>> I URGE EVERYONE OVER 40 TO HAVE A COLONOSCOPY EVERY 5 YEARS AT A MINIMUM. DO NOT DELAY. DO IT NOW. <<
Couldn't agree more. Physicians not only recommend this, I understand, but they actually go through this themselves pretty religiously.
Colon cancer is, in effect, pretty cooperative with a cure, as it is both more easily detected and more easily cured than most other cancers. The cancer develops in isolation, in the polyps growing inside the colon, and develops slowly for a considerable time before it spreads.
That means that it is nearly always easily found and easily dealt with, merely by snipping out the polyps before the cancer spreads down the polyp stem to the colon wall -- but you find it only if you look for it, with a colonoscopy (not just a sigmoidoscopy, which inspects only the lower third or so of the colon). The consequences, if you don’t look for it and don’t find it, are extremely nasty, as you described.
This mild inconvenience balanced against the awful consequences of not doing it -- really a no-brainer.
>>The procedure itself is not too bad. <<
Agreed. Not everyone has the unpleasant experience Tomato described -- I believe only a small minority do. (The concern before your first one, about that particular intrusion, is a bigger obstacle for many people, I think.)
I've had three, with a valium IV, without problem, essentially without pain. The liquid prep is unpleasant, and INKP’s pills will surely be a significant improvement. The colonoscope injects some air into the colon, balooning it for better vision, and the worst bit, in my experience, is some mild cramping in the 6-8 hours after, as you eliminate that extra air in the colon. No big thing.
Partly as a result of the above experiences, and with the sense that more and more people will be having these procedures, I’ve held some INKP for a while, from about 4 (not a big position, but more than a “smidge”), and expect to hold for a while.
--RCM |
