Colonoscopies - Everybody Should Get One
This year it was green. It was a pretty enough colour, but still tasted hottible.Then they sedate you. They want you as relaxed as possible as they put the camera in. I was so relaxed I was out for the count!
Then they put the camera in and have a good look around. This time there wasn't much for them to do, they only found one pesky polyp which was easily removed. So now I'm good to go for another five years!
Colon cancer is nasty, it's the fourth most common cancer in the UK. Almost 43,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year in the UK. Around 268,000 people living in the UK today have been diagnosed it and more than nine out of ten new cases (94%) are diagnosed in people over the age of 50. I started having colonoscopies in my forties after a doctor spotted that my CEA levals - a marker for bowel cancer - were high. They didn't find anything amiss but suggested that I have it done every five years or so, and over the years they have found dozens of polyps, which they remove and test for cancer. I've always been clear, which is good news.
Several friends of mine have had colon cancer, but have responded well to treatement. But I also know people who have died from it, which is one of the reasons I have regular colonosopies. It's a slow growng cancer, and providing you have a check every five years or so, there isn't really chance for a polyp to develop and then turn cancerous. A colonoscopy isn't fun, but I definitely recommend them as a way of staying healthy! Oh, and I had an endoscopy at the same time, which is another story! I made sure they used a differenmt canera, obvioiusly!
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A colonoscopy found cancer in me when I was 60. Surgery and chemo have made me cancer-free for almost 25 years now.
I was part of an experiment for a friend (Gastro-enterologist) who just imported new technology where you swallow a huge capsule (camera) which goes through your system and take a video whilst going through your system. The technology was designed specifically for diagnostic purposes for the small intestines, but it also do a proper recording through the colon.This was 2006. He picked up two malignant polyps, i.e.: stage one cancer.
I went annually for checkups and was in remission until 2020. Our darling-dearest Covid year. Needless to say, I skipped my check-up for 2020. South Africa's Health Care was a mess at the time. So when I went for my next check-up in 2022, I was diagnosed with stage 4 Spinal cancer. So, if those "pesky" little polyps are malignant, stick to the 6 monthly check-up rule. I am fortunate because my cancer is quite aggressive and I don't have to go through 8+ years of indescribable pain.
Your green, thin juice looks much easier to consume than the 2 liters of thick pulp-like pink juice we have to drink over here. I really had difficulty keeping it in, but if it comes out from the top and not the bottom, you have to start all over again....
Julian Donn