TN50#193_Getting To The Bottom Of Your Health Issues_04 March_2025
Hi Team,
Cue the Star Track Music.
“Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
Star Date, 04 March 2025, Our Mission: To explore the far reaches of a new frontier. To include the following sectors: Sigmoid, Cecum, Hepatic Flexure, Terminal Ilium and the Traverse.
Stop the music, stop the music! Ok if you haven’t picked up on the joke yet, this article is about colonoscopies. My recent colonoscopy – as in the one I had this morning. If you don’t have a colon or know anyone middle aged or older, who has a colon, you can probably skip this one. If not… Let’s GO!
Happy Tuesday and welcome to The Next 50 #193 I like to think of personal performance in 3 components: physical, mental and emotional. My framework focuses on 4 Buckets: Eat, Sleep, Move and Think. This blog is my sandbox for sharing information that you might find useful for your personal performance.
Still here? Good! Ok, approximately 6 hours ago I was waking up in a pool of my own drool wondering where the heck I was… As I came to, I wondered when they were going to start the incredibly invasive procedure then I slowly realized I was in a different, quitter room, my cheek was covered in my own drool and my entire body felt about 8 feet thick. Colonoscopy complete!
Globally, Colorectal Cancer is the 3rd leading cause of cancer deaths with a body count of 930,000 people in 2020.
And before we get back to the more lighthearted and cheeky parts of this story, here’s the other big takeaway:
“The purpose of a colonoscopy is to look not only for full-fledged tumors but also for polyps (like the one they found in me this morning pictured above in the yellow box – Alex add) which are growths that form in the lining of the colon. Most polyps remain small and harmless and never become cancerous, but some have the potential to become malignant and invade the wall of the colon. Not all polyps become cancer, but all colon cancers come from polyps. This is what makes a colonoscopy such a powerful tool. The endoscopist is able not only to spot potentially cancerous growths before they become dangerous but also to intervene on the spot, using instruments on the colonoscope to remove polyps for later examination. It combines screening and surgery into one procedure. It’s an amazing tool.” (Attia, Outlive, page 169)
I had my first colonoscopy 3 years ago. I had heard all the horror stories about the “bowel prep” pain cave you are in the night before the procedure, but I didn’t find the night of prep to bad 3 years ago. Unfortunately I hadn’t seen the part of my instructions about not eating any nuts and seeds for 7 days prior to the procedure until I was 4 days out. When I called the office and explained that I had continued to eat nuts and seeds 3 days longer than I was supposed to, the clinician said, “It should be fine, lets continue as planned”. So we did. On that first go, the doctor found one polyp in the same area of my colon as the polyp they found today, the Sigmoid; unfortunately 3 years ago the doctor wasn’t happy overall because my prep hadn’t completely cleared all the debris from the area and she didn’t feel good about the effectiveness of the examination of my colon because her colonoscope’s camera view wasn’t completely clear.
Based on the notes from my first screening, 3 years ago, my current doctor upped my prep prescription from Colon Blow-1000, to Colon Blow-10X-5000, of which I drank half-a-gallon starting at 6 pm yesterday evening and the other half-a-gallon starting at midnight, 6 hours before my check in for the procedure this morning. And this time I did remember to stop all the snacking on nuts and seeds in a timely manner, not that any nuts and seeds would have stood a chance against the CB-10X-5000; this second prep was 100% and then some, effective. Needless to say, it was a long sleepless night (-:
My time at the hospital this morning was a breeze, everyone on my care team was kind and in a good mood even though their morning commute involved a little new snow on the roads and parking lots. My doctor was sharp and his in-brief and out-brief was very clear and very professional. I was back home in less than 4 hours, door to door.
It is interesting to me that I had developed another polyp in the same area of my Sigmoid colon where the doctor found one 3 years ago, and it couldn’t have been that she missed it 3 years ago as this lower part of my colon was clear 3 years ago, the debris were in a different area of the structure.
SO WHAT?
So what does it mean that I am 2 for 2 on having a polyp found and removed during 2 colonoscopies, 3 years apart? Even though they were the harmless variety, it means I am considered high risk for colon-cancer-surveillance, meaning I should get another screen in 3 – 5 years. And considering the risk I’ll be heading back in 3 years. God willing there will be a better prep available compared to drinking a gallon of CB-10X-5000 (not it’s real name)!
So why don’t I use mail in colon screening kits? The mail in kits are pretty effective at identifying cancer from what I understand, butt they don’t identify pre-cancerous polyps and remember what Dr Attia wrote, “all colon cancers come from polyps”. Now, considering colon cancer can develop very quickly, maybe I’ll do the mail in screenings over the next 2 years then go back in for the deluxe treatment in 2028!
If you absolutely refuse to get a colonoscopy then you should absolutely be using the mail in kits.
Last statistics:
- For you men out there, colorectal cancer is the number 1 cancer assassin for men under the age of 50;
- For you ladies, it’s number 2, right behind breast cancer.
Who do you know that could use this information? I bet you can think of a couple of people before you click the next email, please share the post with your team and anyone who might find it useful and let me know what you think!
Have a good one,
Alex
PS. Questions on your personal performance? Let me know at: alex@fpp.llc
PPS. If you’re new to First Principles Performance Coaching, here’s a one stop shop for my stuff.
PPPS. Ready to improve your Physical, Mental and Emotional Capacity? Email me so I can introduce you to my suite of Better Basics Performance Coaching Programs! alex@fpp.llc
Header Photo by Yvette de Wit on Unsplash
