GET YOURSELF CHECKED!!!

Choking down the gallon of medicine for tomorrow's "procedure."
It is exactly as I thought.  Awful! Kind of taste like alka selzer without
the bubbles.  I feel like a goose on a wildlife refuge. 

Good for You..no, make that Great for You for following through on the "procedure"! Keep this thread alive! Hoping all goes well for You!

How often should we get checked. I did it around age 50. but thinking if it is time again.

Choking down the gallon of medicine for tomorrow's "procedure."
It is exactly as I thought.  Awful! Kind of taste like alka selzer without
the bubbles.  I feel like a goose on a wildlife refuge. 

Good for you! The purge is nasty, but worth the inconvenience. Hope it goes well for you.

Al

Aw yes, A$$ piss!  Stay close to the toilet.

Way to follow through Bob.

Been there done that.  You're doing the right thing. It is worth it!

It'll all be better sometime tomorrow.

Bushy

Worth is right Allen!  I can breath a sigh of relief and it is behind me for 5 years
now that there are no polyps or problems back there. 
I went in early because I have a colon cancer history in my family and my wife
would not leave me alone about checking.
The procedure was a synch and I walked out high as a kite! 
Zero pain.  Just hungry now and blowing off some gas.  No biggie. 

Becky has a friend whose wife has had a cold since December.
She's the very outdoors type; fishing, hunting, backpacking.
Three weeks ago they were pheasant hunting.
She went to see the Dr last week for her cold.
Cancer, two weeks to live. Probably won't make it through week two.
Definitely get yourself checked.

Damn.

Don't forget the ticker.

My family has a huge negative cardiac history. Dad was a 16 year quad bypass recipient, just about everyone on all sides of the family has an issue with the heart or vascular system. Then add in diabetes. Geesh just shoot me already.

Have had over the years, several episodes that had been diagnosed as untreated heart attacks. Finally had enough of the FUD factor, and with the new wife being so supportive, I went back to my regular MD and asked for a further set of tests.

Those started in November and lasted through early Dec. and included a stress test with dye and several other non invasive tests.

Finally after Christmas, the good news. I'd never had a heart attack, the muscle is clear and undamaged, the arteries are not clogged, and I just need to get off my fat ass, exercise, and change the diet to more healthy items.

So, down from 283 now to 274 and still dropping, increased activity, and will see where this goes.

Now, I gotta go get the inflatable butt plug test like the rest of us over 50..

Last thing, then to my corner;
Do Not be afraid to have cataract surgery. Its 45 mins of prep, 10 mins in the chair, you wear an eye patch for 8-10 hours, and your vision improves greatly. Sure you may still have a light corrective lens prescription, but it will be very mild. For those of us with decent health insurance, expect to come out of pocket for around 5-600 per eye, and the insurance picks up the rest, which is usually triple that. And do take the happy pill, its worth it.

Damn Tote. Tell Becky I'm sorry to hear about her friend.

Sorry to hear about Becky's friend.

Becky has a friend whose wife has had a cold since December.
She's the very outdoors type; fishing, hunting, backpacking.
Three weeks ago they were pheasant hunting.
She went to see the Dr last week for her cold.
Cancer, two weeks to live. Probably won't make it through week two.
Definitely get yourself checked.

Thats rough, sorry to hear it. Too bad there weren't other signs she would have noticed earlier.
Please give Becky a hug for Andie and I.

Al

BUMP!!!

If you are or nearing 50, if your bowel has changed its functional norms, if something feels different, go Get Checked!

Don't put it off.

Remembered this thread and thought it was a good idea to bring it back.

A couple of months ago my wife saw a small mole on the side of my chest and remarked that she hadn't noticed it before and that I should go to thd doctor and have it checked out.  I looked at itand was unimpressed.  It didn't look anything like the small melanoma (in situ) that I had removed 25 years ago.  Recently I looked at it and it seemed larger and darker so I went to the Dermatologist and had it removed.  The path report came back today as positive for melanoma with a mitotic figure.  It is staged as a T1b which is the second best rating but I will still need to have  surgery to remove a larger area around where the mole was to make sure it was clean and probably have a sentinal lymph node removed to make sure it hasn't gone there.
If I had it removed a couple of months ago I would probably be done with it now.  If I waited a couple of month more to have it removed the report would probably been much worse.

So as a reminder to you all, if you see anything new or suspicious,

GET YOURSELF CHECKED   GET YOURSELF CHEDKED

I could use a checkup, but I need health insurance 1st

Be strong, my friend that I have not had the pleasure of meeting or fishing with. Your bravery and message will be a livesaver for many of us. We just don't know it yet.
Thank you

A story I wrote after my first colonscopy 10 years ago. Maybe some can
relate.

                        The Tales of don Colonoscopy
Well, I did it. I gave myself a belated 50th birthday present by getting a colonoscopy screening. Personally, I think that everyone should, if not for themselves, but for their families. Colon cancer is a type of cancer that can be treated very effectively and has a very high cure rate. I didn’t get it for the reasons that you’ll read below, but rather for proactive health reasons. Granted, it’s 8 months after my birthday, but this isn’t something a person wants to rush into. But, on the other hand this isn’t something a person wants to avoid either, especially when colon cancer runs in the family. Fortunately, having gone through the entire process, I can say the only thing worse than the taste of the laxative that they have you to drink is the anxiety of the whole ordeal.
 
Yesterday I started the process by having to drink 12 oz of water every hour upon wakening until I had to take the laxative concoction. I’ve heard tales about the dreaded laxative, and none of them were good. It didn’t help when I went to get the laxative from the drug store and I asked the pharmacist a rather personal question. I asked her if it really tasted as bad as people made it out to be. She just smiled and replied, “worse.” Great, that really instills a lot confidence.

I tanked up on water to the point I thought I was going to float away. 3:00 came and I mixed up the dreaded potion, held my nose and jug-a-lug. Baaaaaaaaad, very baaaaaaad. The good news was that I could drink just about every clear liquid I wanted after I had taken the laxative. Water, juice, clear soup, …….. hmmm…..beer! “The doctor said, Dear, and you know how I like to follow directions!”

The bad news is that I tried just about every drinkable liquid in the house and I still couldn’t get rid of the taste. What made it worse was the attempt that the company makes to suppress the taste of whatever they put in the laxative. Lemon and ginger. To me, not a good combination. Why not something like chocolate mint or raspberry cream? No, it has to be lemon and ginger. With options like that getting this test done is going to be a pretty hard sell. But with choices like that I’m probably going to be buying a lot more bran cereal so I don’t have to have this test again.

After two hours with not a sense of well…., not a way to measure the effectiveness of this truly vile drink I was getting worried.  Well, not really worried, maybe just wondering how long that it would take to take effect. When it did start I was wondering something different, how long it would take to stop being so effective? I guess you really do have to be careful what you hope for.

Just when you think that things can’t get worse, they get worse. The directions call for a second helping of this wretched potion three hours prior to the anticipated voluntary physical abuse. So, 5:00 a.m. comes and I get up and chug down another dose, except this time I’m not supposed drink anything after taking this second dose. No, nothing to wash this vile taste out of my mouth until after the procedure is over. So, I couldn’t wait to get down to the hospital and get this dreaded procedure over with.

A lot of good that did. When I got there I found out that there were already 12 people (seriously) ahead of me doing the very same thing. My first thought was that, I wonder how many nurses call in sick on Mondays when these procedures are scheduled. What a way to start the week! Of course, it could be one of those ‘pecking order’ jobs at the hospital. You know, you have to work on the colonoscopy procedure team before you get that job in housekeeping. Now I understand why they have to run so many commercials on TV for nurses.

Soon, too soon, it was my turn to be violated. What I really found odd about the entire process was that from the time I walked into the hospital until I asked for my clothes I must have been asked for my birth date about 10 times, sometimes when the people were holding my forms in front of them. Being the curious person that I am I asked about that. Some kind of security thing. Yeh, right. Like someone is really going to try to pass themselves off as someone else just so they can get a colonoscopy? Why does everyone need to know my birth date? One side of me is saying, maybe they really don’t believe that I’m 50 years old. They probably think I’m only 40. Anyway, enough dreaming.

The last thing I remember was that the nurse asked me if I had any more questions… right after she asked me my birth date (I wonder what would have happened if I would have told her my birth date and been a day off).  It somewhat sounded like she was asking me if I had any sins I wanted to confess. I told them to feel free to be generous with the anesthesia and started to tell them a short story about when the dentist used laughing gas to put me out for a root canal. He had told me to count from 100 to 1 and so I explained to them about how far I had got.

100, 99, 98,…. “Sir,” here are your pants, as soon as you’re dressed, your ride is here. The doctor will call you in a few days with the results.” I have to believe something happened, but actually, I really don’t want to know.

The good news is I didn’t hear the doctor say, “Sir, would you please open your mouth, I think I may have gone too far.” The only thing worse would be to hear a second hand story of my all-too familiar process at the checkout counter at Safeway.