Mini Vacation and Say It Ain't So

So Thursday I took the day off for a medical procedure, viz: endoscopy.  It's very much like a colonoscopy, except without the icky prep.  You go in to the place (in this case a facility that deals entirely with endoscopic and colonoscopic procedures).  They give you warm socks and blankets (I didn't even have to take off my clothes, just put on a gown over them to keep me clean--I didn't ask what might get me unclear.  Ignorance=a calm mind).  They give you good drugs.  You wake up 15 minutes later, hang out until you're recovered enough to walk out, and go home to doze for the rest of the day. I tend to rebound from "procedures" very well, and have had no unsightly sequelae, for which I am grateful.

I don't have the final results yet, but it sounds like I have an hiatal hernia, and that's the cause of my very unpleasant gastric reflux.  I suspect this is congenital--my father had reflux for the last half of his life, which means I could be looking at forty more years of this, which does not delight me.  There is a surgical fix, but it's only used in extreme cases (apparently having this done means you're never able to throw up again--which sounds like a good trade until you consider that the purpose of throwing up, in certain situations, is to get rid of the Bad Thing you have ingested, in which case, maybe it's a skill you don't want your body to lose).  The more usual treatments, aside from Prilosec (which has some unfortunate side-effects regarding bone calcium), include reducing intake of certain foods, ie: caffeine.  Chocolate. Alcohol.  There are others, but really, once you rule out the holy trinity of yum, who cares.

I will do what I must, but really: coffee, chocolate, and cognac?  It's gonna be a long forty years.