Glowing Intestines and What Not

I've been out of the loop for a week. I was working onsite and trying to help my husband with marketing his book. Then on my husband's birthday I got these severe stomach pains. At first, I thought they were just gas. Maybe it was the weird chicken salad I had at the deli where I was working. But no ... it got worse and I couldn't finish my steak at Morton's that night. Ugh! Usually, I just deal with the pain and go on with my day. My grandma didn't raise no wuss. (In fact, she had a heart attack and a stroke at 90 years old and she had the ladder out and was about to clean the ceilings when she fell ill. Yeah, I come from tough stock.) But I couldn't straighten out. I was totally buckled over. So, to make a long story short (too late, I know), they ran all these tests and thought that it might be kidney stones or a urinary infection. I had a CT scan done and they didn't see any stones.

Though the doctor asked me while he was looking at my scans, "Did you have anything to drink before this?"
"No," I replied. "They told me I wasn't allowed."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Positive?"
Okay, by now I was getting agitated. "Yes, I'm totally sure."
"They didn't give you a drink to make your intestines glow?"
This took me aback. Glowing intestines? What the hell? "No," I said. "I think I'd remember that." I took a deep breath before I totally freaked on the doctor and asked evenly, "Why?"
"Well," he cleared his throat, "you'r intestines are glowing in this area and I don't know why."

I'm sure it was just a weird CT glitch, but for a moment I thought of the Glow Worm—the stuffed animal whose belly glowed at night. Was I going to turn into that? What kind of alien virus did I have? Doctors should never, ever comment on anything weird in front of patients. Never. It doesn't leave a warm, fuzzy (glowy) feeling inside to know that there's potentially something weird inside of you. I'm supposed to find out the results of my urinalysis today. )If the government doesn't hall me off for further testing.) Check out Medical Mysteries on the Discovery channel for the girl with the glowing instestines next year.

Anyway, writing has been going well. I've gotten back over 70K in my revisions and I'm on page 178. Yippee! I might work at a slower pace than others, but it's working for me and I've been happy with the outcome.