Moviprep

Despite the name, not a case of buying a huge cardboard beaker of fizzy drink and an eye-wateringly expensive bucket of popcorn; instead, you combine the powdery contents of these two sachets with a litre of water to create an explosive cocktail that clears the contents of your insides in eye-wateringly record time to prepare them for the delights of a colonoscopy: even worse you have to do it twice!

This whole procedure is what has kept me occupied for the last 24 hours. My Mum died from bowel cancer so, having had some disturbing symptoms of late, I thought it best to have things checked out. The normal tests came back all clear but the doctor thought it best to do a belt and braces job so I spent this afternoon in the charmingly efficient company of a consultant and her team at the local hospital , saying hello to my on-screen appendix and other parts of my intestines I never hoped to see.

The good news is there's nothing sinister amiss, just a case of diverticular disease, which can be managed with a few tweaks to the diet hopefully.

The whole process has taken less than 5 weeks since I made my initial phone call to my local surgery to today's examination and a week of that was due to me being on holiday and not available for an earlier appointment.
Thank goodness for the NHS! (And for being able to eat again after 30 hours of fasting)