Looking at the big picture, not much has changed in my life in this last decade. I’m married to the same man, employed by the same company, live in the same house, have most of the same hobbies, struggle with the same issues. I’d like to blame that stability for my lack of posts here—when nothing’s new, what’s there to write about—but it’s not circumstance that’s to blame. Plenty of people write plenty of things about their everyday lives, so it can be done. I just choose not to do it much right now. Maybe one day my journaling fever will rekindle. Maybe one day I’ll decide to give it up entirely in favor of a YouTube channel on which I perform interpretive dances chronicling my days. I’m not sure what the future holds for this site, but I do know I want to keep it around for now. Thanks to all of you who check in now and again to see what I’m up to.

Day Two of prep was the annoying one. After breakfast on the low fiber no nuts plan from Day One, I had to start a clear liquid diet. Hello, vegetable bullion and Jell-O (but not red or purple; those dyes can stain the colon and make it hard for the doctor to see). Again, I’ve been on diets nearly as restrictive, so this part didn’t seem too crazy. However, the laxative-palooza portion of the program did seem rather extreme. That started with a double dose of pills around 1 p.m. Four hours after that, it was time to start drinking a mixture of Powerade and Miralax, eight ounces every fifteen minutes for two hours. I’d chosen White Cherry flavor Powerade (not red!) and didn’t really mind drinking the mixture; at no point did I feel queasy. Six glasses into the bottle, I made my first of many trips to the bathroom to start jettisoning the contents of my digestive tract. About eight p.m., I took two more laxative pills per instructions. Three hours after that, production of things out my butt had slowed to the point where I was able to go to bed (I put a couple towels down just in case there was some unexpected leakage; turned out there was not). I got up once during the night to basically pee out of my butt, since solids had long since been eliminated. Since I had a morning appointment, I had to get up very early to drink the last two servings of the Powerade mixture so I could be done with them (and all other liquids) no later than four hours before my procedure. I was happy to find I was able to go back to sleep after that for nearly an hour and a half. Once I did get up, I fit in a shower between toilet visits, and then it was time to leave for the hospital complex.

Because the procedure is done under sedation, one has to have a driver, so Mr. Karen got to come along for a couple of hours of sitting in the waiting room. I checked in and had time to flip through about half of a People magazine before I got called back. I got taken to a cubicle with a rolling bed in it where the nurse asked me some questions about my prep and my medical history, then left me to undress (I got to keep on my socks and bra). She came back with a heated blanket, had me lay back on the bed, and got a saline IV started and a heart monitor attached while an anesthesiologist asked more questions about my medical history before explaining how the drug they were going to use worked. (It was Propofol, which I’ve never had before.) Then there was a bit of wait before the doctor appeared to introduce himself and explain the risks of the procedure. Then he went away and there was a bit more waiting before a nurse came to wheel me to one of the colonoscopy rooms, where I met the nurse anesthetist who’d be administering the drug and monitoring me. It seemed like not even 10 seconds passed between the time I saw him inject the drug into my IV line and the time my consciousness slipped away. I felt like there were a couple times during the procedure when I opened my eyes and could see the screen that the camera images were on but now I’m not sure if that actually happened or if my mind constructed those images from having seen the screen beforehand and enough medical dramas on tv to come up with something that looked real. I don’t remember being wheeled to the recovery room, but I do remember the doctor coming in and telling me they had found and removed a polyp and the results of the lab work on that would determine when I needed to come back. Mr. Karen was walked into the room by a nurse shortly after that conversation. After some monitoring of my vital signs and such, the nurse helped me sit up, and I was free to get dressed and go. I had a bandage on my hand over the IV site and bubbles of air in my belly leftover from the inflation they did to get the scope through more easily, but that was it. No pain, no memory of pain, no nausea. I was free to start eating again, and as soon as we got home, I did. I was evidently not as alert in the recovery room as I’d perceived myself to be, as it wasn’t until late afternoon that I discovered I still had three of the stickers for the heart monitor attached to my skin under my sweater.

All in all, I wouldn’t call it fun, but the prep was the worst part by far, and even that wasn’t so terrible, just tedious. Also, mammograms from now on are going to seem like a breeze—no prep at all, no driver needed, no time off work that I can’t make up the same day.

This is quite comfortable to wear. I like that the top and skirt are both lined. The skirt lining fits closer to the body than the skirt itself. I quite appreciated that Easter morning when I walked out of the house and got surprised by a gust of wind that fluttered the print fabric up around my thighs; the lining stayed down and preventing me from scandalizing the neighbors. I also like that the top has princess seaming; this means it doesn’t pull unflatteringly across my bust the way a lot of wrap and faux wrap tops do on me.

My least favorite thing about this dress is where the waist hits me. I’m somewhat long waisted and the solid top of the dress ends not too far below my bustline, giving the dress an Empire waist effect on me. This would be fine except there are no belt loops to thread the sash through, so it tends to slip down to my natural waist as I move around, and the resulting solid/print/sash/print effect looks odd to my eye. Maybe if I wore it with a minimizer bra that would help. Maybe I’ll just add some thread loops to keep the sash up, because it would be a shame not to move in this dress since the skirt is so swirly. I’ll leave you with a shot of me doing the Twist for the self-timer so you can see a bit of that swirl.

*****UPDATE 11-April-2012***** I have just been notified that Igigi wants to
spread the love by giving away a $50 gift certificate to a lucky commenter. To enter the draw, go to the Igigi website, pick out a garment you’d like to add to your wardrobe, then come back here and leave a comment here detailing what garment you chose, how you’d accessorize it, and where you’d wear it. (Your opinions on the Oxford comma are welcome but not required.) You have until May 15, 2012 to enter.

Even better news: All the other ladies who participated in the Weetacon fashion show will be running the same contest, so you can enter their draws, too. A list of all the reviews is being assembled on the Igigi at Weetacon page, so go there and follow the links to leave comments on those entries, too. All in all, Weetacon and Igigi are giving away over $1000 in Igigi by Yuliya Raquel gift certificates. Deadline for all the draws is May 15, 2012; you can only enter once per review. The winners will be announced on the Igigi at Weetacon page by May 18th, 2012. Good luck!

The dress in this entry was provided to me for review purposes by Igigi. The content of this entry was not dictated by Igigi; I get to keep the dress for my personal use.