Thread: Get those med tests

Tweet

Just a reminder to all the guys who think they're imortal like when they were 22- There are 2 simple medical tests you need to get if you're past 40. The rectal cancer sigmoidiscope goes fast and is painless- it's just the idea, right?

For prostate cancer get a simple PSA blood test. Go further than just the digital exam. Feeling the prostate for size has no absolute link to cancer. Get the blood test too.

I hate medical tests. But I know that they are a necessity for those of us who do not believe in immortality or reincarnation.

Very, very good advice Twitch!!!!! Because they discovered 2 cancerous pollops the first time, I get mine every year now.....with no reoccurance so far..... But had I not had that initial test 10 years ago, I'd of probably died of cancer by now.... Which some around here I suppose would have considered that to be good news!!!!

Denny- exact same thing happened to local car friend. Supposedly they told him a person can get as many a 10 stents. !!!

Wow Denny, didn't know that happened to you!!! Hope you are doing well bud.

That brings up another test everyone over 40 should do.........a stress test once a year to see how the heart is doing. When I had my heart attack about 18 years ago (at 43 ) the Doctors told me if I had been having stress tests they could have probably prevented it.

Don

An aquaintence of mine just went in for his first ever colon exam.
The doctor found 48 polyps. I was floored.. 48... my god the chances of one of them being cancer at his age is big time. If someone you know, or even you, hasn't had it done ...don't wait a minute more.

John

Good advice.
I have had a few polyps removed twice, so far, so good. Last month, they drained 3 thyroid cysts - so far - ok, but a further check up will be made at the end of May. PSA, blood pressure and cholesterol are still within reason, but I do have my yearly physical - and I don't take any pills(YET) except the vitamins my wife puts alongside my dinner plate every night

Ain't it fun getting old

I'm on a two year cycle for the colonoscopy drill (my cruder aircrafter buddies refer to it as a "borescope" inspection).

The first one I had was close to forty years ago and was brutal. Extremely painful, but don't let me scare anybody off. Huge advances have been made, not only in that procedure but in just about everything else medical. For my more recent examinations I have been either heavily sedated or zonked out completely and they haven't been bad at all.

So do It!

I guess the worst part is having to drink some grim tasting stuff then dealing with the result of having done so.

And, yes, they have found some polyps, but dealing with them wasn't too tough either.

Thanks for bringing the subject up, Twitch.


Jim

Originally Posted by 41willys

Ain't it fun getting old

"Getting old isn't for sissies".....now, WHO was it that said that? as he wanders off, mumbling to himself.

I was taught at a rather tender age, I thought, in a rather elite school of learning, SL University, Sin Loi University (those that are alumni will know where), just how fragile life is, have tried to make the best of what time I have been given, and not take for granted or assume anything.

My dad is 93 years old and still is reasonably good health because he gets the tests done. He would died years ago without these.I am 68 and can say the sane thing. SO PLEASE GET THEM DONE Francis

I need to get off my arse and start on mine, im only 33, but its getting about that time.

I'm only 26, and allready on blood pressure medication. Went to the doctor last year for a sinus infection, and as part of the routine they checked my blood pressure. It was through the roof, so high they said I could have a stroke.
The kicker is, I'm 155 pounds dripping wet, have perfect cholesterol levels, don't drink or smoke. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I never vent my frustrations, I just bottle everything up.

Maybe I should take one of those stress tests.

You know, one of these days I'm going to have my nervous breakdown, I've worked hard for it, and nobody's going to keep me from having it.

Originally Posted by hotroddaddy

I need to get off my arse and start on mine, im only 33, but its getting about that time.

I agree and I need to do the same. I turned 35 this past week and I need to get some things checked out too.

I haven't thought about this in a while; but, the relevance of this particular posting reminded me of a guy that I would consider a friend of mine even though we didn't really run with the "same crowd" or really "pal around" with each other.

My highschool economics teacher who was actually also one of my football coaches, (Mark) was a great guy. Oddly enough, he actually also became a fairly good friend to me over the years. He of course was older than I was by what seemed like quite a bit at the time; but he was one of the coolest teachers you could ever have. In fact, he and his wife (Holly) took my best friend from highschool (Ian) and I out to dinner as a graduation gift shortly after we graduated.

He had always seemed to appreciate our particular sense of humor and seemed to let us get away with bit more than some of our classmates. In fact, our Senior year, Ian and I had him arrested by one of the local Sherriff's department officers on a "trumped up" charge during class one day as a practical joke. He got a pretty big kick out of the whole thing.

So anyway, not too long after I got stationed at McChord (1992), I found out that he and Holly had both taken teaching jobs down in Olympia and moved out here to Washington. So, I got around to tracking down a number for them and gave him a call.

We visited for a few minutes on the phone and I invited he and Holly to join my girlfriend and I for dinner. In fact, I told him I owed him one anyway and I would even pay. He told me that he'd love too; but, wouldn't be able to make it because he was scheduled for a "minor procedure" at the local hospital. He went on to tell me that he had been having some problems going to the bathroom for a while now, and that he was now starting to have problems digesting food and so he was going in to get it taken care of.

So, anyway, I ended up going to visit him in the hospital the day after his "procedure" and we had a great visit. He told me that the doctors had removed a small part of his intestine and that they seemed to think that "this might do the trick" but that there were a few more tests they were going to run before he was to check out the following day.

Anyway, we visited for probably 2 1/2 to 3 hours, laughing and joking about the arrest warrent he'd been served as well as a few other things that had happend. He told me stories of his new job and leaving the old one. He asked me about my job and gave me updates on all the kids I had gone to school with etc. Finally, we agreed to get together sometime within the next month or two for dinner and a few drinks, and I left to let him get some rest.

About 3 weeks after this, I was sent on a Temporary Duty Assignment (TDY) for a short period of time (2 weeks) to Pope AFB in NC. Right after this TDY, I had scheduled some leave to go on a fishing trip with my buddy Ian, who also happened to be in the AF at the time, stationed in Great Falls MT. So, when I got back into town, one of the very first things I did was called Ian to verify that the trip was still on, and he broke the news to me, Mark was dead. Cancer was the culprit.

You could have knocked me over with a feather, I was so stunned. In fact, at first I argued with him and told him I'd just seen Mark and Holly about a month and a half before this and there was no way that could be right. He then read me the obituary that he had copied down over the phone while talking to his parents, and it finally started to sink in. At some point after that, my roomate at the time, who had un-intentionally, overheard one end of the conversation, looked up at me and told me that I had gotten a phone call from "a Holly" while I was gone, and that she had wanted me to give them a call as soon as I could. I can still remember the chill that ran down my spine when he told me that.

So, Ian and I canceled our fishing trip and made plans instead to attend the funeral. I didn't even unpack my bag, I just loaded it up in my truck, went into my duty section, signed and turned in my leave paperwork and drove to Idaho for the funeral.

It was there that Holly told me that they were informed of the diagnosis the morning after I left his hospital room. The cancer had evidently started in his colon and had already spread pretty much throughout his entire body and was eating him alive by the time he went in. He had simply put it off too long. I guess they also told them that there wasn't really anything that they could do at that point to stop it, all they could do was make him comfortable because it had spread so far. So, they made a decision, and checked him out of the hospital and they went back to SE Idaho so that they could be around family, and he died while I was in NC.

He was only 34.

I know that they say that you don't have to have "the tests" until your over 40; but, if you suspect that something isn't working right, don't wait for the checks at 40 to find out why.

Dutch

I talked to some friends who had the colonoscopy procedure and described it as very painful. I was scheduled for it, so I made an appointment with the doc ahead of time. I told him that I had a very low threshold for pain and that if he hurt me, we were going to have a serious problem with each other after the procedure. I think he was visualizing a gasoline fire by the time I got through. I asked him if I had scared him and if he wanted me to find another doc. He said no, that he was able to do the procedure without any pain whatsoever. When the day arrived, he had two nurses standing alongside him administering happy juice into my veins. Just enough so that I was still conscious and could move around as per his instructions, but felt no pain at all.

If you're scheduled for the procedure, go and have a sit-down with the doc like I did. Although they are exceptional and highly regarded individuals, they are still only humans who put their pants on the same way you do. Talk with him eyeball to eyeball and make him understand that you will not tolerate pain during the procedure. If he balks or hems and haws, find another doc.