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I will make appointments Tuesday for a colonoscopy without sedation, and then a physical, and will get blood tests this coming week. It has been a while.
Why no sedation with a colonoscopy?
1. It's common. Less than half of colonoscopies in Europe use any kind of sedation. In the U.S., sedation is normal, in part because health insurance covers it, so clinics make money on it. But doctors and nurses in the U.S. regularly get theirs with no sedation.
2. It's usually completely pain free without sedation. If you can't be calm and relaxed, it can be a bit uncomfortable. I can relax. In general, one might feel a bit of pressure, but inside the colon there are no nerves that can even register pain.
3. The highest risks of complications with a colonoscopy come from sedation, including allergic reaction and respiratory problems. See this article.
4. Sedation adds to the time. Without sedation, one can be out of the office, walking, biking, or driving home 5 minutes after the procedure's over. With sedation, recovery takes 30 minutes to two hours, and one should get a ride. It can take up to a few days for the sedation to fully wear off.
In some ways, I'm a typical male. I put off my annual physical as well as the colonoscopy.
Partly, these take time and I stay busy. Partly, I object to the cost. The physical is free even with my high-deductible insurance. But I hate the high cost of health care in the US. I felt better about having a physical every year and a half or two years. Then COVID hit and we were extremely careful. But now it seems pretty safe, with
Plus, I talked with some similarly-aged friends from college recently. Things happen. It's far better to catch them early.
Note: If you're anti-vaccines, I don't respect your opinion.
The vaccine seems to be far, far safer than your chances of being
harmed by COVID. Even more safe when you add in the chances
of harming either yourself or someone who catches it from you.
I looked at some of the anti-COVID-vaccination reports.
They seem to be very sloppily done, making systematic errors
that highly inflate the dangers. They seem to be biased
sources.
Are medical community numbers biased toward safety?
Not really. A few are, but there are so many medical nerds
around catching and reporting the errors that they tend to
be quickly corrected and eliminated. The medical community
cares about truth and being trustworthy.
Such people also debunk the inflated anti-vaccine dangers,
but the anti-vaccine sites seem to not correct their reports.
They seem to mostly care about creating fear and persuading people.
My conclusion is that being anti-vaccine is dumb, selfish,
and harmful. It probably points to your not understanding
math, science, your thought processes, and the irrational
influence of emotions over them.