Sunday, July 5, 2009

Another reason to get your colonoscopy

Another friend with colon cancer, over at the Sexual Embodiment blog. Amy doesn't overstate the case, but provides a direct sort of explanation of the consequences of colon cancer, which I hope you will compare and contrast with the "discomfort" that many people have with colonoscopies.... and then go get your colonoscopy! If you want to try and manage it without conscious sedation like Versed, I'm all for you having that choice as an informed choice (as I've made clear here), but in either case colonoscopies are far less of a hassle than colon cancer.

Go get yours!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Roxanne said...

Hi.. It's a nice blog here. Thanks a lot for sharing it.

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Jody said...

Had my first colonoscopy this morning. I can't tell you how much I was dreading this procedure and a couple of times the day before I thought I couldn't go through with it. Common sense prevailed - this is probably one of the best early cancer screening tests available.

The prep was nowhere near as awful as I had been told. My last solid food was yesterday at 9 AM. At 2 PM I took the two biscodyl pills and mixed the halflytely solution with just water. I chilled the solution and started drinking it at 5 PM. The halflytely tasted salty and nourishing (my hnuger diminished). I sat on the toilet awhile with some reading material. I went to sleep @9:30 PM, got up once or twice to go to the bathroom and sip a little water. Then at 6 AM had another watery BM.

The procedure was at a hospital a five minute walk from my home. After completing the paperwork and changing into a gown, the nurses hooked me up to a monitoring system and started a saline IV. The IV made me feel better hydrated. The doctor came by and wheeled the gurney into the procedure room. She was very nice. I was so nervous my heart rate was @135! I told her about my concern regarding sedation and my willingness to start the procedure without it. She understood that control was a greater concern for me than fear of pain. So she agreed. There was not much pain other than a few intense bursts. I wasn't sure whether to opt for the pain med when I first encountered it, but the pain subsided pretty quickly. Plus the nurse was very comforting, even holding my hand. The whole procedure was over within 20 minutes. I experienced maybe a total of 4 minutes of pain.

I spent about 15 minutes in the recovery area and sipped some apple juice. Then met my husband in the waiting room and walked to the cafe & gym for a light breakfast and coffee. After going to the bathroom to pass some gas, did about 25 minutes on the elliptical.

Please don't forego having this procedure because of fear of the prep, pain or sedation. There's nothing to be scared of. My sister had this done with some mild sedative and felt fine afterward too.

Anonymous said...

For more information on colonoscopy

Anonymous said...

For more information on colonoscopy visit www.colonoscopy.org

Unknown said...
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Diana said...

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