Don't hold me to that list of who is paying what benefits, it's early in the morning and I don't have the luxury of time. I'm going to be 50 this year, and so, when I saw that NYT article about the dreaded turning-50 test (colonoscopy) I had to read it. I though I could tie it to the "ageism" article I mentioned above. It didn't work, it wouldn't work and it couldn't work, because I don't like either of them. I had nothing positive to bounce off of. Trying to uplift two things you don't agree with, or don't like, it's nearly impossible. I say nearly because I'm sure there is somebody who could ;)
I haven't had the colonoscopy, so I don't necessarily have the experience of saying I don't like it because I went and lay down, on my side, trough it. But, according to what I read in the article, it's invasively uncomfortable.
Hence, I'll just leave you with a short from the long article of the subtle scourge of "ageism" at Silicon Valley.
Over lunch it became clear that Stamos (a startup entrepreneur) is preoccupied with age—not so much his own, but with the way his industry fetishizes kids with little insight into the questions he considers worthy. At one point, he complained that “listening is a really hard skill for young folks.”
Stamos is fond of telling a story about sitting down with an engineer whom an acquaintance had referred to him for advice. “I meet with the kid and he’s twenty-one, twenty-two,” Stamos recalls. “He was smart. A Harvard computer-science major.” The kid said he’d already done two start-ups and was looking to try a third. His previous venture was a website where women could enter their medical information and find out which one of hundreds of birth-control pills suited them best, with the least amount of side effects. The website would arrive at the answers by trawling bulletin boards and chat rooms across the Web and learning from other people’s experiences.
“Really, you got this funded?” Stamos asked. Yes, said the kid. “But it obviously didn’t work out,” Stamos replied. Right, said the kid. At which point Stamos began to piece together what must’ve happened. “You collected the data and realized a lot of the data out there is horrible, and you couldn’t make sense of it,” he said. The kid allowed that this was true. “You probably talked to CVS—everyone talks to CVS. And they thought it was the best thing since sliced cheese, but they were never willing to buy it.” Again the kid said yes. “Then you realized that anything you’re doing that has to be regulated, like making medical recommendations, requires FDA approval.” By now the kid was demanding to know how Stamos had guessed all of this. “You see these gray hairs?” he said. “It’s the classic model everyone goes through. I know it from Phase Forward.”
26 comments:
The colonoscopy is nothing to worry about. Think of yourself as Cartman with that giant folding antennae up your ass. Did you ever see that episode? Some years ago, my doctor gave me a nice dose of Demerol, not enough to completely knock me out, and let me watch the Journey to the Center of My Ass on a TV screen.
Nowadays, the doc just knocks me out.
Yes, the kids can learn a lot from us old farts. Some want to. Some don't. I think employers should be able to hire whoever the hell they want. In the tech industry, sometimes that would mean valuing experience. Sometimes, the ability to park your ass in a chair in the cubicle for days on end is what's needed, and the kids are better at that.
And, you're only 50?
Geez, what a baby!
Lem sez ....
I'm going to be 50 this year,...
Speed bump, ole boy...and you will be eligible to join AARP!
And like ST says, they can put you under during the big rectal exam.
Actually...the worst part is drinking all that crap fluid (about a gallon) the night before.
You lay down and take a little nap (think Bill Cosby and his tonsillectomy, "Count backwards from 100" "O-").
PS 50 isn't a bad age.
they can put you under during the big rectal exam.
Oh yea? I thought you had to be awake.
Lem...apparently no one told my doctors, or ST's either. It is a mild form of sedation, however, most people do not recall a thing.
When they were searching for potential other locations for the cancer I had in my right lung (a bad PET Scan led everyone on a wild goose chase) I had endoscopies of every possible orifice, top to bottom, repeatedly, and finally a biopsy or two via that method...I never saw or felt a thing.
You will be out, so the prep is the hard part.
Be sure to take a day or two before and eat mainly clear liquids, no meat or fiber. Follow the directions for the prep liquid.
Why?
If you ain't cleaned out, you get to do it again!
Don't venture far from the toilet during the Poop-a-thon!
Well, first things first.
I still have to sign up for the plan that is going to pay.
I haven't sign up for ObamaCare.
After trashing it so much, it must be some kind of punishment.
My part time employment doesn't provide insurance.
Lem:
I had the procedure, and as others said, it's the prep that's a pain. I basically had a night without any sleep, which makes me miserable. Plus staying close to the bathroom. And jello and chicken broth can only do so much.
The procedure itself was a breeze. I actually wanted to be awake, but they folks prepping me made the credible point that my being awake makes the medicos' job harder. So I let them give me the sedative.
Afterward, I was very impatient to get out of there -- they were treating me like a wilting violet. I was eager to get to Big Boy's, or wherever we ended up, for a huge breakfast!
And they didn't find a thing, thank God.
And, yeah, it costs. My insurance covered part of it; I paid the rest.
"people get old and slow down".
I have no idea what you are talking about here.
Yesterday would have been a great day for a colonoscopy. I don't know what it was I ate the night before, but I lost 6 lbs in 8 hours overnight. I was completely emptied of all contents over a night of severe cramps and wandering back and forth to the bathroom. Still sick the next morning I went to work, because that's what I do, and found that 10 people called in sick with the same thing, young and old, men and women. It was the weekend, so none of us even had contact for 2 days, so that's kind of weird. Anyway, it only lasted 1 day for most us.
When you're an Old Dawg...
It's all about the pooping!
So long as that is still happening, you're OK!
I'm scheduled for one in June. I had one 10 years ago after my brother had one and they found non malignant polyps. There was nothing in me.
I'm concerned about the prep this time because the exam is scheduled for the AM and they prescribed three self applied enemas in lieu of the overnight fluid flush method. I'm skeptical.
Thoughts?
It's a rite of passage. Welcome to the wonderful world of mortality....The procedure itself is no problem. I can even handle the dark, anguished night of pooping. It's the fasting. A whole day without eating. That's just awful.
@chickenlittle: sounds like you're going to have a sigmoidoscopy, not a colonoscopy. The upside of a sigmoidoscopy is that you get to stay awake and you can look at your lower colon on the monitor, The enemas are surprisingly easy to administer. It's just the concept of self administering an enema that's hard.
The upside of a sigmoidoscopy is that you get to stay awake and you can look at your lower colon on the monitor,
Joy!
"There's no going under."
I've had two colonoscopies and they put me out like a light both times.
It's not so bad, Lem, except, as the oldsters here say, for the prep the day before.
It's a lot like putting up a race related post and having PHX or Ritmo join in. The crap starts flowing and just never seems to stop.
By way of contrast, a Crack thread is more like a bad bout of constipation.
The time I had one, I was knocked out. I had a dream about being chased through a prison by unicorns.
@Rabel
Yes, I'd rather go through an enema than pay attention to Crack's raving.
Journey to the Center of My Ass on a TV screen
A&E tonight at 9:00 eastern.
I had the sigmoidoscopy first. They only check the first foot or the first quarter of the colon. There was no sedative involved, and the reason that they use a sedative with the colonoscopy is because your colon collapses when there is nothing in it, so they have to shoot air into you. They said that it would be like gas pain, but it hurt like hell. I thought I was going to blow up. When I had the colonoscopy done, they used very little sedative and I watched the whole procedure. I almost freaked out when we got to my appendix. I thought it was a tumor. Then, when right in front of it, it looked kinda like a vagina. That's no shit.
I would recommend very little sedative and take the tour. They'll let you watch on the tv.
I almost forgot. Before the
sigmoidoscopy, I went on the computer and checked out what polyps looked like. So when the first polyp showed up on the tv, I yelled: There's one!" I was told to be quiet.
Did Chick say there was nothing in him?
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