Dying of Embarrassment: Colon Cancer is No Laughing Matter
It’s happened to all of us, at one time or another: Embarrassment. Your face gets flushed, your heart races, you might even cry when it happens. It’s something we hope will never happen. We take great care in making sure it doesn’t. Well, most of us. I tend to be that person who will do or say just about anything to make someone laugh. That is, if it’s on my own terms. Making a joke is fine; being the joke is a different ballgame. In addition, while I may make light of colonoscopy and its prep, colon cancer is no laughing matter. Discussing colon screenings with your doctor should never bring embarrassment.
As a youth director at my church, I have done some crazy things. I put on a giant chicken suit and attempted to ice skate, died my hair green and even dressed up like Grandma Snooki for Halloween, making myself the “butt of the joke,” so to speak. But walking out of the bathroom with my skirt tucked in my pantyhose would turn me four shades of red like anyone else.
As we grow older, the things that tend to embarrass us change. As children, we are mortified to be picked last for the kick-ball team. Teenagers want to crawl under a rock when their parents show public displays of affection. Some adults have nightmares of being naked in a public place or worry about toilet paper stuck to their shoes. And haven’t we all witnessed these situations and thought, “I would die of embarrassment if that happened to me?”
While those awful moments do happen, they don’t actually kill us. They may cost us some money in therapy fees, but usually the red fades from our face as does the moment. And most of the time, life moves on. Most of the time, but not always. Being too embarrassed to have a screening colonoscopy can indeed kill you.
Sometimes you just have to get over it. Yes, you have to talk about poop with a doctor, but he talks about poop all day, so it’s not a big deal. During the prep you have to claim dibs on the closest bathroom for a several hours and make a lot of courtesy flushes. Who cares? You pay for the dang water bill, right? And then the one thing most people are embarrassed by the most – during the procedure they will indeed place a camera where the sun doesn’t shine. Well, the good news is that it won’t matter to you then, thanks to the ‘happy medicine’ they give you.
Having a screening colonoscopy is way less embarrassing than being picked last for kickball or having toilet paper stuck to your shoe. Think how stupid you’d feel if you ever have to hear a doctor tell you they could have treated the cancer sooner if you just would have come in for a regular screening. To find out if you need to schedule a screening, find a specialized physician near you.
Don’t let fear of embarrassment keep you from getting a colon cancer screening. Take it from someone who knows – there’s much more to be embarrassed about. Really, it’s not that bad.
Tags: beating colon cancer, colon cancer blogs, colon cancer is no laughing matter, colon screenings, deadly embarrassing, die of embarrassment, dying of embarrassment, embarrassing moments, preventing colon cancer, Prevention Info, talking about poop with your doctor, things that embarrass us