<p>I know this is a parents forum but I saw the title and it caught my eye. I’m a teenager and I had one when I was 12. The worst part was not being able to eat. The procedure wasn’t bad I was asleep the whole time. I was pretty doped up after, but it wasn’t so bad. Definitely do it because my crohn’s disease was caught, and I get proper medicine now.</p>
<p>The only funny reaction I had was literally as I was waking up, I apparently insisted on shaking the nurses hand and thanking her for helping me. That was before I remembered where I was and before they’d given me my glasses back, so I couldn’t even see anything. Then I was normal for the rest of the day, albeit hideously cranky. Am amused that while some resort to lewd jokes, I become exceedingly polite. </p>
<p>I had a choice of a few facilities with the doctor I was going to have doing the procedure depending on what kind of sedation I wanted-- I was pretty insistent that I wanted to be as out as possible or else I would refuse the procedure. I do think I may have been more loopy before the procedure from the sleep deprivation and dehydration, to be honest. I believe I threatened the anesthesiologist, and offered to insert my own IV because the nurse was “effing it up.” Ah, well. The staff in those facilities have a pretty good sense of humor.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Days??? I haven’t heard of anyone who has had to take stuff for days before the procedure. Everyone here has pretty much talked about a prep that happens for about 1/2 day, prior to the procedure. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And I have heard of many, many, many more people getting colon cancer.</p>
<p>andybatts, glad you did it, glad they diagnosed you, and glad you’re getting the proper medication. GI problems can be miserable. I assume you continue to have this test from time to time.</p>
<p>@VeryHappy I haven’t had one since, but I am due for one very soon.</p>
<p>I will never brave one. My question is, say you are OK, but start developing desease in 2 weeks after colonoscopy (for the sake of example). Then you due in one year, would not it be too late anyway. And then I have another question, how about all other organs, pancreas, liver, bladder. Person that I knew very well has just died of liver cancer at 58. He was diagnosed only because he saw MD for yellowish skin, no other symptoms. It was in-operable, he was gone fast. Colonoscopy would have not saved him and I imagine that he was up to date with all procedures, since she had regular doc’s visits for his diabetese which has been under control. Boo!!! I cannot get over this one, such a nice person!!</p>
<p>What does colonoscopy have to do with liver cancer?
If you have a clear reading, you don’t need to have another for 10 YEARS! Why anyone over 50 would not get this done is beyond me. It’s just negligent.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So I guess you don’t bother with mammograms because you could start developing breast cancer 2 weeks after the mammo. Then next year at your next mammo you’ve already got cancer. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What’s your point - that he shouldn’t have gone to the doctor? </p>
<p>MOWC is right. Avoiding a potentially life-saving procedure out of fear or ignorance is negligent.</p>
<p>For MiamiDap, Floridadad55, and the others who have rationalizations for why they won’t do it. You sound like my dad. He died of colon cancer. I’d give anything to have him here to see his grandchildren. Just do it.</p>
<p>I don’t have any rationalizations, I’m just procrastinating; a different (but maybe equally irrational) defense mechanism entirely! </p>
<p>A few of the last posts are making me rethink being on the irrational side.</p>
<p>Note to self; I am better motivated to avoid “crazy” behavior than I am to adopt “sane” behavior.</p>
<p>We all postpone doing things that are slightly unpleasant but that we know we should do – getting an annual physical, starting an exercise program, getting a colonoscopy. What’s so wonderful about this thread is that almost everyone has said, “Well, I did it; it wasn’t fun; but it wasn’t horrible; and now I know I’m OK!”</p>
<p>I mean, really – andybatts did this as a 12-year-old and is going to do it again soon. How bad could it really be??</p>
<p>The actual procedure is truly not a big deal, and you feel great when you can check off that particular rite of passage into late middle age. But if you can’t get past the idea of the scope, or don’t want to be sedated, look into virtual colonoscopy (done via CT scan). You still have to do the prep, and if a polyp is detected you’ll then have to have an actual colonoscopy to have the polyp removed. But if you know you’ve got polyps, that’s probably enough incentive to put up with it. Not all insurances cover this option (Medicare does not).</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, condolences on the loss of your friend. Surely you realize that no medical procedure guarantees a long life. Colonoscopies, like mammograms, do not PREVENT disease, they aid in detecting disease early, when it’s most effectively treated. I don’t see the logic in refusing a test because you might develop another disease - even the same one - within a short time of having the procedure. The two points don’t connect.</p>
<p>
Miamidap: </p>
<p>Colon cancer is normally a very slow growing cancer and is usually preceded by pre-cancerous growths that eventually turn cancerous. This is why the screening is so effective - they can detect the growths, remove them, and therefore they don’t turn cancerous. They can usually do this within the timeframes - i.e. if you’re clear and have no history then it’s 10 years (maybe) to the next screening. It really is effective. However, if one waits until after the growths turned cancerous then they have much larger issues, it spreads, and in many cases it’s fatal.</p>
<p>It’s irrational to not have the test done.</p>
<p>
Here’s one way to look at it - </p>
<ul>
<li>Do you think you’ll ever do it - just that you’re putting it off - you’ll do it ‘later’?</li>
<li>If the answer to the above is ‘yes’ then you know you should just go ahead and do it now then since you’ll go through the procedure regardless, i.e. you’re not saving any discomfort/hassles by putting it off, and if you do it now you have a better chance of catching any problems earlier and avoiding major issues if you wait and those issues involve procedures that make a colonoscopy look like a walk in the park.</li>
</ul>
<p>Most of the posters here who have had it done, including me, probably weren’t looking forward to having it done either but we finally bit the bullet (or rather, drank the prep!) and went ahead and had it done. Most of us are probably quite happy in retrospect we had it done either for the peace of mind if it turned out clear or for even more peace of mind and relief if polyps were found and removed.</p>
<p>^Meh. </p>
<p>Of course you are right, and I will read what you said later, after work, and see if I am inspired. But in my own defense, in the last several months I HAVE checked off two mammograms, an ultra sound, two biopsies, and various dental procedures and consultations. I have about three more “maintainance” items on my list. This one requires “prep”, and both H and I having a day off, which can include canceling and rescheduling patients to make it happen. </p>
<p>Instead of a vacation.</p>
<p>It should be easier with my newly emptied nest.</p>
<p>I procrastinated because I truly didn’t worry about colon cancer. No one in my family has had it and it just didn’t seem like a big deal. MIL at 79 had her first colonoscopy and colon cancer surgery. H spent a week with his parents and even then she was still in the hospital when he came back home. Her surgery was successful and she did not need chemo afterward but it made H schedule his procedure and nag me until I scheduled mine. And I love him for it!</p>
<p>And it was ever so much easier to do with an empty nest! No one was rolling their eyes.</p>
<p>Shrinkrap - yes, health maintenance gets to be more of an inconvenience as we get older! Your recent plethora of appointments sort of sounds like mine. Still don’t think the dental thing is over with.</p>
<p>This is for everyone… as some of you may know, I recently worked in the hospice health care. I can not tell you the number of families I worked with who were angry with their loved ones for not getting all these screening tests that are so readily available to the majority of people. I would say colonoscopies and mammograms were the two most neglected tests that could have had the most impact on their loved one’s longevity. If you don’t care about getting breast or colon cancer at age 65 (or younger) and causing unnecessary grief and anger for your family for preventing something that could have easily been caught much earlier, then don’t get it. But if you do get these cancers, they are advanced and you are on your death bed and your loved ones are angry with you, I hope somehow you can find peace within yourself for putting them through this. If you don’t think it can happen to you, then you are completely in denial. This kind of health care neglect creates so much angst among family members that often cannot be resolved before someone’s death, because by the time the illness is found, it is so advanced there is no time to resolve things.</p>
<p>Two years ago, my own sister-in-law died at age 57 from cancer. You know what? My brother doesn’t know what kind, because by the time she was diagnosed, it was spread throughout her body, and there just wasn’t much to be done. They never even located the origin. She lasted three months after diagnosis. After she died was when I found out she never went to a doctor - never had annual gyne appointments, never had a mammogram (they never had children so she never had a gynecologist to begin with), never anything, until she started losing weight and her co-workers finally guilted her into going. So at 58 years old, my brother was a widow, with no children (oh, and their dog died three weeks before my SIL) because she wouldn’t go to a doctor or have any routine screenings done. </p>
<p>Every time you even remotely think about rejecting the idea of routine screening, I hope you are reminded of how incredibly guilty you’re going to feel if you have to watch your family go through something like this. It’s an incredibly selfish thing to do.</p>
<p>Yes, I’m pretty good about my screenings, etc. Does it guarantee that next month I’m not going to find out that I have some sort of cancer, or other terminal illness (ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, etc.)? No, but it sure puts the odds in my favor. And my family can never be devastated that I got some horrible disease because of my own selfishness. I do it because I don’t want to put my family through the trauma and chaos of some of these horrible diseases.</p>
<p>^ Good post. My mom, and I think two of her sisters (she had nine) died of breast cancer in spite of screenings. My mom when she was 65. I used to think that was old. With the relapse, she refused desperate measures, and I supported that. She was an RN, me an MD. She admitted “lamenting”, but I hope there wasn’t too much guilt. I did not think she was being selfish.</p>
<p>I"m pretty good about breast cancer stuff; I really want to beat those odds.</p>
<p>Shrinkrap - so was your mom initially treated for breast cancer and went into remission? Then she had a relapse?</p>
<p>I have no issue with anyone who chooses not to pursue aggressive treatment. But if the only reason they have an advanced form of the disease is because they never had a screening that is standard practice, then, that I have a problem with. All I’m saying is it is very, very difficult for family members whose loved ones ignored all recommendations for screenings, and come down with a disease. There’s a lot of conflict… family members are angry, but most often, won’t express because then they feel guilty for being angry at someone who is dying (what they do do is express it to others around them, especially hospice workers when they are brought in to provide support).</p>
<p>My dad had lung cancer, but had been a smoker until the final twelve years of his life or so. He had a history of melanoma (which is why I screen with the dermatologist every six months) also, but since they lived in Houston and had access to M.D. Anderson, he was followed pretty closely and it wasn’t all that inconvenient to do so. He had a lung x-ray in April of 2001, which was clear, but by the beginning of August he had lung cancer which had advanced so quickly that it had already spread to his brain. He died in November after choosing no treatment, other than to shrink some tumors in his brain which were causing seizures in his hand. Had he not agreed to screenings by the dermatologist after his initial scare with skin cancer (before he had the melanoma), he likely would have died of melanoma years before the lung cancer got him. I realize skin screenings are a lot less intrusive (well, depending on how you feel about standing naked in front of a doctor and having them examine every inch of your body) than a colonoscopy, but it’s still an example of ways we can be proactive with our health, and know we did what was recommended and best practices. I don’t think our families will fault us for that. We certainly did not blame our dad for the lung cancer being undetected (as it was obviously a rapidly growing form, probably small cell lung cancer), or for him choosing not to pursue any treatment (he was 83 years old when he died).</p>
<p>“Shrinkrap - so was your mom initially treated for breast cancer and went into remission? Then she had a relapse?”</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>I also had an aunt die from asthma. Yikes! About 70 years old. I spoke to her on the phone the night before, and KNEW it was bad. Told her to go to ER NOW!</p>
<p>From asthma. Yikes</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.aafa.org/display.cfm?id=9&sub=42[/url]”>http://www.aafa.org/display.cfm?id=9&sub=42</a></p>