For those of you who have not had a colonoscopy, do not sweat it. It is fairly routine. However the prep is the bitch! You have to drink a gallon of nasty tasting stuff (the WHOLE gallon) to make sure you are clean inside and out! Even the purpose (and effect) of the nasty stuff is not as bad as the Nasty stuff!
But I have had to do it now 3 times. And within the next 6 months, a fourth. My wife of the same age has had to do it ONCE. The reason for the difference? They have found 2 polyps on my colon. The latest one just yesterday.
The doctors did not just come out of the blue and decide that I was a prime candidate for polyps. No, the reason I went to them to get checked was that I turned up anemic when donating blood. This is the second time it has happened. For women, being anemic is not a big deal. It is natural for obvious reasons, but for me it is very unusual.
The first polyp was benign, and I expect this one will be as well. But benign can become bad if not addressed quickly, and if not for my donating blood, these may have been left to grow and get bad! So that is why I say that donating blood is a life saver - TO THE DONATOR.
I have donated about 120 pints officially. Well over 150 when all donations are taken into account. In that time, I have been found to be anemic twice, and to have hypertension once. The latter is under control (maybe too much as my BP for the colonoscopy was only 98/67), and the former now taken care of (well - I also have a hernia in my esophagus - spicy foods I guess) as well.
I talked to my mother about those polyps. My grandfather was diagnosed with colon cancer 35 years ago. But while he was diagnosed that way, my mother is dubious of the diagnosis - primarily because no follow testing up was ever done, and for the length of time he lived after getting the colonectopy. So I am now on a new mission.
To find my birth father's relatives (the birth father is dead - having passed away about 10 years ago). My sister had a relationship with him before he died. Actually with his new wife as she wanted the man to get to know his children, but he never wanted it, so I will start there. To find out if my family has a history of these things, or I am just the "lucky" guy who has to drink that nasty stuff regularly to clean my system out!
Oh joy!
But while I have had minimal contact with my birth father's family since my parents separated when I was 5 (I saw the man exactly twice after that - the second time I refused to acknowledge his existence as it was 10 years later), I have never held his family responsible for his actions. So perhaps it will be a good thing to get to know a part of my family that I never really have. I am sure I will find some scoundrels in the bunch, but perhaps a few diamonds in the rough as well.
It will be interesting. And hopefully the next time I am asked for family history on a medical form, I can be more complete in what I put down.