Reply #29: I'm not a doctor. . .

[buzzycrumbhunger]

but I transcribe these by the hundreds. The procedure takes all of about 5-10 minutes. They normally give you Versed and Demerol or fentanyl to knock you into a twilight sleep (not fully anesthetized). Every once in a while, you get some macho fool who insists on NO sedative, and the odds are split as to whether the doc relating the tale will be laughing about it or sucking wind because it's so unpleasant to watch. (It can't be easy to get them to be still with a camera snaking its way up to the small bowel.)

Family history or previous polyps, they're going to have you come in more often, but if they find nothing, they'll tell you 8-10 years is often enough. Considering that colon cancer is such a major killer (mostly from the fact that it later metastasizes to other organs, especially the liver), it's really a minor inconvenience. If you've got insurance that covers preventive care, there's no reason not to take advantage of it.

In my experience, male and female doctors are trained the same way and don't really seem to differ in how they treat men V women. The bigger difference seems to be that some are less pushy about prescribing expensive procedures and others seem to view it as their bread and butter. A couple days a week running people through the endoscopy suite is probably a good racket. I get the feeling it often takes them longer to dictate the report at the end than it did to actually deal with the patient.