Tim Blair on fight vs cancer
I blogged last week how top Australian blogger Tim Blair is needing surgery for cancer.
Tim has an article in The Daily Telegraph on how he missed all the warning signs. It’s a useful read for men especially, and despite the subject is very funny at times. Some extracts:
I was now more than two months into my new life of pain, and hadn’t thought to ask it myself.
Around the same time, distressing new symptoms appeared. Toilets shouldn’t generally be filled with blood, but one morning mine looked like the Japanese had been harvesting humpbacks in there.
Politically incorrect and a gross visual image!
Now, rectal exams remain an issue with men, who are urged to submit once we turn 50 and commence our bowel cancer years.
I’m here to tell you – they aren’t so bad. The trick is to focus on something distracting while the procedure is under way.
Like, for example, the sturdy handle on the wall next to the specialist’s exam table. It’s fascinating. Why is it there? It seems entirely redund . . . OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED JESUS CHRIST SOMEONE HAS PARKED A FREAKING BUS UP ME!
Having had such an exam myself, I can entirely relate to the sensation caused by a sigmoidoscope. Words can’t do it justice!
But there is one bright side to all of this:
Incidentally, I’m now on prescription painkillers so effective I can watch An Inconvenient Truth without flinching
Heh.
January 25th, 2008 at 11:51 am
“sigmoidoscope” …Doctors, and their wierd sense of humour.
January 25th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Funnily enough yesterday I had my colon checked at Greenlane Hospital. They used the new MRI machine so nothing invasive.They took 4 photoes which took 10 seconds each. Very quick.The worst part was the “cleansing” the day before and the pressure from the air they put in you to expand your colon. Releasing said air was most amusing for my two year old!
My reasons for doing it?No problems but I’m 48 and I want to see my child grow up.
Every man over 45 should have it done and also the prostate thingy.
January 25th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Some painkillers.
And speaking of an inconvient truth, this’ll perk Tim up…
http://en.rian.ru/science/20080122/97519953.html
Probably in the pay of big oil.
January 25th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
as a 51 year old, I do not understand how anyone could not see a doctor once a year. Surely most men see their dentist twice a year – how can a doctor’s visit be more uncomfortable than that. Just basic peventative medicine.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
And speaking as a prostate survivor, gedda PSA test. Now. It’s a simple bloods, so no excuse. If your doctor is not interested, gedda nother doc.
January 25th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
BRAVE MAN , all i can say if men had a same number of checks as ladies have their checks, your mates would still be here (i worry about posting my thoughts now as my blunt way brings demerites, and its not a pleasure posting as the working printer, not a white collar geek isnt required on this blog , ps you talk about it ,i have printed it.,i like this blogg, have a good evening folks
January 25th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
While not being envious of a sigmoidoscope which looks a mighty awful object that brings tears to my eyes, it never ceases to amaze me how many men insist that their female partner might try for a little rear pleasure, yet welch at the thought of an well lubed examination for their own good?
I guess like all good things, it only hurts the first time.
January 25th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Kate, you have a good point, except I’ve never seen a penis that is as long as a sigmoidscope (heh you may have though) and especially not one with curves designed to allow it to go up that extra distance
January 26th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I had the whole colonsocopy thing a few years back, and guess it is time for another one. Trouble is, here in New Zealand you either wait until you have cancer or pay to go private. My brothers in Australia had the same check up and none of them waited more than a month.
And Kate – usually the insisting of a little rear pleasure takes place in the context of sex. Having Dr Strangeglove exploring your nethers with a 1:1 scale replica of the Hubble telescope is not a valid comparison.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Brian,
They dont do the camera thing right up there anymore. Thats what I was expecting but instead got the MRI. Yes, I was delighted….I was not looking forward to it.
You should be checked every 5 years I’m told.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:22 am
About time – take it like a man. Hope they warmed it up for you first.