My Day
I worked most of the day at home. I got a lot done up to the time I had to leave for the doctor.
I had a follow-up visit today with a specialist, which was the result of my last physical that my doctor gave me. I’m in good health (I think). On my last physical, my doctor found blood when he did the exam... you know... down there. I hate talking about this stuff, but I think you can figure out what I’m talking about. He put the test in front of me and said, “It turned blue.” I asked what that meant and he said, “Probably nothing, but we have to check it out. It found blood.”
At any rate, he sent me to a Gastroenterology/Internal Medicine guy, and that was what I did today. I didn’t want to go, but my doctor, seeing that I was hesitant to go, said to me, “Listen, you are 50 now. We were going to do this as part of procedure anyway. So let’s just get it done, so we know everything is ok.”
So today, the doctor tested again, and once again, found blood. He went over all the scenarios and that he wanted to do a colonoscopy. He explained that I would be “mostly knocked out”. I said, “I don’t want to be awake for it at all.” He said that would be fine, seeing that I was upset about the whole thing. I don’t like doctors poking around my body. And I really hate hospitals. It seems like I’ve spent half my life at a hospital, mostly taking friends there, visiting friends, or picking them up. I don’t make a good patient.
The nice thing was that when the doctor first saw me, he said, “You are 50 years old?? I said, “I sure am.” He replied, “Wow! You look like you’re 35!” Now that was nice!
So, I’m a bit down/worried about the whole thing. The worst part is that I have to wait until December 12 for it to be done. As much as I don’t want to do it, I would rather it just be over with. You should see all the stuff you have to do the day before. You can have nothing solid at all. It will be done on a Monday morning, so nothing at all Sunday. You can have coffee or tea, but only if you put cream in them (no idea why), no salad stuff at all two days before, and nothing solid. And you have to get this stuff from the drug store that I suppose is some kind of a purging agent. Gross.
Kent leaves tomorrow morning really early (4:30am) for Washington, D.C. again for another meeting. I hate it when he travels and is away. But, that’s what movie collections and HD TV are for, right? 
He gets back on Friday.
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Good luck bill everything will be fine,i had it done about 10 years ago, and after it was over with i was glad i had it done,mine was an ulcer also."Stress"
If the purging stuff is the same I had, yes, it's really pretty bad, so clear the day and stay within easy range of plumbing at all times.
The good part is that they not only knock you out most of the way (they apparently need to communicate with you at times), they give you something that completely erases your memory of the entire procedure. You'll wake up never having known it happened.
Best of luck with it and I;ll be keeping my fingers crossed for you.
Thank you Jeff. What I go through is no where near what you deal with. I'm so amazed at you, honestly. Through everything, you have the most wonderful outlook on life and you enjoy it so much. You have truly been an inspiration to me.
As far as my little procedure goes, I've decided that I'm not going to worry about it until there is something to worry about. I won't enjoy going through all that stuff preparing for the procedure, and I won't like the procedure itself, even though I'm going to sleep through it, but I know it has to get done. So, I'm going to do it.
Cancer does not run in my family at all. No one in my family has ever had it to my knowledge, and there are some heavy smokers in my family. So, in all likely hood, the blood is most likely coming from an ulcer. I have had issues with heartburn, and the doctor said that it could very well be coming from an ulcer as a result of that. He also said that the test is extremely sensitive to the most minute amounts of blood, so it could be triggered by something quite insignificant.
So basically, they will do this, test anything they find, and that will determine if I have to do this once a year (unlikely) or the standard every ten years (most likely).
I hope it all goes well for you, Bill, both the procedure and the results. I know going to the hospital isn’t the most pleasant of places to go, but the procedure is necessary to ensure your lasting good health. As we have discussed before, that is paramount in life.
I am sort of in a lull myself as far as medical procedures go. I think my doctors are convinced that whatever causes my pain is just going to be a part of my life from here on out, and so for now we have settled on medicating the problem. I am fine with that for now because I have come to realize that my problem isn’t debilitating nor life threatening, and for that I am VERY grateful. If the biggest change in my life is taking a few pills twice a day, I can live with that. It beats the hell out of having to deal with something on the order of diabetes, or some other life-altering problem.
Every day I enjoy my relatively good health. I take my wife and our two little dogs an a one and a quarter mile walk every day so that the four of us will be able to enjoy a longer, healthier life together. Again, because the most important thing in life is your health. Ya just can’t live without it. :).
Again, good luck Bill. I will be thinking of you.