Colonoscopies for newbies

First - it's no big deal. Many people say the preliminary "cleaning out" is terrible, but to me it was no worse than a slight case of intestinal flue, and certainly no worse than the IBS with diarrhea I'd had for years. Since the laxative isn't the most tasty drink in the world, I use the same method that enabled me to change my kid's diapers years ago without giving in to my extremely sensitive gag reflex, I stuffed tissue paper up my nose! When you can't smell, it deadens your sense of taste a great deal. During the colonoscopy itself you'll be in a "twilight sleep", which means you won't know a thing till you come to in the recovery room. All in all it's one of the easiest procedures I've had done.

Summary of rectal cancer

I found the following article from the World Journal of Gastroenerology a pretty good summary of current treatment for rectal cancer. It's titled Modern management of rectal cancer: a 2006 update and can be found at http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/abstract_en.asp?f=3186&v=12.

Recommended Colorectal Cancer Links

While I work on my editorial I thought I'd post some links. Most of them are also recommeded by Entertainment Industry Foundation (Katie Couric is very involved). Entertainment Industry Foundation - www.eifoundation.org - This site has a map you can click on to see if your state requires insurance companies to cover colonoscomies for 50 year olds and how to lobby your legislators if needed. American College of Gastroenterology - www.acg.gi.org American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy - www.asge.org American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons - www.fascrs.org American Cancer Society - www.cancer.org Center for Disease Control - www.cdc.gov/screenforlife Cancer Research & Prevention Foundation - www.preventcancer.org Colon Cancer Alliance - www.ccalliance.org C3: Colon Cancer Coalition - www.c-three.org Colon Club - www.colonclub.com STOP Colon Rectal Cancer - www.coloncancerprevention.org Colon Cancer Network - www.colorectal-cancer.net National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship - www.cansearch.org Cancer Care - www.cancercare.org

Colonoscopies Save Lives

As a t3 rectal cancer patient starting 4 months of chemotherapy today, I want to see foundations and individuals do for colorectal cancer visability, funding, and research what the well publicized Susan Komen Race for a Cure has done for breast cancer. I don't begrudge them a thing, and admire their success, I just want to see a more effective effort on colorectal cancer.

Since their is no "pink ribbon, or other logo for colon cancer, I created the "scope at 50" logo myself. The round scope represents the shape of the colon, the scope lines are to represent the fact it is a scope (as in "I'm getting scoped Friday), and the target in the middle represents the fact the colorectal cancer could be targeting you if you're 50 or over.

I chose the tag line "Beat Colon Cancer" rather than the more typical "Fight Colon Cancer" because early detection in the polyp stage means one has beaten cancer before it even starts.

In addition to suggesting a more universal logo for colorectal cancer, I want to focus on two other areas:

1. Getting the word out to individuals to get scoped, it's painless and could save your life.

2. Getting individuals and others to lobby their state government to require insurance companies to approve a doctor's request for a colonoscopy for patients 50 or older - no ifs, ands, or butts (oops, buts).

My first steps are to figure out how to make it possible for anyone to downloand the new logo and add it to their email signature line, web site, letterhead, blog, facebook page, and any other location where it might influence people(I need a better image result than just having readers right-click and save a jpg). NEW - since this blog doesn't allow me to use a pdf image, I've added a link to my eccomerce site where the logo can be downloaded - www.numbersandletters.com

My second step is to try to get an editorial published in USA Today that outlines the above and what individuals can do to change things.

More on that later.