Dear You (and You and Anyone who might benefit from reading this),
I am your gut. In your language I can be a noun for the most part, but you've also morphed me into an adjective, a verb, and dare I say, a transitive verb. If the language is in German, that is.
I am writing to acknowledge your compliance for having gone through one of the, if not the most, least liked medical procedure that is yet the most painless of anything you had ever gone through. In fact, you don't even have a memory of the actual procedure itself, do you? Anyway, thank you for going through it. I am relieved and I must say that although most anyone would rather not talk about it, it is worth going through it.
So, I will do the talking instead. Later, below, we will look at the bad news/good news around the subject.
The truly pragmatic of any of you will say that I am nothing more than a food processor. I am that, yes. But unlike any inanimate kitchen appliance that can remain inactive, even unplugged for days and weeks, even months at a time, without having to process anything, I require to be fed and quenched everyday. You can skip a meal for a day, as you just did for the recent procedure, but you know to never miss a drink. And drink here refers to water. I know from time to time you'd rather have something other than plain water. In moderation, you will not likely get any complaints from me. Overdo it and I show my displeasure in many ways that can only be described as regretful. On your part. For me, I take some, I lose some.
You've known this drill since you turned 50. Remember when the company you worked for still had a medical department that occupied the entire 7th floor of the 27-floor edifice on Louisiana Avenue? It had a full medical staff of one chief medical doctor, nurses and full time clerks, a reasonably well equipped medical clinic. Part of what the department did was conduct physical exam for new job applicants while the other part was focused on yearly physical for employees 40-50 years old and older or attend to minor medical and emergency needs of employees working at the downtown facilities. The department also kept medical records for all employees. Since then, even long before you retired, such department was abolished when all of what it did were outsourced due to changes in medical insurance and benefits and federal statutes.
At 50, you had the procedure done for the first time, then ten years after that and three more since at 3-year intervals, including this latest one. It should have been last year but Covid 19 pushed it a year back. It still begs the question: Why the need to go through it at certain intervals?
Webster's basic definition:
"\ ˈgət \
DIGESTIVE TRACT
also : part of the digestive tract and especially the intestine or stomach"
As part of your digestive system, after you eat and drink, after each mouthful, past the chewing and the swallowing, I am where every morsel of food and every drop of liquid goes, to get broken down into nutrients and waste. There are other parts of your body which will claim all kinds of wonders they do for you and I do not begrudge any of them but, modesty aside, it all begins with me. Each one of them will require energy. I alone can convert the food and drink you consume into useable energy. I am so versatile that I can serve vegetarian and omni dieters and switch hitters without any re-tooling of my system
From the day you were born, from the moment you were off your mother's umbilical life support system, I was all there was and is, as we speak, to process every piece of food and drink you take. By now, you should know what the adage meant by "You are what you eat". And drink.
Let me qualify that. There is heredity, first of all. Culture too, perhaps. The nature of your job, the stresses of the daily grind of life, influences from family and friends in what food you consume and how, all play a role. I can go on and on but in the end you need this procedure once you get past 50 as "preventive screening and health surveillance" of the digestive tract - a euphemism for colorectal cancer screening. It is a mouthful, I know, no pun intended, but, in a word - though it would still take five syllables to say it - colonoscopy says it in a nutshell. I remember the first time you heard it said by the company doctor, when you seemed overwhelmed by it but you were told that it was a potential lifesaver if the screening is done at mid-life. Sooner for some, actually, if symptoms materialize that will require it.
People dread it for the "before" and not the "during" nor the "after". Also, the "prep" drink is now a far cry from what you used to take which some of you labeled a gallon of pure medical "water torture". How was it this time? It was a merciful half a gallon at 16-ounce cocktail at split-dosage intervals from early evening before to the early hours prior to the procedure. A lot more forgiving, wasn't it? Restricted diet from three days before remained unchanged from the previous ones.
The Bad News
Colorectal cancer, based on the chart below, is at the top for mortality rates, second only to lung cancer. While this is from the Finnish Cancer Registry, I realize it is reflective of the world population in relative terms. And this is the best chart I could find. The other bad news is that I am hidden from view 100% of the time, unless through colonoscopy or other internal examination of your body.
On the other hand, it has better survival ratio than four other types of cancer. It is not the best of news but it could be great, if detected early through regular surveillance.
So, go get it! It might save your life.
I am also fully aware of the sad reality that it is for much of the world a very expensive screening procedure that populations at large may not be able to afford. That is the sad part. The happy part is that for many I am a very formidable fortress. I can defend myself most of the time. What distresses me though is when those privileged to have the wherewithal to get me checked out with little or no cost and they don't do it.
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