Got to laugh so I won't cuss

[beckyzoole]

Next week, I get a colonoscopy, whee!

And then, guess what? The following week -- a root canal!

Oh, the joys of being 50-something.

Comments

[curiouswombat]

I really don't get this urge of the USA medical system to do colonoscopies on everyone - I suppose it is a good way of them making even more money.

I had a root canal done on Tuesday. I find they go more quickly if I put my MP3 player on - although my dentist does have a head set you can wear and watch films, if such is your wont. Bit different from the first one I had done, in my 20s!

[raingirl26]

Apparently it's that they say it's very successful at "preventing" cancer in that they get the polyps out before they turn into something bad. I'm avoiding at this point - the FDA (our country's medical watchdog - not that great as far as I'm concerned) just approved a new test for colon cancer yesterday! It's a stool test but testing DNA. I have high hopes for that one to become popular before I succumb to going under.

What is your guys thought about colonoscopies? How do you look at prevention besides food/exercise choices.

[curiouswombat]

The UK attitude is that there is no reason to carry out invasive testing which carries its own risks*, if the patient is asymptomatic.

Routine screening is done for faecal occult bloods and colonoscopy offered if there is a positive, or should the person present to their GP with any symptom indicative of polyps or Ca Gut.

*Heavy bleeding (about a one in 250 chance) perforated bowel (about a one in 1,000 chance). Death, about 1;10,000.

About 2% of those tested for FOB go on to have a colonoscopy. Of that 2%, half (i.e. 1% of the total) have no abnormalities. 0.8% of the total number of people tested for FOB are found, on colonocopy to have polyps, which are then removed, and 0.2% are found to have cancer. Therefore, if everyone was to have a colonoscopy as routine, 99% would be unnecessary.

[beckyzoole]

I had a positive FOB a few years ago, and followed it up with a colonoscopy. (I had just turned 50, so the American medical establishment would have wanted me to get one anyway, but I too am cautious about routine screening with an invasive procedure.)

Anyway, I did have a small polyp, which was removed. I was supposed to come back in 5 years for a follow-up. It's been only 4, but I am anemic, and low-grade bleeding in the gut could be a reason. Also, my good health insurance is going away as soon as the divorce is final. So it makes a lot of sense to get that colonoscopy done now.

[aprilvalentine]

If your doctor lets you get the "easy prep" there's nothing to a colonoscopy. It's the prep that's icky and horrible.

I've never had a root canal. I'm old enough that my oral surgeon just says, "we won't bother with a root canal, we'll just take it out."

Good luck though! Yeah, 50 ish is fun that way.

[beckyzoole]

I'm using the "easy prep"! Semi-starving today, drinking the mixture this evening. So far, so good....

[millysdaughter]

I had mine on Tuesday. It was not as bad as I feared.
Not fun, but not quite as horrible as I expected.

[beckyzoole]

I've had it done before. No fun, but the prep was worse than the procedure. Welcome to the 50s!

[millysdaughter]

I had hoped to reach 60 without submitting to the test, but fell short of my goal. I did make it past the 50% mark, so if I were a baseball player, batting .575 would be a VeryGoodThing.

[raingirl26]

I just heard about the "easy prep" that aprilvalentine talked about. I think it's the only two doses of the drink instead of the tons and tons.

Honestly, while I'm avoiding this one still, it's not the event that scares me, I'm still in worry mode about what they would find. I didn't used to freak out about prevention and just in case testing on such a grand scale, but ever since I was taken down the road to more and more testing "to see what in the blazes that thing is" I just want to go hide in a hole.

Root canal - i'd go with the headphone option for sure.

Life in the 50s - man, I am not digging it health wise. They say nobody tells you how hard it will be to have kids, well, NO ONE WARNED ME ABOUT THE 50'S!! My best defense at this point is laughing at myself as I walk around the block in the morning and my brain goes to all worries, mostly health. I think, is this really how I want to live each day? No, I want to laugh - and then I do.

[beckyzoole]

I'm using the easy prep this time. The procedure is scheduled for tomorrow, so today I'm semi-starving and tonight I drink the first dose. I anticipate taking my computer and some DVDs into the bathroom tonight! :-D

I'm seriously considering skipping a mammogram this year, since I keep getting the same spot biopsied "just in case". It keeps being nothing, and I'm tired of freaking out about it. Also tired of spending an entire day on a freaking needle biopsy, and of the excessive co-payments.

My doctor disagrees; and I'll probably get the mammogram anyway. But, ugh, how I hate the "just in case" attitude!

[bbwoof]

I agree with you about living in one's sixth (or more) decade, but let's put it in perspective.

If you're over 50 years old, you have done better than more than 85% of all the humans who have ever lived. Our modern medical establishment is not always right, and not always pleasant, but it has made it possible for us to fear death by cancer, stroke, or the like -- because we don't die of malnutrition, childhood diseases, air- or water-borne parasites, food poisoning, or a host of other causes as children.

[raingirl26]

i love having my perspective challenged and being forced to see another story for the same situation. (that somehow sounds sarcastic, but it's not, i actually mean it.)