Photo credit: As a trademarked program of the Prevent Cancer Foundation, the Prevent Cancer Super Colon®
I’ve gotten to that age where regular health check-ins start to include screenings that get a little scarier, a little more uncomfortable. Today, I dropped off my husband to get a colonoscopy. It was the end to a week’s worth of prep. The prep involved eating food with absolutely no fiber, no seeds, no red or purple colors, among other restrictions, for the first couple of days of the week. We paid a little more to have the less worse prep, Sutab. Instead of drinking gallons of prep liquids, you have to take two doses of 12 tablets of the medicine, which to me still seems terrible, but I suppose a bit less terrible than the alternative. And it’s also terrible that insurance doesn’t cover the prep that provides a modicum of comfort.
The day before the procedure, the prep manufacturer says that you can eat “low-residue” foods, like eggs and white bread. And the day of the colonoscopy, you have to arrange for a pick up; in my husband’s case, he underwent general anesthesia, so he would not have been in a state to drive home after the procedure.
As I write about the onerous prep, it is critical to mention the importance of getting that screening. CDC numbers show that in 2019, there were 12.8 cancer colon deaths per 100,000 people. That is a decline from 20.9 deaths per 100,000 people in 1999. Over that same time period, the rates of adults that were up to date with their colorectal cancer screenings went up.
A large part of this increase in screening could be part of an increase of messaging and awareness around the screening. There was of course the time when Katie Couric broadcast her colonoscopy live two years after her husband died of the disease. Alie Ward, host of the fantastic Ologies podcast recently did a podcast around the topic called FIELD TRIP: My Butt, a Colonoscopy Ride Along & How-To. And, there is the giant traveling Prevent Cancer Super Colon®, an inflatable colon that you can actually walk through to learn about colon health.
Happily, my husband’s screening was clean, and he doesn’t have to get another one for another 10 years. And, now I have to schedule my own screening, even though I know that it will be a terrible week of prep. Armed with all of this knowledge, make sure that if you’re at that age, you, too, go and schedule the screening that could save your life.
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