June 27 - Mon

Had the colonoscopy on Monday at 10am ish as planned. They took some samples and the process was fine. Not it is a matter of waiting for the results.

To be honest it did hurt. During the operation I did wake up and it felt very odd and painful. They do not put you out more like a sleepy dream state. It took a good  4 hrs after the operation for the bloating to go down. The whole preparation, process and post symptoms was not pleasant.

My big lesson was how many people have been through the process. I'd say that close to 70% of the people I've talk to about this over the past few days have had at least one colonoscopy over the past few years. Many of them have bi-annual checkups. Just not the sort of thing that you discuss over lunch.

The doctor was Dr Matti Warterman not Dr Robert Burkes, not sure if I had the wrong info or this was a last moment change. Dr Warterman was great, very relaxing and confident. This was going to be one of his last procedures before moving back home to be with his family.

Thanks to Tanya for being persistent with the date for the catscan. We should hear back on Tuesday. We have dates for our next meeting with Dr Robert Burks on July 13 and July 18th for portacath to help with the chemotherapy treatments. Now that we have a base line the goal is to see if we can improve the dates.

In summary, yes the colonoscopy hurt but I've had worse hangovers. With 20/20 hindsight on the pain vs risks I think the guys who have the process every few years are on the right path.