Colons and Polyps and Preps, Oh My!

Not a pretty picture. The googled-eyed pink blob is a colon polyp. The tall thin green thing is an enema. And the woman to my left is Anka, a former internal medicine doctor turned medical journalist. She's great, by the way and worked hard to keep up with all the news coming out of Digestive Disease Week 2007. I think she has nearly fifty articles to write! See, I told you there was so much news and information coming out of that conference--I know I have an endless stream of topics to share with you here over the next several weeks, perhaps months!

Anyway, back to the topic of colons and polyps.

Here's what you need to know.

Did you know that colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States? Yikes. But when colorectal cancer is detected early, it has one of the highest cure rates. Now that's good news! But IT HAS TO BE DETECTED EARLY!

That's one reason why we need innovative and improved ways to screen for and detect this disease.

When I was at Digestive Disease Week® 2007 (DDW®), there was new research presented there that highlighted several technological and research advances that are helping to decrease both the number of deaths and the number of new cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed in the United States.

This is great news! But remember, early detection is the key to prevention! Colorectal cancer in its early stages usually doesn't cause any symptoms. If you don't get screened, you won't know and frankly, by the time you do decide to get screened, it may be too late. Now, I'm not trying to alarm you here.

In fact, I need to have a colonscopy soon too. Ok. I'll put it out here right now and say, yes, my doctor, a lovely woman (to whom I complained to about my chronic abdominal pain and bouts of constipation and it's counterpart) who urged me have a colonscopy as a precaution. That was back in February and I still haven't made the appointment. Shame on me!

Does my failure to make an appointment for a colonscopy make me a hypocrite? Well, maybe a little. But it also makes me human and highlights the hesitation most of us have about dealing with our health matters. Am I afraid? You bet. Not so much about the end-result and what they may find--more so about the procedure. Basically, fear of the unknown. Anticipatory anxiety. Even a Gastro Girl is a bit scared.

I met with some reps from Ez-Prep at DDW--they said their product is one used by docs to prepare their patient's (read cleaning out their colons) before the colonscopy. They mentioned it wasn't as bad as we might think.

For me, my time at DDW, listening, learning, asking questions. etc. about all things digestive, including colorectal cancer--which was a major topic at the conference--made a huge impact on me.

Gastro Girl Colonoscopy Challenge

What am I going to do about my fear? I don't even know what I'm afraid about really--what's the worst that could happen? The doc has to zap a polyp or two?

I'm gonna schedule a colonscopy. I tell you what--watch this space for the Gastro Girl Colonoscopy Challenge. Yea. That's it. We'll make a pact to get screened all over the world around the same time! How cool would that be! You can write in with your appointment time and day and location and we can all feel the huge outpouring of support--there is power in numbers!

Stay tuned.

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