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</p>
<p>I should also add that sometimes people, with an advanced and incurable disease, pursue treatment only to appease their family members and I don’t necessarily agree with that either. Once someone has reached their limit and no longer feels they have the physical and emotional resources to fight something, they should make the call. And family members should accept it, and respect it.</p>
<p>Re empty nest: EN might be a good time for some to get the colonoscopy (no rolling eyes!). I didn’t even think about that aspect, and had it done while D was at home. That turned out to be convenient; it was much easier for her to reschedule work than it would have been for DH, so she was my ride, to and from. We had fun, of a sort (she enjoyed laughing at my loopiness on the ride home. 
). She helped with prep by making jello, and she was the one who suggested making “soup” from veggie broth cubes, which was the tastiest thing I ingested that day.</p>
<p>Best of all, when it’s her turn 30 years from now, she will have seen first-hand that it’s not that big a deal.</p>
<p>My DH put off having his colonoscopy. By the time he finially did it, he had cancer. A cancer that could have been prevented because they would have found his polyp at the precancerous stage!. I cannot describe the suffering he endured during his treatment for cancer and the emotional toll it took on him and our children. He is fine now, 4 years later, though every year when he has a CT scan to see if it has spread to his liver, I have to do my meditation and calming techniques.</p>
<p>Every single day since his diagnosis, my DH has said “WHY? Why didn’t I do this *&@# test?!” He has beat himself up over this so many times-and said over and over that the inconvenience of the prep and procedure are a NON issue in comparison to the pain and discomfort of cancer surgery, radiation, and 6 full months of IV chemo. </p>
<p>I’m amazed at how otherwise educated individuals can be so obtuse.</p>
<p>" you have a clear reading, you don’t need to have another for 10 YEARS!"</p>
<p>-Wow. So, say you are OK, and it 2 weeks you start developing desease. So, what this clear reading means? </p>
<p>"It’s irrational to not have the test done. "</p>
<p>-so how it detects other cancers?<br>
And not everybody can do mammograms. How about jamming male’s…, doesn’t it hurt? Does anybody know that jamming females breasts might hurt just as much if not more? Some of us are much more sensitive than others or possible have condition that makes us sensitive. </p>
<p>My suggestion is to slice up whole body, check all tissues and put it back together. </p>
<p>For all the brave and pain tolerant people, I say go ahead and do whatever you feel like doing, it is your body. I have to wait until they develop more general and less intrusive/hurting tests to detect the cancer in any part of the body. I might leave this place earlier, I know, and most likely the cause will be diabetese, which I do not have yet. However, everybody in my family has died from it, it is inevitable, horrible desease that eats up your entire body and you cannot fight infections and die…</p>
<p>Miami, what you’re saying makes no sense to me. No one has claimed that colonoscopy detects other cancers. Colon cancer is common AND easily treated in its earliest stages. And NOTHING will guarantee you a long life free of disease. Certainly avoiding routine screenings cannot possibly extend your life or limit any suffering if you do develop a serious illness.</p>
<p>A mammogram presents maybe 60 seconds of discomfort. Even if you’re unusually sensitive, how is that 60 seconds not worth knowing when/if it’s time to begin cancer treatment?</p>
<p>I hope you beat your family’s odds and don’t develop diabetes. Are you screened for it routinely? There’s a small amount of discomfort associated with that, too. But in your case, isn’t it worth doing? Do I remember that your daughter is a med or pre-med student? What does she think about your reluctance?</p>
<p>^I do sugar test very often as well as BP, my weight/height. I do it all in a comfort of my home. I have all devices. Everybody should do this and make sure that all within normal range and your height is not gong down. If we all do that, we will get rid of 80% of health cost. Other tests will not do it, they are much more rare than diabetese, hypertension, heart desease and actually most cases of cancers - all related to excessive weight and osteoporosis related to sedentary life and neglect for the need of exercise on a daily basis. Do not underestimate the need to often measure your blood sugar, BP, weight and height, you are much more in control with these than anything else. Yes, it is possible to keep them all normal if you maintain normal weight and exercise.</p>
<p>Wow. Just Wow. Just when I thought I’d heard it all…</p>
<p>BTW, I do not discuss any of my health concerns with my D. who is a Medical student. The only thing I do in regard to other family members is bang over their head over and over that our family is affected by diabetese and they better take care of themselves. This includes my 10 years old grandson, everybody, even people who already have the darn desease, they sometime can reverse it.</p>
<p>However, going to original topic, I do not care what other people do, if they feel like it, why not? it is their body, we all have different feelings about it and difference pain and discomfort tolerance. Others’ people experiences have very little to do with the next person experience.</p>
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<p>You obviously DO, or you would not be banging their heads over diabetes. By your logic, if someone in your family does not get tested, then, it’s OK if they feel like it. Then why bang their head? My daughter has a horrible fear of needles - she has a prescription for a numbing cream she can apply for when she gets shots. So anything with needles is a fairly traumatic event for her, but you know what? She does it anyway. She sucks it up and gets through it, no matter how miserable it may temporarily make her. </p>
<p>Do what you want. But be prepared that your loved ones may be very angry with you if you develop a cancer that could have very easily been prevented with a diagnostic test. If you get one of these diseases, you will not live in a bubble. Other people in your life will be majorly impacted, even if it is treatable. You seem to have no concerns about what you might put other people through. Wow… agree with you MOWC.</p>
<p>"You obviously DO, or you would not be banging their heads over diabetes. "</p>
<p>-members of my family, not other people, although I am paying for others in higher health care costs. I cannot do anything about it. I am very angry with anybody who has developed very preventable deseases. So, please, take care of yourself, do not overlook forest behind couple trees, but at the end it is your body and you have your own family too.</p>
<p>It’s not an either/or situation. </p>
<p>I have to be very diligent about melanoma because of family history. It doesn’t mean I don’t also take care of other routine screenings that are available to me that have been shown to increase my chances of finding the disease at a very treatable stage!</p>
<p>No one is saying people should ignore their health. I think Nrdsb4 gave the best example yet of exactly WHY something so routine shouldn’t be ignored. My bet, if you ask her, is that she’d easily have forked over the cash out of hand (not that money was the reason her H delayed getting the test) for him to get that test earlier. </p>
<p>Again, you seem to have no clue about how angry your loved ones (family) could potentially be if your reluctance to prevent a highly treatable illness (other than diabetes) incapacitates you or kills you at a young age. I’ve seen it in my work many, many times. It’s certainly not how I want to leave this earth, knowing the grief I’ve inflicted on my family due to my own selfishness.</p>
<p>^You do not need to spend time worrying about me. I am very old, I am exactly as old as my mother when she died…yes, of diabetese. Everybody dies sooner or later, no test will prevent it. Death is part of life. And, although nothing is guaranteed, I am in better health than some other younger memebers of my family, they will not be angry with me. They know that I am taking many times better care of myself than vast majority of other people, including members of my family.</p>
<p>
MiamiDAP:
You might want to educate yourself on the disease of colon cancer and the method and effectiveness of the colonoscopy because you clearly don’t understand how it works.</p>
<p>A couple of data points -
<p>When I said ‘clear reading’ I meant when they do the examination and find that there are no growths. In that case they know that due to the slow growing nature of the growths they don’t need to do another examination for another 10 years (or 5 years or shorter depending on if they’ve found growths in the past and family history).</p>
<p>Your hypothetical case of ‘what if the disease starts 2 weeks after the exam’ simply rarely would happen with this type of cancer due to the reasons I mentioned above.</p>
<p>
That’s the point another poster stated in support of having preventable disease such as colon cancer prevented through the means of screening. </p>
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Sure but most of us would prefer it to be ‘later’ and tests, such as the colonoscopy, breast exam, skin exam, and others can certainly make the death ‘later’ rather than sooner. </p>
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That’s good but it won’t necessarily prevent you from getting some of these diseases. Just as some people make sure they eat right, exercise, etc. to help prolong their life and well-being, some of these exams should be part of the equation.</p>
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<p>And I can guarantee you if you do not get the screening and you aren’t diagnosed until you have symptoms and it has spread, you may be forced to life on this earth that is pretty miserable even though death won’t come for many years later. And again, I state, you do not live in a bubble. Who is going to take care of you? Who is going to hold your head while you throw up in the toilet from chemo? Who is going to make sure you have enough salve to put on your skin when it is raw from radiation? Who is going to get you to doctor’s appointments when you’re too weak to drive? Who’s going to make sure your medications are all refilled when needed? Who will study, peer over, double check, spend endless hours on the phone with your insurance company over bills coming in every day? You cannot do this alone. You will need someone to do all this for you, and it will be an intrusion on their lives… an intrusion that could have been easily avoided if you’d just had the test done (insert any diagnostic test here). </p>
<p>I’m glad ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad mentioned the slow growing nature of colon cancer. I was watching one of Dr. Oz’s repeat shows last week where they mentioned this. They can catch pre-cancerous growths before they require aggressive treatment. Why not take advantage of this? Heck, I can’t tell you how many moles I’ve had removed by my dermatologist in order that they not turn into skin cancer. He doesn’t wait until the mole/lesion is obviously cancer before he removes it.</p>
<p>"Who is going to take care of you? "
-The same people who are taking care of 80% of the sick with very preventable diseases that I am paying for ring now. You definitely do not see the forest behind couple of threes. People like me do not create problem, people who do not take care of themselves do. Do you really think that colonoscopy will help one who is 300 lb, does not exercise? Well, maybe I have a bit too much education in this area, I kind of wish that I was not as much educated there, it will safe me lots of worries. But I keep telling myself that I cannot force others. Maybe you should the same? Just keep cool, enjoy your day as every day in my life is a bonus from my prospective, my mother was dead at my age.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP:</p>
<p>You seem to be taking some offense to these posts. No one here can ‘force’ you to do anything. We’re just on a public forum discussing a topic and stating some facts and opinions. If you choose to not be screened for this disease or any other disease that’s obviously your choice. </p>
<p>
Yes, I do think it’d help in some cases. Maybe they’ll die at age 65 due to the obesity but the cancer might have killed them 10 years earlier. Or maybe it’d work the other way but just because some person weighs 300 pounds and doesn’t exercise doesn’t prevent ME from getting the disease.</p>
<p>I don’t understand your logic on this one.</p>
<p>Miami- I suppose you don’t wear a seatbelt, either. I really don’t think I have seen such distorted logic on this entire site before this- and that’s saying something! </p>
<p>As you know (Miami) I am a competitive athlete. I am probably in the top .5% of the population in terms of “taking care of myself” in terms of diet and fitness. However, I would never skip a mammogram, colonoscopy or even a flu shot. I, too, have a fear of needles, and for me the IV was the worst part of the colonoscopy.</p>
<p>My hope is that you will learn from this thread and realize that you are totally wrong. Maybe we can save your life and help your family. It brings to mind the thread a few years ago where the young man was arguing, basically, in favor of college binge drinking. I believe he died the next weekend.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, your post made me so sad. I wrote one of the first responses on this thread. My colonoscopy was not bad at all. Honest! I would be happy to pass along the doctor’s name. His wife is my primary care physician, and I really like her, too. Heck, I would be happy to drive you to and from the procedure. That’s how important I think it is that you have one. Your D just started med school. She still needs you. Don’t you want to see her through it? My goal is to live longer than my mother and grandmother, even though my grandmother passed away at 101.</p>
<p>“Miami- I suppose you don’t wear a seatbelt, either.”
-first, it does not hurt to wear one, second it is a law in our state, I could be stopped adn ticketed. I have never, not a single time in my life driven without belt, it does not make sense,</p>
<p>“I would never skip a mammogram, colonoscopy or even a flu shot.”
-This is completely your choice, I would never have either. I did have few mammograms in my life, but I will never have a flu shot. I have different opinion about both. I respect yours though in connection to your own body, not in connection to mine.
I do not learn from other people, I only learn from own experiences. I am very stubborn, nobody in my family will argu with me since I have been always correct, they know that, Maybe you can learn that too?</p>
<p>That’s pretty sad. Most of us learn a lot from others. It’s the nature of life. What I am learning from you is not that you are always correct, but that there are some issues that I am not going to address for fear of violating the TOS! I would say that I hope this all works out for you, but I wouldn’t really mean it.</p>