Colon Cancer Awareness

March is Colon Cancer Awareness month. To celebrate and increase awareness, a large inflatable colon was set up in Times Square on Friday. (There's a nice joke in there about yet another ass from New York that's full of hot air, but I'm certainly not going to be the one to make it.)

I don't usually promote awareness of other cancers, but a couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with someone, and the inflatable colon reminded of it.

Which says something about the people I have conversations with.

It was a conversation with someone who is of an age where he needs to start thinking about getting a colonoscopy, which is, of course, one of the best methods of early detection for possible colon cancer problems. And it's an easy way, too.

Which is what our conversation was about: all of the build-up that seems to have been placed around colonoscopies, like they're the worst thing in the world.

Here's the deal: you need to take some stuff that makes you uncomfortable for a few hours. And then it's over. And when you get the scope, you have the option of being knocked out. You wake up and it's over. You leave the office and get an Egg McMuffin and stay home from work for the rest of the day and that's it. Just deal.

Because, as I told the person I spoke with, the other option is potentially having colon cancer. So, your choice: a few hours of discomfort, or a few months or years of a lot more discomfort. I'll skip the details of the second option.

So, lymphoma patients, get your colonoscopies anyway.
Caregivers, get a colonoscopy; you know what cancer is like, and you know you want to avoid it.
Friends and relatives of lymphoma patients: get one. Don't get cancer. No fair stealing all that attention from the cancer patient in your life.