Advice from Joe Harris.....

[GAHorn]

I started to place an "OT" in the subject line of this thread, but decided ...IT'S NOT OFF TOPIC!
Our departed friend Joe Harris was adamant about telling everyone to GET A COLONOSCOPY, and get it NOW! The angriest I ever saw him was a month after he'd given me that advice and he found out during a visit shortly before he died that I'd still not acted upon that advice.
"You PROMISED!", he scolded me.

I wanted to remind everyone to do it. And to help you get beyond the imaginary distaste of the examination, here's a little performance sponsored by the doctors who perform such examinations.
Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N0w2rORwSc

(And please don't forget the educational-assistance fund we've got for his daughter Megan. Contributions are always welcome and appreciated. PM or email either myself or Frank Stephenson, aka "Ol Pokey"...username: 170C .)

[W.J.Langholz]

Some of you have caught on to my sense of humor........last year as I lay in waiting for this proceedure the nurse came by and said "How are we feeling today" ......instantly my smart a## remark back was "I don't know about the WE part, but I do know you have taped a 4 D cell flashlite to a broom handle and are just about ready to stick it up my butt to take a look see, how do you expect me to feel." Just then the nice gas they give you took effect and I went night night.....can't remember a darn thing
Somethings are all in the head..... it's a good thing to get done and today is the day, thanks George for the reminder. Planes are important on this forum but "friendships are what's left when we get to old to fly"


W.

[jrenwick]

Good advice and a cute video, George! My first colonoscopy was two years ago, and a friend had told me it would not be a walk in the park. The nurse who prepped me said it would not be as uncomfortable as I feared, because the newest equipment is only about 3/8" diameter and extremely flexible. Then she stuck an IV in a vein and shot me with a couple of drugs. I didn't really notice any effect from them. I was fully awake during the procedure, and watched the whole thing on video. It took about 15 minutes, I think. The doc found one polyp, snipped it and retrieved it, and I couldn't feel any of that.

Now, be kind to me here people, please: when it was over, I had this weird feeling like "jeez, is it over already? I was enjoying that!" WTF????!!!! I was embarrassed to tell anyone about that until I remembered the drugs. Damn, they must've been gooooooddddd!!!!!

My point is, don't be afraid to do this -- it might even be interesting and fun!

John

[Dward]

I’m 48 yrs old and going to get my first one later this year. I had always been told to wait till I turned 50 but a 50 year old friend of mine just found out he has colon cancer. At his urging I decided to get a colonoscopy. Now this post has sealed that intention. Thanks Joe!

[johneeb]

Having done this a three of times, the extras were followups after discovery of a pollip during the first exam, I can agree it is painless and reassuring to know that something is not sneaking up on me. Take a read on a Dave Berry Column that covers the motivation and the procedure with some humor.

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/colum ... 27603.html

[Kyle Wolfe]

Good one George!

I recently thought of Joe as I turned 50 and scheduled the exam. Wasn't any big deal. Just some distasteful junk to drink.

I had also scheduled an endoscopy for the Dr. to examine my upper end as well. As I'm getting the gas I jokingly asked the Dr. if they use the same scope. He replied "Yes, but we'll at least wipe it off before reusing it!" That's the last I recall.

Anyway, one minor polyp removed and good for 3 years. Thank you Joe!

[n2582d]

I've got mine scheduled for the end of this month. It'll be the one time my wife will be wrong in saying that I'm full of s**t. She had her colonoscopy done last year. The doctor found that she had Crohn's disease. The worst part of the procedure for her was prepping for it the day before.

[GAHorn]

I found that if I used COLD water to mix that salty-drink...and then....using a soda-straw...place the straw near the back of the tongue to drink it, and take long drinks and swallow it without stopping until the drink is consumed....that the taste is not so offensive. This is because you have virtually no taste-buds at the back of your tongue and mouth.

[170C]

Wished I would have tried your method George. Drinking that 2 liters or so, felt like 2 gallons and it was not a pleasant drink. I had a lime flavor The next time I tried to find a doctor who would let me use the small bottle of laxative that my wife and seveal friends had used, but no such luck.. I did end up (no pun intended ) with about 28 tablets that were very salty, but I could swallow them 2 at a time with Gator Aide and it wasn't so bad. And those tablets DID work as intended. Just hope I can use the same method next time which must be coming up pretty soon. 2 polups each time, but thankfully all have been benine.

[GAHorn]

Here's a statistic that shocked me about this subject:
By age 40...40% of the population will have polyps.
By age 50...50% will have them.
By age 60....60%.... (easy relationship to remember, right?)

But get this..... ONE HUNDRED PERCENT .... of ALL POLYPS....left alone....WILL BECOME CANCER!
NO EXCEPTIONS!

Reader: What is YOUR age? How are YOUR polyps growing?

[170C]

I had never heard that 100% of polups would become cancerous, but now I have read that while the type of polups some of us have had are easily removed, there are apparently some that don't really extent out from the colon wall and are a small growth that is very difficult to see and next to impossible to remove in the same way the other ones we know about are removed. (would likely require surgery.) Scary business! Don't know if its our lifestyle, foods we eat or just what is causing them. Maybe MAN has always had them?

[KG]

Interesting timing for this post .... I hit the ripe old age of 50 about a week ago. Due in part to previous discussions here regarding Joe's advice, I had already planned to make my appointment. I'll be making the appointment this week...... Keith

[GAHorn]

... Don't know if its our lifestyle, foods we eat or just what is causing them. Maybe MAN has always had them?

Hydrogenated vegetable oils and lots of other processed foods are now in our everyday-diet that did not exist 100 years ago. Yes, butter is fattening. But...your body KNOWS what to do with it. It has difficulty dealing with margarine, some of which coagulates in the digestive tract. Same thing about Lard versus Crisco. Although our parents/grand-parents were told (by the corporations who make the stuff) that margarine/Crisco is better for our weight.... there was no long-term information about how our bodies would process the stuff. Excess butter and lard ...natural/organic stuff... is stored as fat. Which, of course, has it's own drawbacks in weight-gain. But , at least your body knows what to do with it. (And stuff sure tastes a lot better with butter and lard. (Jamie recently took my advice and made a pie with lard instead of Crisco. The flaky pie-crusts of our grandmother's pies came back into our lives. Yeaaaayyyyy!) Margarine and hydrogenated oils/fats remain in our tracts much longer because they cannot be efficiently dealt with.

There are many other such examples. We've converted over as much as feasible to organic foods. But I digress from the real topic of this thread....sorry....

[bsdunek]

I've got mine scheduled for the end of this month. It'll be the one time my wife will be wrong in saying that I'm full of s**t. She had her colonoscopy done last year. The doctor found that she had Crohn's disease. The worst part of the procedure for her was prepping for it the day before.

Yes, that is the worst part - stay close to the restroom! The other bad part was that my Wife took me to a great breakfast aftetwards, and I don't remember enjoying it, as I was still woozy from the drugs. She sait I really chowed down, so I guess I did.

[Luvjet]

I just had my first one this month. Three years ago this summer I bought back my plane after being gone for 30 years from an anesthesiologist. Right before they put me under , I asked the Dr. if he knew the previous owner who I bought the plane from. The anesthesiologist, doctor doing the check, and myself were all three talking Cessna 170's. The next thing I knew it was over. I wish that stuff they give you was available at CVS!