Well, a long time ago, I began trying to mentally prepare myself for this... My husband had a co-worker who died of colon cancer several years back. He was a young man, a very athletic outdoorsy type of man, and not the type of person who would expect to die of such a horrible disease in the absolute prime of life. And so I knew that I would get this test done and that I would willingly put myself through the preparation - which as you know, EVERYONE says is the worst part. My doctor also is doing an endoscopy... his reason was to look for anything abnormal that would make my iron levels low, which seems to be chronic with me. As long as I'm going to be "out of it", I guess it makes no difference to me.
I met Dr. Shone when I was in the hospital in December and simply because of his kindness and straight-forward talk (in an accent that is so pleasant!), I decided that I should go to him for this test. I am a little short of the 50yo mark, but thought that I had been dreading it quite long enough, so why not go ahead and do it - while we still have health insurance.
I saw him about 10 days ago, and the most surprising thing is that they were able to get me scheduled so quickly! I was secretly hoping to delay it a month, but that was not to be.
The nurse came in to go over instructions, she talked so fast about all of it, I could not keep up. Then when I read over the list again Sunday, I discovered that I should not have been taking my iron pills for several days. Hopefully this is not a big deal.
I had to drink some nasty stuff in December for an MRI of my upper gastro area, and that was torture. My oldest daughter happened to be visiting me at the time, and if not for her encouraging cheerleading, I don't think I would have gotten it down. So I have to say that I am dreading the drinking even more than the expelling part. (Of course, this is in my mind right now, as I have not yet started my bathroom trips.)
My last meal was cottage cheese and tomato, my favorite comfort food, and it's 11:25am right now, so I have not had anything by mouth so far today.
I did go to Blockbuster and rented 4 movies. I am planning to sit and watch one while I gulp down my lovely HalfLytely concoction... even though my internet searching today has given me information that there is a pill that is possible to take INSTEAD of drinking the nasty, so I'm mad at myself for not researching better in advance.
I will just be so glad to have it over and done. I'm sure you have your own stories and testimony to share. Let's be thankful for tests, early detection, and being healthy. Recent research says that 1 in 7 people over age 50 will live to be 100 years old, so we owe it to ourselves to be as healthy as possible when we get there!
