Looking at things in a different light.

An upside to a colonoscopy (Yikes!) story.

A Hospital Story. No big deal. Or is it?

There’s nothing like going to get a colonoscopy. I hate the very idea of it but when you are 76 and you haven’t had one in a while, well, better safe...

My Glasses and a Biohazard Specimen Bag.

Not a happy process. You take some pills and drink something made of glycogen to make you poop your brains out so someone can put garden hose with a camera on the end up your backside and take some pictures.

So, I did that and a doctor did that and said the good news was there was no cancer. The bad news was that I lost my glasses.

We didn’t realize this until we had left the hospital and gone for a big lunch. On the way home, we stopped at Evanston Hospital and went to gastroenterology to see where I left them.

I remembered taking them out to read something on a computer screen. I told them that. They snapped to this like I had left a living thing someplace.

They pulled scads of dingy towels and old sweats out of bins, scattering them on the floor. They looked under lots of stuff. They were about to do even more when I implored them to stop. They had more important business and I could get more glasses.

They finally agreed to stop when I just told them I had to leave because someone was waiting outside. So I left. I had other glasses.

My wife and I went to the Evanston Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning, then went for some coffee and to pick up some hardware store stuff.

We got home, and there, in a hazmat bag taped to the front doors, were the glasses. I was stunned. Who would do such a thing?

The staff in gastroenterology at Evanston Hospital. There’s a picture above of the bag and the glasses.

Do I want another colonoscopy?

I don’t think so.

But I’m thinking a lot more kindly about the whole process now. No one had to do this thing with the glasses. But they did.

Thank you so much!

Charlie Madigan was a reporter and editor for 40 years at UPI and The Chicago Tribune. He was a professor at Roosdvelt University for a decade. He lives in Evanston and writes a blog called “Lightningwriter.” Find him at charlesmadigan.com