farmdoc's blog post number 229

My Mum’s father, Samuel Joseph Myers, had bowel cancer. (He ended up with a colostomy; he founded the Colostomy Association of Victoria; and he died in 1960, at age 71, of heart disease.) I think a brother of his also had bowel cancer. Anyway given my family history, each few years I have a colonoscopy – one of the few proven preventive medicine screening tests. I’ve had maybe five or six. My penultimate one was in 2003; and my latest was last Tuesday, by Professor Macrae (pictured) at the Melbourne Private Hospital. The process began on Monday – with litres of preparation (i.e. Picoprep, Glycoprep and water) to empty me out. In the old days, the prep was oily and tasteless. Nowadays it’s fizzy lemon stuff. But still no fun. That’s progress. It worked. And worked. And worked. On Tuesday I turned up early for my 10 a.m. booking. Their computer said I didn’t have private hospital insurance. It was wrong. I waited. Prof Macrae was running late. I waited. I read. I wrote. I pondered. I waited. An hour. Or more. My turn came. Eventually. Everyone was lovely: the nurses, the anaesthetist, the Prof. Everything went smoothly. My large bowel was normal apart from a polyp which the Prof. biopsied. I’ll get the biopsy result later today. That’s it then. For another few years. Whew.