Paul Michaels

Health Check Up:

This past week I did something that probably no one looks forward to.
I had a Colonoscopy.

I turned 50 last July and I was due for one when you hit that age.

I had heard about them but never had one yet.

The process is to pick up a prescription three days before. It’s a set of powders labeled A and B.

The day before the procedure you can only have two eggs for breakfast and that’s it for all day until your procedure the next day.

You’re allowed to eat green or orange popsicles and drink Gatorade but nothing red or purple.

I was pretty hungry during this fast but I drank a lot of water, which is what they instruct you to do.

At 5pm, the day before the procedure, you mix the powders A and B together in a jug they have provided and drink 8 oz. every 15 minutes until it’s all gone.

The solution tastes sort of sweet. Not too bad but not good either.

Don’t plan on leaving the house because the solution is designed to clean you out.

At 8pm that night, you drink another jug of powders A and B mixed together again.

I drank most of it, then I threw up some of it. It started to taste too nasty after drinking so much of it.

By the next morning, I had lost about 5 pounds, since fasting the whole day before and using the laxatives.

You must have someone there to pick you up after the procedure so my sister volunteered to bring me on the day of my procedure.

I arrived about an hour early and finally got called in.

In a curtained section, I was to undress and put on the robe with the open back.

A very nice nurse set up my IV and I bled some from my hand where she installed it.

A short time later, I was wheeled into another private room.

Here I met another two nurses who administered the anesthesia to me.

They have you roll over on your side and that’s the last thing you remember.

The whole thing takes about 20 minutes and it’s over.

I woke up in the recovery room a short time later and talked with the doctor.

I learned that I didn’t have any polyps that needed removing and got a clean bill of health. Had there been any polyps, they would have removed them then and there.

I was told to have another test in 10 years, but my mother had colon cancer, so I will go back in 5 years.

My advice to you is to go and have this done when you turn 50. No one wants to be like Farah Fawcett and die of colon cancer.

The procedure is nothing to sweat. Drinking the mixture is the hardest part and that’s still doable. They even give you photos of your insides, so you can see how healthy you are.

I hope this encourages you to get it done when you’re due. I did it and I’m glad I did.

Bring on the cheeseburgers, lol.