[October-1881]

This is all very funny but also very serious. I was told by my doctor several times to have a colonoscopy and kept putting it off. My mother had colon cancer and so finally, at 58 years old (8 years after the recommended age) I reluctantly had it done. Don't let anyone tell you the prep is fun. The stuff you have to drink is wretching and you're going to poop until everything turns to water. The actual test is a real no brainer. The drugs are great and it's over in no time. Anyway, when I got back to the little recovery area they told me I had several polyps and they removed what they could and tattooed the other two so they could locate them for future surgery. The news wasn't good but I went ahead thinking I didn't need to worry. I was very wrong! I was called into meet a surgeon and he told me he was going to have to operate and remove 1/3 of my colon. It's called a "Right Colon Resection" and they took out a lot of stuff including my appendex and lymph nodes. The surgery was done loproscopicly and I was out of the hospital in 4 days. The stuff they took out was (2) stage 2 cancers and I was very lucky. The surgeon said I didn't have to worry about anything and without 1/3 of my colon, I'd never miss it. He was right and I've since had 2 follow up colonoscopies and the latest one they found another polyp. They removed it and it was benign. While talking to my doctor last week, he assured me I'd never die of colon cancer because they will do follow up colonoscopies every 3-5 years now and they can keep ahead of any dangerous polyps developing. Colon cancer is called the silent killer and if I'd had the colonoscopy when I should have, who knows, maybe I would have avoided the surgery. Oh yeah, and another thing, since I had a cancer, I now have to be in the high risk state health insurance program and pay I $ 6,000.00/year for $ 5.000.00 deductable. Bottom line, if you're 50 years old, have it done...Please, for your families sake.