Well, looking back, no pun intended... 
True, the difference in us is now ever so clear. I would want a huge settlement with six or seven zeroes while you want to kick ass!
Posted on 02/24/2008 10:56:07 AM PST by nuconvert
Bump/reminder bump for self & family - Thanks! ;-)
Well, looking back, no pun intended... True, the difference in us is now ever so clear. I would want a huge settlement with six or seven zeroes while you want to kick ass!
That's, I hate to say, was... 
what Ned heard!
With some HMO’s, and maybe even other health insurance providers, colonoscopies are not really offered, in favor of encouraging consumers to have sigmoidoscopies. This is a procedure similar to the colonoscopy, but it only covers only 75% of the intestinal tract, the reasoning being that, statistically, colon cancer tends to occur in that 75% region. Passing a sigmoidoscopy, however, is akin in my mind to being told that folks are 75% sure you don’t have colon cancer. Not likely any doctor would accept that outcome for him/herself, so only one option remains.
It may be necessary to invent a family history of colon cancer in order to get around the policy of restricting colonoscopies to those who have a “good reason” to get one.
Frankly the desire to get a colonoscopy should speak for itself. It makes little sense that we’re all encouraged to get one, only to be told that we can only get 75% of the deal unless we “qualify.” Wonder why that little Catch 22 isn’t highlighted in the ads?
I had one done about 10 or 12 years ago, because of blood in my stool. Truly, it’s not bad, and I’m a big old thang, but I’ve had four kids, so I got over my modesty with medical folks long ago. Please do it, if for no one else, for your grandkids!
There isn’t a tube with a colonoscopy. They just put a needle in your arm. If they have you count, it is 100, 99, 98 and the next thing you know, you are awake in recovery. We were actually laughing and then I was gone.
My brother in law’s cancer was in the acending colon down low..so much for sigmoidoscopies. It is rather like getting a half mammogram.
Teehee
Additional information.....Some insurance companies and doctors will try and make more money by having only a Sigmoidoscopy to check the lower forty then giving you a
colonoscopy
.
My doc said it was “uncomfortable”. He LIED! They blow you up by sticking that 17,000 ft. tube up your butt part way and turning on the air compressor set for a 100 psi blow off. SOB smarts. Tell him/her you want the whole nine yards. The Colonoscopy is a piece of cake. I went to sleep listening to the 1812 overture :)
They found polyps and did a biopsy. They were benign. I was instructed to come back in 2 years and get a 2nd one. I just did that and he said “I’ll see you in 5 years! Clean as a whistle! Thank God!
Don’t put it off and paste that link to everyone in your family over 50 OR with a family history of problems in that area.Send them something really important along with that joke about the golfer and the stripper.
Now I have to wipe diet coke off three monitors and two keyboards. Author was hysterical. I was just released from hospital with gall bladder surgery. That sharp pain in my belly wasn’t gas. It was a stone lodged in my bile duct. The sludge backed up into my Pancreas...was most uncomfortable.
If I understood it correctly, the drugs in the other prep should not be used by people over 60. I think you have to get a prescription for the stuff so they would know which one you are using.
“Yeah, sure. Nobody ever died of colon cancer, did they? Your “advice” is dangerous, and I hope nobody is stupid enough to listen.”
Apparently he’s ignoring the stories of lives saved on this thread.
Death by mammogram? What are you talking about?
Had my first in 1985 due to another procedure (barium enema) detecting an unusual lesion in the iliosecal bulb. (Thats where the small and large intestine join).
Interesting morning to say the least. Following the prep, which was just as DB described, arrived early at the teaching hospital, got the IV in left hand, and the silly gown, then the surprise! Went into the procedure room, to be greeted by my gastroenterologist plus about 7 or 8 med school students - mostly female. All were eager to see Don Carlos' nether region.
So onward. The sedative, which was a two syringe cocktail of valium and whatever burned! It didn't really knock me out, just made it so I didn't give a rats arse.
After a few minutes, the head (butt?) guy found the spot in question, and passed the scope student to student so they could all see. He noticed I was only half goofy, so asked if I'd like to see too, and how could I pass up a chance like that? After I had a good peek, a small cheer went up along with some comments that it could have been a medical first (snicker) and it was all over.
End result of the procedure was a diagnosis of a pre-cancerous lesion, and follow up colon resection surgery. Without doubt, had I played chicken and not had the colonoscopy, nobody here would have ever heard of Don Carlos. I have an ugly scar across the tummy which killed any chances for a career modeling jockey briefs or speedo bathing trunks, but 23 years on am still here to say "git er done"!
Best advice you'll ever get!
But...speaking as a professional now...you ain’t getting a six or seven-figure settlement outta that (and not a five, four, three, two, or even one-figure settlement) so kicking a$$ is the most soul-satisfying solution. Reminds me of the old joke: As the dentist poised over his patient, hypo of Novocaine in hand, the patient reached over and gently cupped his dentist’s testicles, saying, “Now, we’re NOT going to hurt each other, are we, Doc?”
prep really a snap now...4 dulcolax at 2pm of appointment eve, chased with plenty of water, a 3 oz bottle of Phosoda I was to mix with my favorite adult beverage at 6pm. Lift off was at 9pm...Hershey squirts for about 45 minutes. Was showered and in bed at 10pm. Awoke at 7 am and had the residual waste all drowned and was at Dr Kucers at 8 am appointment.
Even the prep was OK for me. My doc told me: "clear liquids only". So I drank Vodka tonics in between the prep liquids. I still spent most of the evening on the toilet with the "explosive" stuff, but I sure felt good in my head going through it. :)
I had it done in December because I had some blood when I had a BM, so I was worried.
Like Dave said, I don’t remember a thing, I woke up after the procedure, feeling “Comfortably Numb.” But the Movi-Prep, was god-awful.
Fortunately the bleeding I had was due to an internal hemorrhoid, and everything else was clean as a whistle. So in the end (pardon the pun), I was glad I did it.
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