AH@> Hi & welcome back, Daryl!  Awhile ago you wrote in a message to Ardith
 AH@> Hinton:

  Hi, Ardith...glad to be back.


 AH@>            Good!  I understand colonoscopies are a drag... a female
 AH@> friend had one recently & told me she was hors de combat for three
 AH@> days.  The alternative could be worse, however, if further developments
 AH@> took place unchecked....  :-Q

  A lady in Sherwood, Arkansas (northeast of Little Rock) was diagnosed with
colon cancer at 24...she died 6 weeks later. Another female was too
embarrassed to tell the doctor she had blood in her fecal stool. Nine months
later, violent abdominal pains sent her to the ER...only to find it was
stage 4 colon cancer. :( While colon cancer is the second greatest killer
behind heart disease and breast cancer, if caught early, it's easily
treatable, with a 90% chance of survival. Unfortunately, colon cancer, and
many other forms of cancer, in their early stages, have no symptoms at all.

  I saw a T-shirt once that noted "I'm here to save your butt, not kiss it"!!
To medical people, nudity means nothing to them. So, when they tell me to get
naked, I used to reply "how fast??". Unfortunately, the arthritis has gotten
so bad in my arms and legs now, I have to literally have them undress and
dress me again. I can take care of that at home, but the height of the exam
tables in the hospitals and doctors offices is difficult to work with...and
I'm afraid I'll fall if I'm not careful. In fact, I'm using a cane more and
more often, and may end up with doing likewise with a walker (if not a
wheelchair) as well. 

  I've heard cute stories about people who "have a cow" when the staff tells
them to "get naked", or "put the gown on". Many will put the gown on OVER
their clothing. How are they going to examine you if you are dressed?? :)

 AH@>            I reckon the bean counters got into the act there & you are
 AH@> allowed no more than one such test per year.  I've noticed also that
 AH@> once a person has crossed some invisible boundary line they're deemed
 AH@> to be at a higher risk for various things.  The downside is that the
 AH@> patient may wonder sometimes whether the doctor is being a bit
 AH@> overconscientious.  The upside is that if you really do need a certain
 AH@> type of testing you may find it easier to get... [wry grin].

  I still had to prep like for a colonoscopy when I had an IVP done to check
the entire urinary tract (kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra) for any
new stones or abnormalities. Apparently, the intestines are in front of the
urinary tract, and any fecal obstruction would have blocked seeing the 
progress of the dye injection. However, it's better to be safe than sorry.

 AH@>            I may have asked you before if the first stone was ever
 AH@> analyzed... in Dallas's case, a change of diet seemed to help ward off
 AH@> the next occurrence for ten or twenty years.  But I realize it's not
 AH@> always quite that simple, and I'm curious as to what your IVP may or
 AH@> may not have indicated.  I had the same test years ago.  Conclusion:
 AH@> my kidneys are weird, as my GP & I already knew. As long as I'm
 AH@> reasonably cautious about what I eat it's not a big deal.  :-))

  All my stones have been caused by oxylates...such as those with chocolate,
caffeine, etc. I haven't had a candy bar in almost 3 years (I've heard some
say "they would kill if they couldn't have chocolate"), although I admit I do
eat a chocolate chip cookie or two on occasion. I never acquired a taste for
coffee, and rarely drink tea anymore. The IVP showed no new stones, and the
urinary bladder emptied successfully. But, I may have to have a "green light"
procedure with the prostate...where they go in, and remove the center part
of it, to make it easier for urine to exit the bladder. 

  If the prostate gets too large, it'll literally stop the flow of urine from 
the bladder, resulting in AUR (Acute Urinary Retention), which is obviously a 
medical emergency. I nearly had that in second grade about 45 years ago. I 
thought I'd get into trouble by asking permission from the teacher to go to 
the bathroom, and my bladder had gotten so full of urine, I was starting to 
have abdominal pain.

  I used to think the pain from the catheter insertion was more so for the
males because of it going through the penis. The truth is that the urethra
has to take a longer path from the penis, through the prostate, and into
the bladder. For females, the urethra is bascially a "straight shot" into
the bladder. I had to have the catheter after the first kidney stone surgery,
as I couldn't urinate. They put me on Flomax, and after the second stone
surgery, I was never so happy to be able to urinate in all my life!! I 
understand that many older people have to have catheters, but for the life
of me, I can't understand how they can work with them. I screamed so when
they put that one in, they probably heard me in Washington, DC!!

 AH@>            That's the bit where you spend all day on the toilet?

  Yep, but unlike past years where I had to take this "Go-Lightly" tepid
salt water solution of a gallon...nasty as all get out...I now take a
bottle of clear citrate of magnesia (my late wife termed it as "Sprite
with a kick"), and 3 Ducolax tablets at 4pm the day before the procedure.
The diet is clear liquids on that day, but I've found that doing the
clear liquids for 2 days beforehand makes it easier to cleanse the colon.
Then, I take 1 more Ducolax tablet at 11pm, then take a Fleet Enema at
6am the day of the procedure...and that cleans me out. Unfortunately,
the hemorrhoids result in severe rectal bleeding...but I understand that
surgery to remove them causes loss of a lot more blood!! :(

 AH@> Apparently I got off lightly in that regard, but I wore the needle mark
 AH@> for eighteen years. Then there was the bit where I was instructed to
 AH@> hold my breath, after which I was left alone for twenty minutes.  I was
 AH@> a teenager at the time.  Fortunately for the technician & for me I was
 AH@> smart enough to realize there was no need to hold my breath for the
 AH@> entire time.  I go to other labs nowadays... [chuckle].

  When they first diagnosed me with digestive tract issues, I was having
violent abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea (doing it out of both ends)
in the ER. The ultrasound showed something suspicious around the appendix,
and they thought they'd have to do an appendectomy, but that proved to not
be necessary. Also, when the doctor said that "I had to watch what I ate",
I quipped "I do...from the plate to the mouth"...he snapped "You know what
I mean!!". 

  The upper GI was interesting...they gave me a thick beverage, a 
combination of a strawberry shake, and citrate of magnesia...telling me
not to pause to even belch. I swigged it down like a drunkard, and they
quipped "This man knows how to drink". Shoot, it was the first thing they
would let me have!! I warned them to have a step stool next to the table
in case I needed to "bid a hasty retreat" to the toilet...sure enough, in
just 15 minutes, it hit. After that was done, the nurses said I was lucky;
when I asked why, they replied "some have to stay down here 5 hours to get
their colon purged"...I just cringed. But, it was better than the lower 
GI!!

  The kicker though, was that they had me on NPO (non-para-oral (nothing
by mouth)), as they thought they'd have to do an appendectomy. The nurse
walks in, and had the gall to ask for a "stool sample". I snapped "Where
do you think I'm going to get it?? From the bedpan in the next room??
You haven't fed me in 3 days"...to which she sighed and admitted "Well,
you can't manufacture it, if you ain't got it". So, they gave me some
Jello "to do the job"...sheesh!! If they had just looked at my chart...
it really makes me wonder about the medical people at times!!

 AH@>            Although I'm late in answering, I hope your IVP went well.
 AH@> :-)

  It did...no new stones, but I may still be looking at prostate surgery.
It is apparently NOT cancer, but I'm having trouble starting voiding, as
well as continuing, and "dribbling" afterwards. Part of that is just part
of growing older in males, but it's obviously a nuisance. They have also
put me on a diuretic, due to holding fluid in my legs (adema). But, the
blood sugar levels are still within normal limits...so, while I'm not
diabetic, I have the potential to become type 2. I also have a lower
abdominal hernia, but the doctor said "as long as I remain under 300
pounds" (I'm at 265), that I should be OK. I have no idea how I got the
hernia...but it may have been from lifting heavy objects over the years.
I didn't think they were heavy, but I guess my body felt otherwise.

 AH@>            Reminds me of the time when Nora was admitted to hospital on
 AH@> Friday (allegedly for forty-eight hours).  I figured she wouldn't be
 AH@> discharged until Monday... as she was, despite the prognostications of
 AH@> certain "gloom-and-doom" artists in the parents' lounge.  If your
 AH@> doctors had serious reason to believe you had cancer of the bowel,
 AH@> things would be happening so fast your head would be spinning.  When
 AH@> hospitals postpone testing they're not too worried....  ;-)

  I guess not...although if there is a disaster (such as Hurricane Sandy
on the eastern Seaboard), many hospitals have postponed "elective surgery".
However, I'm not sure what they'll do in "critical cases". I saw reports
this morning where large numbers of people refused to heed the evacuation
warnings, and rescues had to be performed. But, just like with the medical
issues, it's always better to be safet than sorry.

Daryl

... Special K factory destroyed by a Cereal Killer.
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