Hi, Daryl!  Awhile ago you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
   AH>  I understand colonoscopies are a drag... a female friend   
   AH>  had one recently & told me she was hors de combat for three   
   AH>  days.  The alternative could be worse, however, if further   
   AH>  developments took place unchecked....  :-Q   
      
   DS>  A lady in Sherwood, Arkansas (northeast of Little Rock) was   
   DS>  diagnosed with colon cancer at 24...she died 6 weeks later.   
      
      
             Uh-huh.  So it's not a disease affecting only overweight middle-aged   
   guys who love their meat & potatoes, contrary to popular belief... [wry grin].   
      
      
      
   DS>  Another female was too embarrassed to tell the doctor she   
   DS>  had blood in her fecal stool. Nine months later, violent   
   DS>  abdominal pains sent her to the ER...only to find it was   
   DS>  stage 4 colon cancer. :(   
      
      
             Reminds me of a neighbour of ours who died from a particularly fast-   
   growing variety of prostate cancer which then spread elsewhere.  He was afraid   
   he might have cancer, so he put off consulting his doctor about it until there   
   wasn't much anybody could do to help.  His wife blamed the ER for not noticing   
   he had bone cancer when he broke a couple of ribs as a result of falling off a   
   high shelf at work.  I felt saddened that neither of them got the picture even   
   though they lived in close proximity to the home of the SURVIVOR echo....  :-(   
      
      
      
   DS>  While colon cancer is the second greatest killer behind   
   DS>  heart disease and breast cancer, if caught early, it's   
   DS>  easily treatable, with a 90% chance of survival.   
   DS>  Unfortunately, colon cancer, and many other forms of   
   DS>  cancer, in their early stages, have no symptoms at all.   
      
      
             Because of your IBS, however, you are monitored at regular intervals   
   for such things.  It seems to me that every cloud has a silver lining....  ;-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)