<p>ek, the husband of a dear friend of mine died a couple of years ago from colon cancer. He was the healthiest guy around: thin, ate a largely vegetarian diet, exercised, low cholesterol, low BP, no family history of the disease, etc. And yet he got it anyway. He lived for 10 years after the diagnosis (until his early 60’s), but succumbed in the end to a recurrence. So please get yourself a colonoscopy!</p>
<p>teriwitt - I did something similar to gag the stuff down. I just pinched my nose closed and chug-a–lugged. I couldn’t taste it at all.</p>
<p>Adding to what the last poster said, I eat a super healthy diet (no meat since age 17) and am at a normal weight, good exercise, the whole nine yards. Yet the doctor told me that clearly my giant polyp had been growing since I was in my 40s. And I have no family history of colon cancer as far as I know.</p>
<p>Mimk6 the last prep was a very concentrated liquid, followed by a lot of water. The prep for me is the whole process–I don’t want to get to graphic, but I can get so sick to my stomach that none of the prep stays down. The ice cube thing sounds helpful, I may try that next time. More than anything I rely on the excellent dr that I’ve been seeing for the last 20+ years. Talk to your dr, remind him that the prep is more than “common unpleasent” for you.<br>
As far as my dad goes, well he’s not your average 82 yr old. Since he was having some symptoms we needed to know what was going on…he really came through the whole thing easily. He just hated the prep. He is extremely physically active, regularly does several hours of yard work a day, etc.</p>
<p>I just had my first a few weeks ago. I am more than 6 yrs overdue, i.e. I’m in mid-fifties. There is a tremendous feeling of relief, given a clean bill of health, after getting it done. But even if I had to have polyps removed, I would feel better about having it taken care of.</p>
<p>I was told the worst part was the prep. Yes, it was lousy. I had to change my diet a week before the procedure. Essentially no fruits or vegetables, nuts. beans, whole wheat bread, etc. Basically opposite of my regular diet. Two days before, I had to go strictly liquid. And the day before, only clear liquids. The evening before, I had to drink the 64oz Gatorade concoction and take the pills. My trips to the john weren’t as bad as anticipated though, I quess because I really hadn’t eaten much for a few days.</p>
<p>I asked the doc why my prep (or theirs, depending on how you look at it) was so restrictive. She told me it was because they use to have many that were not clean enough to do the procedure. So people had to do it all again, but insurance would not pay unless a year passed.</p>
<p>I was sedated during the procedure, but I do remember it and remember feeling pain. Not enough to keep me from doing it again in another 10 years, I think.</p>
<p>After mine, my H has finally made an appointment for one. He is also well overdue.</p>
<p>My D2’s best friend’s stepfather was recently diagnosed w/ colon cancer. His is too far gone and he is expected to die w/in a few months. He is only in his 40’s. So he wasn’t even past due. How sad. You never know.</p>
<p>What made the prep tolerable for me was adding a bunch of Crystal Lite lemonade to the GoLytely and then sticking it in the freezer until it got slushy. A straw definitely helped, too.</p>
<p>All went well, and the doctor told me I was good to go for another 10 years or 50,000 miles, whichever came first. :D</p>
<p>I had to drink Miralax powder (I don’t know if I spelled that right) in berry flavored Propel for my colonoscopy. It actually tasted really good.</p>
<p>Morrismm–next time around I will have to do the procedure the way you described–that was my issue–things were not cleared out. As i said earlier, I drank the gallon size of Golitely, and thought i was going to blow up. Even if insurance covered another go-round, I still need the year to get up my gumption and try again.</p>
<p>I debated for a few days whether or not to chime in here, but I just have to say…I am inclined to think if I have to get my first colonoscopy 30 years ahead of schedule, the rest of you will survive getting them now when you’re supposed to. Big babies. :P</p>
<p>That’s all I am going to say! They find more polyps in my dad every single year, it’s a miracle for him that he did not wait to start going. I hope you all make the right choice for you in terms of procrastinating or not. I really think the lead up to the procedure is worse than actually having it done, and you are really only prolonging your discomfort by putting it off.</p>
<p>No insurance, so no doctor’s appointments at all…
Fortunately, I’ve always been healthy and there’s no colorectal cancer in the family.</p>
<p>^^ Almost everybody’s healthy until they … aren’t. People I’ve known who had colon cancer didn’t have it, until … they had it and they had the disease well before they realized there was anything wrong with them - i.e. they thought they were health but in fact weren’t. The idea that you’re apparently currently healthy and therefore wouldn’t benefit from the screening is invalid. Some colon cancer is hereditary but not all so the fact that there’s no family history of it is no guarantee either. If you’re 50 or over (since you have no family history of it) then you should get screened whether you have insurance or not. It’s not terribly expensive - not nearly as expensive or impactful as ending up with the disease because you didn’t bother doing the screening. Not having insurance unfortunately doesn’t prevent one from getting the disease. Remember that this disease has a very high cure rate if caught early. The prognosis isn’t so great once the symptoms appear and are even worse when those symptoms are initially dismissed.</p>
<p>If someone truly found the pain of having a sigmoidoscopy worse than the pain of childbirth, I suspect that something was being done wrong. I’ve probably had at least 35 or 40 of them in the years since I first got sick in my early 20’s. They can be very uncomfortable (and extremely undignified when you’re asked to get on your hands and knees for them rather than simply lying on your side!), and I do appreciate it when gastroenterologists have given me something by IV that makes me fall asleep for the duration. But I’ve had only one that I’d call significantly painful, and that was when it had to be done at a time when my Crohn’s Disease was active and everything was inflamed and constricted in there. (There was a camera view to distract me. It didn’t, much.) They’re really not supposed to hurt that much in normal circumstances. I also had polyps removed once with the sigmoidoscope (I envisioned it as having a pair of scissors attached to the end!), but that didn’t hurt much, either. And the preparation, which usually consists only of taking a couple of fleets, isn’t that bad. So nobody should be afraid of having a sigmoidoscopy.</p>
<p>As for colonoscopies, I had half a dozen or more before my colon was removed when I was 28. And except for one time when I was sick in the hospital and, for some reason I don’t remember, they didn’t want to put me to sleep, they really weren’t a big deal. The preparation was unpleasant, obviously (I remember being sure I was going to burst – my stomach just doesn’t hold that much!), but I promise you that there are far worse things. And from what people are saying, the prep isn’t as bad as it used to be.</p>
<p>In recent years, I’ve had to have an upper GI series done a couple of times. They can’t put a scope up your small intestine, apparently (even if, as in my case, there’s no large intestine to get in the way), so they make you drink about a gallon of barium and then take X-rays. If you think drinking the liquid for a colonoscopy is bad, try drinking that much barium! Talk about a foul taste. Ugh. </p>
<p>And I did go to work afterwards, just as I did for every colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy I’ve ever had except the ones that were done while I was a hospital patient. Not advisable, perhaps, but I used to miss so much time because of illness that I felt guilty about taking entire days off just for a simple medical procedure.</p>
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<p>True, but not having insurance can prevent one from being able to get the test. It’s a cold cruel world for people who aren’t lucky enough to have decent insurance.</p>
<p>Last year, on my 50th birthday, I got an automated call from my insurance company asking if I’d done it yet (press 1), and if not (press 2) why? (press 5,6,7, etc…same as Dave B’s list). There were even automated sympathetic pauses. </p>
<p>I still haven’t done it, but I might do it for Dave.</p>
<p>Depends on what you call expensive. I consider my $300 deductible expensive. I am glad I didn’t have to pay the couple thousand it cost otherwise.</p>
<p>I was an otherwise healthy 27 year old when I was diagnosed with colon cancer 25 years ago. No family history- 80 year old parents still have had no problems. Symptoms- abdominal pain, dark blood in stool. Stage B2 tumor found during the colonosocpy. Surgery removed the tumor and a section of my colon. I have the test every four years. My 23 year old daughter was tested last year- not an easy sale- and was fine. I am a strong believer in having the procedure.</p>
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<p>My handsome, dashing husband has always been the healthy one. He’s supported me through a few surgeries and other illnesses. We all think of him as the strong one in the family. I don’t remember him having so much as a cold in the 20 years I’d known him. Until he was diagnosed with colon cancer after a colonoscopy. It was all so surreal at first. He didn’t feel sick, didn’t look sick, yet…many of our friends said he was the last person in the world they would ever imagine getting cancer. Being “healthy” is no guarantee, let me assure you.</p>
<p>Had he put this off because he’s always been healthy, he would probably be dead now. As it is, 3 years out, I still worry a bit. I’ll feel better about things once he passes the 5 year mark.</p>
<p>I wanted to revive this thread because it may encourage someone else to have the test. Your comments, combined with my family’s nagging, were what prompted me to go ahead and schedule it.</p>
<p>So I had it done today – results all clear. 
For those who are hesitating, I just want to say that if I’d known what it was like, I never would have waited as long as I did. The worse part of the whole thing was choking down the go-lytely. But everything after that – really not so bad at all.</p>
<p>^ I agree … the test was fine but the prep wasn’t great … but overall the prep certainly is no reason to delay or not take this test!</p>
<p>I finally made an appointment when I discovered changes in my insurance that will increase the cost next year. I won’t be doing any last minute shopping on December 23rd. HoHoHo.</p>
<p>My 50th birthday is not far off and knowing I need to have this test is the biggest reason I’m dreading this birthday! The prep sounds dreadful…I had a kidney problem and had to have several CT scans. Beforehand I had to drink a huge amount of a sickly sweet liquid and always felt nauseous. Sometimes I truly could not get down the last glass. Early on in this thread someone mentioned pills rather than liquid for prep (I saved the details for future reference) while others mentioned how the prep had gotten better over recent years. Can someone share the different options? I’d really like to be well informed as I’m assuming whatever dr. I end up with will have his preferred option and will just prescribe that. If there’s any way around the gallon of liquid, I’d be much more inclined to make that appointment.</p>