After an evening feasting on venison and cheese cake, the word 'slim' readily springs to mind. I am firmly averse to dieting when friends and family are around, so came up with a much better idea. Off to Slimbridge for the day!
Slimbridge was the first wetland centre of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and is located on the Severn estuary, about 50 minutes' drive from my home. It was founded in 1946 by Peter Scott - someone I remember very well for his Look programmes on BBC television, when I was a kid.
Dedicated twitchers, with their weighty binoculars and telephoto lenses, mostly head for the hides that overlook the Severn estuary wetlands. We joined them for a while, but preferred to wander the acres of
ponds and lagoons that are home to creatures from every corner of the globe (if a globe can have corners, that is). We learned that the flamingos are fed a special diet to keep them 'in the pink'; without it they'd turn white. We saw an otter, a couple of field mice (how nice to see one that the cat hasn't brought home), but mostly ducks and geese. Quite how they prevent the North American ducks wandering off to the European area, or the Chinese ducks taking up residence in Africa, is a mystery to me, but it all seem to work very well.
Star of the show, however, was the flamingo in the centre of this photo, who is a fully paid-up member of the Rugby Football Union. If you're baffled, click the photo for a closer look. One for the Twickenham Twitchers perhaps?
My nurse at the Bowel Cancer Screening Centre phoned today with the analysis of the polyp removed from my bowel a couple of weeks ago. The good news is that no cancer was found. She went on to say, "Yours was a colonic adenoma, which is just the sort we're looking for as they can turn cancerous. There were signs of slight structural change, but it is nothing to worry about."
After the call I went online to find out more.Colons are the most common organs that are affected by adenomas. There may be detected on colonoscopy. A regular surveillance of colonic adenomas and preferable removal of these tumors is advised as they have a very high potential to become colon cancers. (www.news-medical.net)
A very high potential. That certainly concentrates the mind, does it not? My mum's sister died of bowel cancer at the age of 72 and I can't help but think that she might have lived a lot longer, had bowel cancer screening been available at the time.
Since it is now known that I have a tendency to develop polyps, the centre is going to keep an eye on me and I will be invited to have another colonoscopy in three years' time. So, with my oestragen levels and blood pressure also being regularly monitored, I'm feeling extremely well cared for.
