Ah, the indignities of aging.
It was more than 11 years ago and on the other side of the country when I had my first colonoscopy.
I had suffered from a small amount of bleeding in a place humans aren’t supposed to bleed, and I had turned 60. Those were two pretty good reasons, and when they said that unlike my sigmoidoscopy some years before I would be sedated, I agreed to do it.
Anyone who has had a sigmoidoscopy probably understands that it’s one of the biggest medical indignities that doesn’t actually hurt. I won’t go into any more detail than that. The diagram explains it pretty well.
When one of my oldest and closest friends had a sigmoidoscopy, his wife told me the doctor said he had never seen anyone with more tightly clenched sphincter muscles.
There’s something to be proud of.
The picture at the beginning is of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel at this colonoscopy, accompanied by Katie Couric. Couric has become sort of a crusader for the procedure after her first husband died of colon cancer.
It’s a procedure that anyone who reaches their 60th birthday should undergo, and it’s recommended that you repeat it at least once every 10 years after that. That means twice, maybe three times for most people.
Today makes it twice for me.
I have been fasting and cleaning out my system the last couple of days, and I’ll report to the hospital at 2 p.m. to be anesthetized, probed and released. At least I hope I’ll be released. There is actually more of a reason for this colonoscopy than there was the last time.
Not so much a pain thing, but after being extremely regular for most of my life, I have become almost unbelievably irregular. If I were to go into more detail, it would get disgusting.
I had an x-ray done a month or so ago that said there was no blockage, which to me just makes it more confusing.
So we will see what happens and I will deal with it.
At least I’ll get to have something to eat in a few hours.
We take life’s pleasures where we can get them