out it wasn't either member of the Swedish Colon Mafia who would be performing the procedure but some associate of theirs I didn't know existed. I went ahead with it anyhow because I really didn't want to have to take another day off work, do the prep, and drag my ass clear across town, but it left me kind of pissed. I felt bad for the doc, but as I told him, if I was fine with any random qualified dude, I would have saved both money and trouble by taking my PCP's recommendation and staying in network.
I may have to do it again anyway, as it turns out, because he couldn't even make it to the ascending colon. Apparently there's a sharp turn from my descending to the transverse that he was having trouble getting the scope past; all I know is that I was experiencing considerable pain despite being hoped up on 5 mg of midazolam and 50 mcg of fentanyl. The staff was great for the most part (the nurse who prepped me said she could always tell what kind of day it would be from the first patient so after me she knew it would be a good one) but I could've done without the pushiness of the nurse in recovery.
Nuphy was there to help me collect myself. When we got back to his place, I crashed hard on his couch and he kept himself mouse-quiet until I woke up. My first meal was toasted English muffins with French butter and it was absolutely heavenly. I spent the next several hours battling falling back asleep (so as not to destroy my sleep schedule). My original plan had been to drag him to Chinatown with me for lunch/dinner and mooncakes but it was 33°C out and he couldn't be budged.
It's good that he couldn't be, because when I finally did reach Chinatown around 6 p.m., I learned to my unending dismay that Feida has stopped making mooncakes. I didn't quite understand the owner's explanation, but I think he said the margins didn't really justify it because of the array of competing imports. I consoled myself with a custard bun, which was as tasty as I remembered, and a "big bun", which was not. I remembered it being an amazing meal in a bun, but this was just a lump of meat with a morsel of hard-boiled egg; I threw out the half-stale bun and saved the rest for Kitty's dinner.
All the old places are changing or disappearing. On the way to Ichiban, I was startled to see a vacant lot where Three Happiness used to be. It's true (as Nuphy said when I messaged him) that its quality had been declining for ages; we hadn't been there for dim sum in a decade. But somehow I still expected the building to persist. I can't even imagine what's going to replace it. I was parched so I thought I'd swing by Saint's Alp for a refreshing drink only to find that it's gone, too.
At least Ichiban is still as I remember, even if it took me a while to find the candied olives and the kumquat is less tasty than I recall it being. There were a slew of colour-coded nougats, including one labeled "maca and almond", so I asked, "What's 'maca,?" and sent the staff scurrying to their phones. Apparently this is Lepidium meyenii a.k.a. "Peruvian ginseng" (also known to the Chinese as 印加蘿蔔 "Inca radish"). It wasn't unpleasant-tasting, thought I'm not sure I could pick it out again. I had them fill up a little bag for me, got a sugary freeze from Joy Yee, which I took to the top of one of the towers to watch the sunset. That was something of a bust (the sightlines just aren't that great from there) so I caught the train home and fixed some noodles for myself when I arrived.
Tiredness was catching up with me, but I wanted to push myself to stay up until at least 10 p.m. I got help from an unexpected quarter when one of the new neighbours knocked on the window so he could introduce me to his friend's cat. I'm really taking to them. In the course of conversation, I made some offhand mention of needing a plastic bin to keep the cat from ripping into his food sack and he's like, "We have an extra; here you go." And as I went home he said, "You're so nice!" with a genuineness that took me aback.
It wasn't until I was on the gurney that I found out it wasn't either member of the Swedish Colon Mafia who would be performing the procedure but some associate of theirs I didn't know existed. I went ahead with it anyhow because I really didn't want to have to take another day off work, do the prep, and drag my ass clear across town, but it left me kind of pissed. I felt bad for the doc, but as I told him, if I was fine with any random qualified dude, I would have saved both money and trouble by taking my PCP's recommendation and staying in network.
I may have to do it again anyway, as it turns out, because he couldn't even make it to the ascending colon. Apparently there's a sharp turn from my descending to the transverse that he was having trouble getting the scope past; all I know is that I was experiencing considerable pain despite being hoped up on 5 mg of midazolam and 50 mcg of fentanyl. The staff was great for the most part (the nurse who prepped me said she could always tell what kind of day it would be from the first patient so after me she knew it would be a good one) but I could've done without the pushiness of the nurse in recovery.
Nuphy was there to help me collect myself. When we got back to his place, I crashed hard on his couch and he kept himself mouse-quiet until I woke up. My first meal was toasted English muffins with French butter and it was absolutely heavenly. I spent the next several hours battling falling back asleep (so as not to destroy my sleep schedule). My original plan had been to drag him to Chinatown with me for lunch/dinner and mooncakes but it was 33°C out and he couldn't be budged.
It's good that he couldn't be, because when I finally did reach Chinatown around 6 p.m., I learned to my unending dismay that Feida has stopped making mooncakes. I didn't quite understand the owner's explanation, but I think he said the margins didn't really justify it because of the array of competing imports. I consoled myself with a custard bun, which was as tasty as I remembered, and a "big bun", which was not. I remembered it being an amazing meal in a bun, but this was just a lump of meat with a morsel of hard-boiled egg; I threw out the half-stale bun and saved the rest for Kitty's dinner.
All the old places are changing or disappearing. On the way to Ichiban, I was startled to see a vacant lot where Three Happiness used to be. It's true (as Nuphy said when I messaged him) that its quality had been declining for ages; we hadn't been there for dim sum in a decade. But somehow I still expected the building to persist. I can't even imagine what's going to replace it. I was parched so I thought I'd swing by Saint's Alp for a refreshing drink only to find that it's gone, too.
At least Ichiban is still as I remember, even if it took me a while to find the candied olives and the kumquat is less tasty than I recall it being. There were a slew of colour-coded nougats, including one labeled "maca and almond", so I asked, "What's 'maca,?" and sent the staff scurrying to their phones. Apparently this is Lepidium meyenii a.k.a. "Peruvian ginseng" (also known to the Chinese as 印加蘿蔔 "Inca radish"). It wasn't unpleasant-tasting, thought I'm not sure I could pick it out again. I had them fill up a little bag for me, got a sugary freeze from Joy Yee, which I took to the top of one of the towers to watch the sunset. That was something of a bust (the sightlines just aren't that great from there) so I caught the train home and fixed some noodles for myself when I arrived.
Tiredness was catching up with me, but I wanted to push myself to stay up until at least 10 p.m. I got help from an unexpected quarter when one of the new neighbours knocked on the window so he could introduce me to his friend's cat. I'm really taking to them. In the course of conversation, I made some offhand mention of needing a plastic bin to keep the cat from ripping into his food sack and he's like, "We have an extra; here you go." And as I went home he said, "You're so nice!" with a genuineness that took me aback.
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