Part I of Three Articles on cancer screening and results.

Prep for a Colonoscopy and EGD

Ok, the first thing I need to clarify is why I’m having the following test done. I lost my mom to colon cancer in November 2006, 67 days ago. And even as my mom lay suffered from her own pain, the doctor was addressing each of her kids on the need that we should each be tested as soon as possible. I hated him that day, one for telling my mom she was dying and two for making her feel guilty that now we had family history and needed to have pre-screening, that we may have inherited this from her. She was an angel and only brought love and joy to our lives.

I called my family doctor the week after I lost my mom; I decided I needed to get this out of the way as soon as possible so I could move on. But I cancelled my first appointment that was site for right before Christmas, because I really didn’t want to know. I re-scheduled for mid January and went in to peer what I simply refer to as my Cancer Doctor. He was immediately timorous because I had dropped 35 pounds in a matter of two months. I believed the weight loss was because of my grief over losing mom and the stress of the holidays and dealing with the pain of going on. He did not agree with me, he was extremely concerned and said he definitely need to do a colonoscopy right away and objective to be safe a EGD – esophagogastroduodenoscopy if the colon doesn’t give a clear conclusion as to why my weight is falling.

What are these tests? One is a pain in the ass and the other turns your stomach, and I’m not kidding.

The Colonoscopy is a visual examination of the large intestine (colon) using a lighted, flexible fiberoptic or video endoscope. Did you know your colon is 5 to 6 feet long? Ecstatic I could share that with you. The colon has a number of functions including withdrawing water from the liquid stool that enters it so that a formed stool is produced.

The EGD is a where a camera on the end of a long flexible tube is assign down into your esophagus (the tube that connects your mouth to your stomach) and the doctor looks for abnormalities from your throat all the way down to the first section of your small intestine. It’s often used to diagnose problems associated with stomach wound, ulcers, reflux, stomach cancer etc.

So that is what they are going to do, now let me share the fun preparation for these tests. Don’t think for a minute I am taking any of this lightly. But if I don’t have a little comic relief and humor in my life I would just sit and cry every itsy-bitsy of the day.

First you need to go to the drug store and buy an over the counter Fleet Prep Kit. The cost is about $8.00. This kit is for use as a bowel cleansing regimen in preparing patients for surgery or for preparing the colon for x-ray or endoscopic examination.

This is a 24 hour process. You wake up 24 hours prior and you can have a very light breakfast. I had as they suggested a poached egg and dry toast. That is it; prepare yourself, no more soiled food for the next 23 hours. From 12 noon on you need to drink obvious liquids from every hour on the hour. This can consist of water, strained fruit juices, lemonade, positive broth, coffee or tea, Gatorade and carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks without red or purple coloring, Jell-O without fruit, and ice popsicles. At 4:00 you take the Phospho-soda, this is one tablespoon with 8 fl ozs of chilly clear liquid repeated two more times within the next 20 minutes. Oh my gosh, I felt like I was going to throw up. It wasn’t the taste because I mixed it with Sprite and that worked really well. But it was the large amount of fluids that I had now swallowed and my body had already had enough. Within 30 minutes the “jog was on” bathroom and back, bathroom and back. It doesn’t take long for your color to start to positive. J. By 9 pm you have continued your 8 fl oz on the hour and are starting to win comely tired of the whole thing. My stomach was upset, I felt weak and the bathroom jogs were exhausting. 9 pm is however the magical time to add 4 Bisacodyl tablets to the mix. The cleansing cycle could begin again at any time but might wait until morning. Lucky for me I was able to sleep from 9 pm to 4 am before the cycle continued. I had to be up at 4 am anything to initiate to prepare to go to the hospital because my test were at 6 am and I had an hours drive to get there.

Don’t think the fun is over. I felt drained, crampy and really hoping this would all be over soon. The bathroom was my friend and my enemy. One hour before leaving for the exam your wake up call is a Bisacodyl Suppository. You lie on your side and remove the foil wrap from the suppository and insert it gently well up into your rectum. This is usually effective within 15 minutes to a 1 hour. But you must wait at least 15 minutes before evacuating, even if urge is strong. Lawful, that is what the package says, I was thinking, after 24 hours of laxatives, when the urges comes, I’m going. But it was about 15 minutes.

That is it! Now all you have to do is make it from the house to the hospital without an accident. This was a big worry for me. You must have someone drive you, because when you wake from the exam you are going to be really out of it. I made it to the hospital, even with one wrong 5 small turn mistake and as soon as I arrived, my body must have known because off I jogged.

I registered with the receptionist and then the nurse came and took me back to the opened curtain section they call your room. They immediately wanted me to pee in a cup, I’m like you have to be kidding, and I’m completely de-hydrated, what is this for. It is a pregnancy test. I had my tubes ties 5 years ago; girlfriend is not with child I mutter you. But my word was not enough, so I jogged on over to the public facility with my cup. Carried my cup back to my “private room” and set it on the tray. Now I put on my lovely designer gown, one style suits all, open in the back for everyone’s viewing pleasure. The nurse came in and said I’m going to give you an IV do you want numbing or not. I said, you kidding, experience has taught me if you are ever asked that question, take the drugs. She was starting the IV and I looked away as it was easier if I was not watching her I’m not fund of needles. Then she said did you feel it and I said a little and looked over, there was blood everywhere. Don’t ask me what she did, but I’ve never had anyone have peril setting me up with a vein for the IV. Just put me to sleep please! The anesthesiologist came in to talk to me. I told him I hope you are better with the gas then she was with the needle. He smiled, asked all the appropriate questions, allergies, medication I’m on, heart problems, when I ate last etc.

Finally then came to take me and off to the operating room we went. I could see what everyone was doing on camera and soon knew my butt would be in the air for everyone to see. As they placed the oxygen tube on my face, I said please just put me to sleep. She said has she approached with two needles of sleepy medicine it will only be one moment.

Catherine, Catherine wake up, it was over. So to break it down for you, it is simple even though it is not the best way to utilize your day, do it. If your doctor tells you to have a colonoscopy or EGD, don’t hesitate, don’t wait. It was 24 hours of jogging to the bathroom and a day of sleeping. That is well worth the answers you get and the results they can find. Remove the test. Please take the test. To read my results please spy Section II – MY LIFE ON THE ROCKS, CANCER AND LIQUOR and Part III – The Results.

Part II of Three Articles on cancer screening and results.

My Life on the Rocks, Cancer and Liquor

Pour me another!
Let’s do a shoot!
I’ll toast to that!
God, I need a drink!
I want to take a round for everyone!

Cessation before you retract that next glass of booze, you might want to read what I just found out and the research that is available to back it up. Since the early 1900s, alcohol consumption has been linked to cancer, the research shows that in cancer of the esophagus, stomach, liver, and even the breast are higher then the other cancers. Doctor’s know that the more alcohol you drink, the higher your risk, but the sincere role alcohol plays in cancer progression still remained a mystery.

Yesterday I woke from the colonoscopy and Esophagogastiodeoscopy (EGD). I was told to wait that the doctor wanted to talk to me before I left. I was still out of it due to the antithesis and trying not to descend asleep. The doctor came in and he started to show me some pictures they had taken of my colon and stomach. I have to tell you I became disquieted, really fast. Once someone starts talking about your body and that you might, even Might have cancer. Your heart sinks a little and the fear is overwhelming, you start fighting from the time the word is mentioned, well at least I did. The doctor found a polyp on my colon that they removed and found 3 polyps like growths on my stomach.

The doctor informed me that they would be taking the polyp they removed and the scrapping from my stomach and doing a biopsy to decide if they were cancer or if their was any other infections in my stomach. He handed me a flyer to take home and read. And as I read through it I was amazed at the amount of times alcohol was listed as a “possible cause” or “increased chance” of cancer.

I remember support a couple of months ago when my mom was suddenly diagnosed with an aggressive colon cancer. The doctors kept asking over and over about her drinking. Mom didn’t drink, they were searching for a reason the cancer was so aggressive and they all kept coming back to alcohol as the most accepted reason because it is known to speed up the process of cancer. But I can honestly say there was no connection in her case. She was not a drinker, so even though the research is showing that drinking alcohol is increasing the chance of cancer and progression, if you stop drinking it is not a guarantee that you have no worries. But in my case I have been a social weekend drinker since I was 21 and I started saying to myself, am I the only one that doesn’t really have full awareness of the relationship between that mixed drink, shot, glass of wine or beer? I started going on line and reading every research article on cancer and alcohol.

So you may have started to ask yourself how much alcohol it takes to increase a chances getting cancer. No one knows for certain, but even small amounts seem to make matters worse.

One study I read shows that for each 10 grams of alcohol consumed a day, the lifetime risk of a woman developing breast cancer increases by almost 10% (there are about 15 grams of alcohol in the usual single alcoholic beverage). For the average woman who has one drink a day, this means that her chances of being diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime would go from one in eight (12.5%) to about one in seven (about 14.25 %). In the United States, alcohol is estimated to form a contribution to breast cancer in about 1 in 50 of the cases diagnosed each year.

So then I wanted to know if I drink beer or wine, and not liquor, will that help my chances? Your thinking they have to be better then liquor right? Nice try, but it doesn’t appear that the type of alcohol one drinks makes any difference. Beer, wine and liquor all increase the risk of breast cancer, according to several recent studies. And here is the crazy part, from a cancer point of view; alcohol consumption is undesirable; whereas from a heart disease point of plan, low alcohol consumption may be beneficial.

Some researchers were hopeful that red wine, which has health benefits in other conditions such as heart disease, did not increase the risk of breast cancer. But that does not appear to be the case.

Another website listed a preliminary examine, shows, for the first time, that alcohol fuels the production of a growth factor that helps create new blood vessels inside a tumor… Production of these new blood vessels helps feed tumor cells. Based on their previous studies they say that light to moderate amounts of alcohol can induce new blood vessel

When you drink alcohol, the sensitive tissues of your upper-respiratory tract are directly exposed to alcohol in beverages, causing damage to cells and possibly initiating cancer. Cancer of the liver is probably preceded by alcoholic liver cirrhosis which develops after years of drinking. There is less known about how drinking alcohol affects the development of other cancers. So now I started to think, what can I do to lower my cancer risk? I was still hoping that the test results today will come back negative.

One thing you can do is choose not to drink alcohol, or choose to drink them only in moderation. That’s no more than 2 drinks per day for men and 1 for women.

1 drink =

1 bottle or can of beer (12 oz)

1 runt glass of wine (5 oz)

1 shot of 80 proof liquor (1.5 oz)

Yes, men can drink more then women and still be in a safer zone. Alcohol affects women and men differently. A woman’s body has more fat and less muscle than a man’s. Alcohol can be diluted into water-holding muscle tissue, but not into fat tissue. Therefore alcohol cannot be diluted as rapid in her body as in his. Also, a woman cannot metabolize alcohol as quick as a man. Therefore, alcohol stays in her bloodstream longer.

My final questions to myself: Will I stop drinking? Will the results of the test being negative or clear change what I choose to do? I have always been the one who lives life on the edge, I believe that you should live as though every day may be your last, every conversation might be the last one you have, and every sunrise is a chance to go for it all, every sunset is a gift that I might not gain it to tomorrow. I don’t stay out of the sun because it may cause cancer, I don’t smoke, just because I never did, but not because I’m afraid of cancer, I use my cell phone and my microwave although some people think that the radiation could cause cancer. To be honest the way the test comes back will make a big inequity. I don’t think I will completely stop drinking if the test is negative, but I might choose to order red wine instead of a Cosmo on a regular basis. At least I will be helping maintain my heart strong, right? If the test comes benefit and they teach me that I do have cancer I believe it will be a very early stage. Stage I for me will mean fighting with everything I have for every day I have. Then I will probably stop drinking to a great degree and maybe completely for some time, maybe completely for a life time. But I might smooth be sitting out in the sun getting a tan with a glass of lemonade.

I guess the bottom line is there is a risk in everything we do; we impartial have to decide which risks we are willing to take.

Part III of Three Articles on cancer screening and results.

Liquor Part III The Test Results

Your mind starts to wonder. Could I really have cancer? Am I afraid over nothing? Will I keep this to myself or will I content everyone? How will people react? I even started thinking about some of the things I had been putting off that I really want to do. I wanted to ride a Harley, take a cruise, and spend more time with dad. Then I started to think about what I owned and who to leave it to. It is a really weird feeling thinking of your life ending. I do not have children to carry on my name and identity and tell stories of what my life meant. Everything you have collected; your prize possessions probably won’t mean anything to anyone else. I mean who wants the cutting board you made in 8^th grade? What happens to your year books? Then you stop and say stop being silly, you are fine.

I called the doctors on Monday after 1 pm because I had not heard from them. The nurse told me that the stomach results were back and they were all negative. That was good news to begin the week. They did not have the results from the colon yet and they would call me as soon as they were available.

Soon it was Friday and they still had not called. I started to not think about it as much, as a matter of fact, I wasn’t as worried. I went with the theory that no news is genuine news. The weekend passed and life was getting back to normal.

Come Monday morning I called the doctor and the nurse was not available and said she would call me assist. I went on with me day, wishing they would just tell me know, so I could finish wondering and move on.

I thought about it a lot and I decided I would not tell people, I would not want anyone to know until it was to the point where I had no choice. After all, even if it was cancer it was in the very earlier stages and I am pretty healthy. So the fight would be my own, the fight would be quiet and hidden.

So the results now don’t matter, because I’m not going to tell you anyway. Well to be gorgeous, those that know I went for the test will may ask. I will tell them everything came back ok. I’m fine, now let’s go dancing! Don’t ever end dancing and don’t ever give up hope.