I lost my mother in 1993. She was only 53. She died of advanced colon cancer that had already metastasized to her liver. Eventually the cancer invaded her bones, causing excruciating pain. In the midst of all this, she spent the last year of her life being poked and prodded by doctors, with surgery and chemo and radiation. It was not a year of quality life, it was a year of agony, until she finally died. Even her last moments were agonizing, because the hospice doctor was more concerned about his license to practice than alleviating my mother's intractable pain.
This was not a way I wanted to go out. I really should have, by rights, had my first colonoscopy 10 years ago, because a first-degree relative (mom) died of severe colorectal cancer. But it was only this year, thanks to the extension of MediCal, (Medicaid in California) that I was finally able to get my colonoscopy. I am 50, and according to accepted medical guidelines it was time for a person of normal background to get a baseline colonoscopy.
Needless to say, this was something that scared me, big time. My health journey after the fold.
I knew for a fact I didn't want to go out like my mom. I am pretty much a confirmed agnostic at this point...classically so, I don't think that people can really and truly know if there is or is not a Supreme Being out there until the end of their lives. So I have no religious compunctions against either refusing medical treatment or hastening my death if I needed to do so because the pain became too much. I had to steel myself for the possibility they would find something major, because my mom had been diagnosed at such an advanced point at a relatively young age.
My mother's late diagnosis and my own situation had one thing in common: up until recently I had little access to health care. I got simple illnesses and injuries taken care of at the clinic El Proyecto del Barrio in Arleta. (The term is "Band-Aid Care.") But if I had something really serious, I'd be completely screwed. Unless it was sufficiently serious to where charity care might be available.
My mom didn't have access to health care either, in spite of the fact that she was a secretary for a medical group. When she agreed to work at the medical group, she was assured that the doctors there would "take care of" her. "No need to worry, you're family here." However, when the rubber hit the road, and unexplained anemia showed up on routine blood panels, the doctors of the medical group did not investigate it further. They told her to take iron pills and eat more red meat. However, the anemia persisted. The doctors shrugged their shoulders and told mom "you're still of childbearing age, these things happen."
It was only when my mom was found passed out in her bathroom, bleeding out her rectum, that she was finally diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer. If she had access to real health care, if everybody in, nobody out health care was a reality and not a political impossibility as some say it is, her colorectal cancer might have been caught at an earlier, curable point. The doctors might have looked further into her anemia, and found its source.
Obamacare is not perfect, nor is MediCal. But it's given me access to the one test I needed, something that would have cost me thousands of dollars out-of-pocket. I have to be clear: fasting for over 36 hours is a pain, drinking two bottles of Magnesium Citrate is a pain, and dealing with, shall we say, overactive bowels is painful too. But nothing was worse than the anticipation of what might be found by the colonoscopy. I cried, I felt alone, I was scared.
Upshot? One teeny tiny polyp was found. Almost too small to see. It is likely that this is a pre-cancerous polyp, not one that has changed. I have yet to find out about the pathology reports on the tiny little thing, but I didn't get an urgent call so I'm guessing it wasn't anything to worry about. I'm not going to let this go, mind you...I will be self-advocating for getting checked on a regular and frequent basis. I cannot get complacent here. I am thankful that nothing scary was found in the colonoscopy. It won't lull me into a false sense of security.
UPDATE BREAKING: Just talked to Dr. Desigan, the GI specialist who did my colonoscopy. The polyp found was completely benign. He told me I should go back in three years because of my strong family history, but otherwise I have a clean bill of colonic health. W00t!