Colonoscopy: Been there. Done that. Got the tee shirt. No sweat.
Here is a picture of me at the doctor’s office. He is using a new all natural, unified procedure which simultaneously
- Inserts the anesthesia
- Performs the exam
- Urges the patient out the door and onto the path of recovery
I like my doctor. He’s direct and to the point. No dilly-dallying around. A real macho “git er done” kind of fella.
Seriously, the whole thing was no big deal. Lots of people had told me how horrible the preparation would be; they were wrong. It was unpleasant but it was way better than having the stomach flu. The colonoscopy was scheduled for Wednesday morning so, on Tuesday, I a) did not eat any solid food (it’s a good thing that I like Jell-O), and b) drank some stuff which gave me diarrhea for a few hours. Yeah, I was running to the bathroom a lot. On the other hand, I did not have any of the symptoms which usually accompany that sort of thing. My stomach didn’t hurt; I didn’t feel queasy; no fever; etc.
The colonoscopy itself was a no brainer, literally. I slept through it. And I got portraits of parts of me that aren’t really very flattering. And I got good news about my health.
If you are over 50, get scoped. It’s a great way to avoid colorectal cancer which is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the western world, killing about 655,000 people per year. You don’t need to be one of them.
Oh, and thank you Scott Youmans for finding that great photo. Scott, you brightened my day immeasurably. No bull.
