Last week we had to go to Birmingham for Fabgrandpa’s colonoscopy. We live in Georgia, but we are actually closer to Birmingham than we are to Atlanta for the VA Medical Center. The traffic is not as bad going to Birmingham as it is going to Atlanta.
When Fabgrandpa got his written appointment confirmation from the VA in Birmingham, it said that they had a new parking deck, and included the address of it. We punched in the address into our Nuvi, and took off down the road. We got almost into the city limits of Birmingham when the GPS told us to take a right turn off I-20 at the next exit. Even though we knew it was wrong, we had been told to always trust the GPS, so we took that turn, and wound up lost in a residential area.
Got back on I-20 and finally got there. The elevator in the parking deck was out of order, so we wound up walking down four flights of stairs. I was tired when we got to the bottom! We got on the shuttle that takes you to the medical center, and arrived just in time.
Then took Fabgrandpa back to do the test, and I sat down and napped until they called me to go back to talk to the doctor about 3 hours later. Everything went just fine and he doesn’t have to have another colonoscopy for five years, which was very good news.
So, we got in the car, and started home, and found that I-20 east was closed in downtown Birmingham beginning at the ramp where we should have been getting on. We wound up driving around Birmingham for about an hour and a half before we found the right way to go to get home. By that time, I was just tired and ready to be home. I got off of I-20 at the first opportunity and got on Highway 78, which is a two lane highway that parallels I-20.
I was driving because Fabgrandpa had been medicated for his colonoscopy. Aftter driving for about an hour on Hwy 78, I started looking for a place to use the bathroom, because my pouch was getting pretty tight from “air” in it. Finally, I saw a closed gas station, and pulled into the parking lot so I could burp that bag. I felt like it was pretty deserted and wouldn’t be a problem. Then when I opened the door of the car (because you DON’T want to burp a colostomy bag without opening the door), another car pulled up behind me. They just sat there, for what seemed like five minutes, and were making no effort to leave.
Finally, I just unzipped my pants and took out my bag, removed the clip, and let the air out of the bag. I was at the point of not caring if anyone saw it or not, because it was just the bag. If they had walked up to me they would have been in for a BIG surprize! Anyway, job done, we got back on the road, and finally got home. Oh, the joys of living with a colostomy!
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