My Colonoscopy Experience: A Gastroenterologist Gets Some of His Own Medicine

My Colonoscopy Experience: A Gastroenterologist Gets Some of His Own Medicine

By
Dana Sparks

March 19, 2013

By David Farrar, M.D.- Mayo Clinic Health System in Red Wing, Minn.

I knew something wasn’t quite right listening to the message on our answering machine early last October. It was my dad.

"David, give me a call. I’ve got to talk to you about something." Calling back, somehow I wasn’t that surprised when he told me almost immediately, “I had my colonoscopy last week, and they found an early cancer. So you know what that means.” I knew exactly what he meant — I needed a colonoscopy. My dad, also a gastroenterologist, knows the recommendations for colon cancer screenings as well as I do.

Read: Part One, Part Two, Part Three