Here's something you ought to know about. My mother had colon cancer. The cancer had invaded her adjacent stomach before it was discovered. The surgeon told us she probably had been ignoring symptoms for a long time. I guess that makes her the opposite of a hypochondriac. Hyperchondriac, maybe? She was also malnourished, because one of the effects of cancer is a loss of appetite. This in turn causes physical weakness. What precipitated her going to the hospital was literally one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up" episodes where she dragged herself to the phone and called 911. That's where she finally got a thorough exam, which disclosed the cancer.

That was 18 months ago. She had surgery, and is now in a nursing home, where she is thriving. There is no sign, so far, of any return of the cancer.

But what I mainly wanted to tell you was this: At the end of the surgery, the surgeon (whom none of us had met before) came out to the waiting room to talk to the relatives. Besides describing my mother's condition and prognosis with great thoroughness and compassion, he also stressed the importance of all of her close blood relatives having colonoscopies, because colon cancer is somewhat hereditary. There is no better time and place to get people's attention!

I told my doctor at my next exam, and he gave me a referral for a colonoscopy. This was based entirely on my mother's history (and my age, I suppose). I had no symptoms. They found one polyp, which they removed during the same procedure. Pathology showed the polyp was not cancerous, and not even pre-cancerous. (Isn't everything pre-cancerous?) (That's a joke, son.) And the procedure itself was no picnic. But I feel confident that I did the right thing, and my chance of dying early has been significantly reduced.

Now I suppose some anonymous GUEST will tell me I was stupid to trust the doctors, that the colonoscopy was unnecessary, and there is some herb that will infallibly prevent cancer. (I am already getting angry just anticipating what these idiots will say.)

I will at least point out that there were three doctors involved who agreed on this: my mother's doctor, my own family physician, and the specialist who did the exam.

I might have more to say, but I feel myself needing to take a break right now. I think I'll look at some music threads for a while. In the meantime, I'm glad Graham is sticking up for doctors.