Sunday, June 17, 2007

Both my sisters got their colonoscopies

And so did a lot of friends and acquaintances. That's good. That's the point. That's why I'm harping and blogging.

My brothers (I have two, Jimmy and Doug) had already gotten theirs, but my sisters, Rebecca, not yet 50, and Jennifer, almost 55, had not. Now Becky wasn't old enough but Jennifer was way past due. She said she didn't want to shove her naked butt into somebody's face. Of course, that's not exactly how it goes. But after they learned of my results, they went for their "procedures" - Becky somewhat reluctantly, Jennifer resignedly, I think.

Becky hated the pre-game warm up. The no eating, the poison drinking that makes you poop. Jennifer rather enjoyed it. She said she mixed her potion with some kind of gator aide drink and loved it. She even enjoyed the chicken soup. Nobody really enjoys the the results of the "oral saline laxative" (though I might right now as I am in my post chemo constipation stage).

What I find interesting are the post-colonoscopy boasts, not of No Polyps or Cancer, but about how "cleaned out" they were. Jennifer tells me her doctor said, "You were really clean as a whistle." (I bet he tells that to all the girls). And Becky said she asked the nurse, "Was I cleaned out?" And the nurse looked at her with mild contempt and said, "I wouldn't know. The doctor didn't mention it."

But both were clean where it matters. No polyps. No cancer. Thank God.

Now if I could just talk my mom (age 76) into getting hers. It was her father who started all this. He was the one who had colon cancer late in life. Which I didn't know until my cancer was found.
So she really should go.

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