And I Think It's Gonna Be a Long Long Time

I am sitting in a doctor's waiting room right now. I am waiting for my mother. She's having a "procedure" done- a procedure one would probably not want to follow with a drive home. Oh, she wouldn't mind my telling you, she's having a colonoscopy.

We've all got that coming. We being those of us in the industrialized world... well I guess those of us in the industrialized world for whom preventative healthcare will not become prohibitively expensive have it coming. Maybe it's not just heart disease that will wipe us out. Maybe our diets will kill us with polyps and impacted stools that go undetected because we can't afford to have our anuses checked out. Maybe I should have it done while it's still affordable. Eh, well, I gotta die from something.

In any case, here I sit. I am definitely not the oldest person in the room but taking your mother to the doctor for a routine exam can certainly make one feel older. Even as... especially as I think of the future, my youth suddenly seems like something far behind me.

I'm sure this won't be the last time I take my mother to the doctor. But there will be a last time, maybe in 20 or 30 years time. That's not the point though. The point is, this first time, is just that. I see a series of trips to the doctor before me, and this is the first. I'm just driving this time. But soon enough the doctors will tell me as much as her what's going on. Soon after that, I'll be taking care of the paperwork. Later, I'll be the one making appointments for her. I'll talk to the doctors on her behalf. I'll know more than her, what medications she's taking when. What seems to be working, what doesn't. Then there will come a time when I'll have to guess what she's saying. What she would want to say if she could. And then I won't do it anymore.

Good times.