Inspecting my plumbing

My doctor suggested that I get my internal plumbing inspected. I am a pipe liner and I know about pipeline inspection, intelligent pigging, chemical cleaning, etc. Some old lines are not piggable by design. Pipeline technology has come a long way. However, our internal pipe design has not changed and it is a marvelous and intricate system of piping. The fact is, if we do not abuse it, it lasts a long time, lot longer than a steel pipeline does. Our life style, the stuff we send through these pipes, age do impact the conditions.

So, these engineers (we call them doctors for digestive system) recommend routine check up to the owners of the system. One such inspection is colonoscopy. Reluctantly I agreed. The preparation is worse than the procedure. I had to completely empty the pipe for the procedure. It is like chemical cleaning, the difference being you have to drink this stuff every 10-20 minutes until there is nothing left in the pipe and what comes out at the end of the cleaning period is basically clear liquid.

Obviously, you are not an inanimate pipeline. You are starving; your plumbing is twisting, turning, and growling. But, there is no mercy until the engineer (oops, doctor) inspects the inside of the pipe and takes pictures to prove it to you that you are clean or you got some potential internal corrosion (rather growth, ulcers, etc). They put me to sleep and when they woke me up, the pictures (should I say “gross”) were ready. Just like that I missed 30 minutes of my life as I was in a painless, noiseless, dark world. However, now I was free to eat and continue with the “line fill”.

The good news is that my plumbing is fine. That should be a sigh of relief to those who are concerned about my health, age, etc. Hopefully my plumbing is good for another 25 years.