Is the no-meds a viable option for people who don't gig at Jaques?
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
Is the no-meds a viable option for people who don't gig at Jaques?
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
Yeah, they like to have you numb alright....numb when they operate on your mouth and number when they operate on your bank account.Originally Posted by retread
See, nothing to stress about after all.
Truthfully, that Dave Barry piece gets a lot of laugh mileage but it does a serious disservice to the people who are made fearful by it, avoid the procedure and later develop colon cancer as a result. Take it from me, colo-rectal cancer doesn't give too many clear warning symptoms early on and by the time you could even begin to think something is wrong, it could be too late. After the age of 50 or so, colonoscopies every 3 years are the only defense you have against it. Yeah, the liters of nauseating liquid and the evacuating beforehand is a trial, but now they prescribe Citra fleet which is just two 8 ounce glasses of something no more unpleasant tasting than gatorade.
Anyway, even with the repulsive purgative that's just one day of relative discomfort which is nothing compared to the pain, unpleasant side effects and disruption caused by 7 weeks of radiation and chemical warfare on your digestive and reproductive organs, followed by months of recuperation afterwards. You think having to stay close to a toilet for one day is a drag, try having to do it for 6 months or more. Plus the painkillers they give you fock you up, but without ever really fully killing the pain.
I'm serious about this so though I've never wanted to talk about it on SOTW before, I feel compelled to do so if it will help save even one other life. Get a colonoscopy every 3 years once you are past 50 because they will catch the precancerous polyps before they get a chance to develop further and will catch any fast-growing or aggressive tumors before it is really too late. Don't wait the 5 years the medical establishment talks about because that is an insurance decision to save money and definitely once past 60 it is way too long to be safe. This is a fact: I would be saying my goodbyes right now if I had waited 5 years like they advise and hadn't gotten what I thought was going to be another routine clean colonoscopy. That was two years ago next month, and although just 3.5 years after the previous totally clean test, they found a big fat stage T2 Ni (IIIA) tumor anyway.
The treatment is no fun for sure, but considering the alternative I consider myself very fortunate as well as thankful to have had it to go through because it appears to have saved me (knock on wood). I am very greatful because didn't need surgery or a colostomy, unlike a colleague who had to have a temporary colostemy and almost died from perotinitis contracted during the operation to rejoin the sections. So believe me, it's better to have them push a tube up your colon to look around than have them surgically removing it because they didn't. Or to be like a few other people I knew who were diagnosed too late to be saved because they never had regular colonoscopies.
At the beginning of the ordeal--the diagnosis, the waiting for treatment to begin, the pains of the treatment, the fear, doubt and hope--I questioned over and over what I had done to deserve such ill fortune. But afterwards, when it started looking like the tumor was vanquished (knock on wood), I suddenly found myself questioning what I had done to deserve such seeming good fortune. I will never stop wondering what made me the one to survive while so many others suffer through treatment and die anyway.
I still don't know the answer to that, other than that like much of life it often seems to be just a crap shoot prone to the totally arbitrary vagaries of pure chance and good or bad luck. Perhaps we can't control that very much, but we certainly can load the dice in our favor by making it a point to have all the proven-successful diagnostic tests, such as colonoscopy, that we can.
Thanks for reading this. Now go do yourselves a favor, get a colonoscopy and save your lives.
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Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
My proctologist insists getting one every 5 years(which is what I've been doing). Maybe it depends on how busy, number of customers, he is?
It might depend on your family history too.
A lot of good arguments are ruined by some fool who knows what he's talking about.
Dude, Support this Forum.
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
A humourous slant on the whole thing (G rated)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlCLH...layer_embedded
I wish Glenn Miller had lived and his music had died - Artie Shaw (as quoted by Pepper Adams)
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
It wouldn't work if you're a pencil snapper. You gotta go with it. That first big left turn is a doozie.
Just two questions: Where's the Bar located relative to the stage, and does the band get a discount?
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Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
As soon as the doctor spotted the polyps he said "Well, I guess we'll see you again in 3 years!"My proctologist insists getting one every 5 years(which is what I've been doing). Maybe it depends on how busy, number of customers, he is?
It might depend on your family history too.
Just two questions: Where's the Bar located relative to the stage, and does the band get a discount?
Songs I recorded with The Cyclones
Check out my new informative site!
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
Originally Posted by retread
Is the no-meds a viable option for people who don't gig at Jaques?
If he'd found unwelcome polyps in me my butt'd be there every year.
A lot of good arguments are ruined by some fool who knows what he's talking about.
Dude, Support this Forum.
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
Jazz Is All, marty, those are damn good posts you did there. Well done.
"The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions."
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
Oh, sorry. I meant "..damn good posteriors you have there. Well done."
"The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions."
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
I just remembered one of the funnier moments, for me anyway, that happened while I was awaiting my colonoscopy. Someone on a gurney had been rolled into the adjacent stall in the ward while I was arriving. After a few minutes, I heard a nurse trying to awaken the patient with news: "hello, hello, can you hear me? The doctor wasn't able to go ahead. You were still dirty up there. You'll have to make another appointment."
I guess some people don't read directions.
Just two questions: Where's the Bar located relative to the stage, and does the band get a discount?
Songs I recorded with The Cyclones
Check out my new informative site!
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
No, I then knew that I wasn't a perfect arswhole.
Just two questions: Where's the Bar located relative to the stage, and does the band get a discount?
Songs I recorded with The Cyclones
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Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
Well of course practice makes perfect.
I did have a "flexible sigmoidoscopy" myself a couple of years ago. It's free on the NHS! Other than that, it was most unpleasant.
I have really found this thread heartening. SOTW does sometimes come up trumps (as twere) rather unexpectedly.
"The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions."
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
It's better in the other location, although the colonoscope is long enough to make it up as far as the heart on some people...you know the arseholes that others describe sarcastically as being "all heart".
And Donald could use a good colonoscopy.....between the ears in his case.
Music is a magic elixir. It renews the spirit and fills the soul with joy
ParkerYoungColtraneMcLeanRollinsGordonGriffinGonsalvesHendersonErvinDolphyKirkLacy
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Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
Got it done this morning. I have no recollection after being wheeled in, but all is good. Yesterday was rather unpleasant, but bearable. Dave Barry was right about the taste of that stuff.
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
No disrespect intended, but taken separately from this conversation, I believe I've read this exact sentence somewhere before. I wonder where?
Again, no disrespect intended.
Just two questions: Where's the Bar located relative to the stage, and does the band get a discount?
Songs I recorded with The Cyclones
Check out my new informative site!
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
Im 27 and have had one bout every year to 3 years for the last 12 yearsI have some medical issues and have to get checked often....trust me, the proceedure has gotten better and easier over the years....the prep and proceedure has improved greatly .....and now I make it a "joke"....first thing I do is go to the desk and say "Im here for my photoshoot!" (as everyone looks and laughs).....I used to try and fight the meds they give you to knock you out, just to mess with the Doc, but not anymore that stuff is crazy...they dont even give you a warning lol.....Im actually more "nervious" about a endo (camera down the throat) than the colon do to a bad visit once...but its all good....I know the "male ego" is all against having it done but its no biggie at all.....
on a lighter not...always wondered what the doc would do if I had swallowed a lego man the day before.....can ya see him watching the camera as he runs up the colon only to run into LUKE COLONWALKER.... rofl (I have a sick sense of humor)
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
I've had three of them. After the last one, I felt some pain and frequent bleeding and consulted a couple of doctors. After much painful examination, they concluded that I had an intestinal fissure. One doctor said it could have been the result of the colonoscopy. After much more fiddling around and many visits, the doctor suggested a lateral sphincterotomy which is a small enlargement of the sphincter. So we did it and it sort of helped, but the pain and bleeding continued after a while.
One day I had a revelation, "Why am I taking these baby asperin the doctor told me to take for possible heart health, while I have intestinal bleeding??" Within two days of stopping the asperin, the bleeding and pain stopped and has not returned, two years later. All the doctors I consulted knew I was taking the asperin but none of four doctors could figure out that I should not take it. Stopping it could have saved me a lot of pain for a long time. Astounding!!
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
Can you say Malpractice? I'd be reaming them a new one if they had done that to me. First they poke a hole in your intestine and then they have to give you an operation that probably would have been unnecessary if they had taken you off aspirin? Not to mention that the enlargement of the sphincter can cause unpleasant and embarrassing incontinence problems later on. I'd get a good lawyer and sue. What have you got to lose?
Music is a magic elixir. It renews the spirit and fills the soul with joy
ParkerYoungColtraneMcLeanRollinsGordonGriffinGonsalvesHendersonErvinDolphyKirkLacy
McPhersonHandyHawkinsSheppMarianoRichardsonSandersG.AdamsBergSpauldingShorter
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
I'd be really curious to hear what sort of treatment you had for a T2 (with positive lymph nodes ?!?) that did not involve surgery.
Re: Colonoscopy: all you need to know and were afraid to ask
It was Concurrent Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy, which is the standard protocol for the type of tumor I had. No infiltration to the lymph nodes was seen.
Music is a magic elixir. It renews the spirit and fills the soul with joy
ParkerYoungColtraneMcLeanRollinsGordonGriffinGonsalvesHendersonErvinDolphyKirkLacy
McPhersonHandyHawkinsSheppMarianoRichardsonSandersG.AdamsBergSpauldingShorter
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