The Barrier: Whatever the screening method, it’s too embarrassing to discuss. One Buster: Summon forces stronger than mortification, such as love. “Colonoscopy is not on my list of my favorite things,” says Katie Couric, “but if you have any experience with colon cancer, and you see someone you love, perfectly healthy, be destroyed by this disease, you think, I owe it to myself and to the people I love—and who love me—to get this test. “It’s actually very selfish, when it comes down to it, not to get screened. You’re not ensuring that you’re going to be around for people. I think we all have a responsibility. Certainly I feel that way as a single mother. I have to be very vigilant about my health, and not put myself in dangerous situations because my children depend on me.” A Second Buster: “Get funny with it.” Molly McMaster, founder of the Colon Club, was 22 when she first saw a gastroenterologist for what turned out to be colon cancer. “The double entendres are unavoidable. Make cracks.” See, there’s one now. “Whatever it takes to make people relax. I tell people, it’s the best drug you’ll ever have, it’s a great nap, and if I didn’t have it, I’d be dead. I remind women that their children’s bodily fluids don’t faze them. And I tell them about my first visit to a gastroenterologist: I was sitting alone in the exam room, freezing cold in a little paper gown, and I saw this patent-leather snakey-looking thing coming out of the floor; it must have been four or five feet long. I was terrified! Where was he going to put that? It turned out to be a lamp.” [pagebreak] The Barrier: My doctor never brought up the subject. The Buster: You bring it up. If you’re age 50 or over, raise the topic the very next time you see your primary-care physician or gynecologist. Do the same thing if you’re under 50 and have symptoms or a family history of colorectal cancer or polyps. “Just say something like, ‘Gee, Dr. Smith, I’ve been hearing about the value of colonoscopy, do you think I’m a suitable person for this and could you possibly arrange it?,’ " says Robert Mayer, MD, of the Dana Farber Cancer Center. Your doctor should be delighted. If he or she isn’t, consider finding a new doctor. The Barrier: The preparation is too much trouble/too disgusting. The Buster: Apply perspective. Or to put it another way, snap out of it. “Talk to someone who’s had a colonoscopy; they’re bemused by people making it such a big deal,” says Couric. She sometimes considers the tough-love approach. “When I hear people whine about the preparation for a colonoscopy, or say ’eeeew, that’s terrible,’ I think, God, they have no idea what terrible is. I feel like saying, ‘Okay, change your diapers, you big fat babies, get over yourself and get screened!’ I just don’t have much patience, given the number of people who are really, truly suffering in this world, to hear someone complain that they have to be prepped for a colonoscopy.” The Barrier: I’m afraid something will go wrong. The Buster: Be soothed by statistics. “I tell my patients that this is a test, like a Pap smear or a mammogram, that had to be rigorously studied until it was proved that the benefits outweigh the risks,” says Cynthia Yoshida, MD, of the American Gastroenterogical Association. “If the risks were too high, it would never have been approved. We do thousands of these every day, and the risk of complications is very, very low. With perforation, it’s .1 percent.” More from Prevention: A Woman’s Guide ToColorectal Cancer
