Colonoscopy

Friday, February 21, 2025

Almost four years ago I submitted a poop test and they found blood in my stool. The doctors quickly got me in for a colonoscopy. Normally when they do this test they put you under, but I figured it couldn’t really hurt that much so I asked if I could go unsedated. The doctor was thrilled. I guess adding sedation creates all kind of complications. I just wanted to watch the test on screen.

They found one polyp and it looked just like the one in the illustration but much smaller. I remember in the test I was amazed when he threw a lassoo around the polyp and snipped in off. I figured it should have hurt but I didn’t feel a thing. They then sucked up the polyp and tested it for cancer.

It was the type that could become cancerous but wasn’t there yet. Because I had one polyp, they told me to come back in three years. Three years would have been last summer but I kept forgetting. I finally called to schedule an appointment but they had no openings in the next three months and told me they would call me back when April opened up for appointments. I have called several times since then and it became obvious that they weren’t calling me back. When I called on Feb 7 they said they had no openings but that they had just had a cancellation for the following Monday, Feb 10. I took it.

I was not allowed any solid foods the day of the procedure or the day before the procedure. As everyone was pigging out at the superbowl party Lisa and I we went to, I realized why the guy cancelled his procedure. That was rough.

The procedure went great and once again they were thrilled, and a little surprised, that I wanted no sedation. This time they found two polyps but both of which were much smaller than the last one. The polyp is that little bump on the far right just below center. Since they couldn’t lassoo it, a little mouth extended out and literally bit the thing off. Please excuse the little pieces of poop still floating around.

I love the sphincter muscles in the colon that contract sequentially to move your poop along. The body is an amazing thing. I think it is beautiful.

The second polyp is in the second picture in roughly the same location. They both tested the same as the one three years ago. They could potentially become cancerous but not for a long time. I need to go back in five years.

--------------------trivia--------------------

One in every 5,000 babies is born with a condition known as “imperforate anus.” This means the baby is born without an anus and has to have one created manually in the hospital.

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