quote:

here I'm thinking it's going in like 8-10 inches a foot max, looked it up. No...they are going like 3 feet up in there

Go big or go home!


I have had them every several years since the late 90s. Everything about them is substantially better today than it was back then.

Going back to when I was in my early 20s, probably my second or third procedure, the nurse mentioned they had a high school student visiting their office. She was interested in a career in medicine and was going to shadow the nurses. If I was OK with that I could sign a release so she could be present.

Everybody has to learn starting somewhere, and I signed the release. Young lady, senior in high school, comes into the prep area to introduce herself to me. I was going to be her first case to observe, and she asked what kind of procedure I would be having.

"They didn't tell you?"

"No, I know they do endoscopy here. Will we be looking inside your stomach today?"

"Something like that, but I wouldn't want to ruin your experience with any additional information. Best just to see it first hand."

In the recovery room the doctor told me that she made all sorts of interesting faces and experienced some coloring changes to her face throughout, but did stick it out to the finish.

Having the Andy Williams version of Moon River playing as your wheeled into the 'procedure room' is helpful..

I began getting colonoscopies at age 46 and have them every 5 years. I am 61 and had my most recent one a few weeks ago. Yes, the prep is a nuisance, but it is well worth it. 6 years ago, I had a pre-cancerous tumor removed. They snipped it during the colonoscopy. No big deal.

But where would I be if it had not been detected? In the same place my dad was when he was 65, and had a colon resection due to cancer.

And the prep has gotten easier each time. First time, I had to take two rounds of pills, the second one starting at 5:00 a.m. the day of the procedure. I was fairly miserable. The second time, I mixed about a gallon of a prep solution that was like a bubbling, carbonated witch's brew. But it was a lot better than the pills, and over by the night before the procedure. Now, it's a combination of a couple of Dulcolax, a half gallon of over-the-counter prep mix, and some magnesium citrate - much easier and less uncomfortable.

If you're in the indicated age group, get the exam. It's not that big of a deal, and would you rather have cancer?

The wife and I just got our Colonguard boxes.
Boy, she was pissed when she heard she had to catch my poop.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
It's not a big deal. The worst part is the prep the day before the procedure.

The prep is obnoxious. I believe that eating very lightly (one banana for each meal and half a bag of salty tortilla chips spread through the day on the day before prep) made the prep a little easier. I suspect that the shrunken stomach made the not eating anything on prep day easier and the not having much to get rid of made the actual prep easier. Thanks to whoever mentioned eating light the day before (probably in this thread). The procedure was pretty much a nothing burger. They called it conscious sedation, but I took a nap through most of it and only watched a little of the inflight movie.

I’ll be eight years older than the OP this month and have been putting it off until the lovely bride finally made it an issue. That was silly. Five polyps removed, no big deal, come back in five years. If you’ve been to a dermatologist and had AKs (pre-cancerous spots) frozen off with liquid nitrogen, that is probably a good analogy. Get rid of them before they turn into a problem.