Well, I could now give full details of what is involved in a colonoscopy, but I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that it's quite odd seeing your own insides on a TV screen. The staff were all wonderful and I have nothing but praise for the way I have been treated at the local hospitals. The procedure itself actually wasn't too bad - the worst bit was the preparation for it when you twice swallow a solution of magnesium citrate. If you know what that does, then you will share my discomfort; if you don't know, google it and be happy it's not you.
They removed a single polyp from me and that had to be sent for biopsy. I was told that it looked OK based on the doctor's knowledge and experience of these things, and it was duly confirmed as "normal" just over a week later. They'll want me to go through the whole thing again in three years just to see if anything has changed. So, right now, I'm fit and healthy after that scare and I'm back on track in the kidney donor process.
The speed of this whole thing has been remarkable: I had the letter with the failure result on a Wednesday, was seen for assessment the following Tuesday, underwent the (slightly unpleasant) "further investigation" on the Thursday of the week following and received the biopsy result eight days later (if no samples are taken then you are told you're clear at once). That made 23 days from start to finish, including Easter. I certainly cannot complain about the NHS!
I understand that the next step is tissue typing and cross-matching to see if my brother and I are compatible. The transplant nurse in London has persuaded another local hospital near here to do this to save me trips to London and this is now booked for next week. If this is OK then there are lots more tests they want to do, about which I have no detailed knowledge at present. I know they will also want to assess me mentally to make sure I know what I'm doing and also to be sure that I'm not being paid...!
In the colonoscopy preparation meeting I was asked how I felt about the situation. I didn't really know at first but realized that in fact I was quite annoyed as the threat of cancer was getting in the way of the possibility of helping my brother. That question did make me wonder about how I felt about undergoing a (personally unnecessary) major operation voluntarily, even to help my younger brother. To my surprise I realized that I'm not in the least bit fazed about it; it just seems part of life in the same way that I accepted the possibility of having cancer myself. You've got to die of something, after all!
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