Our Mommyhood

By Much More Than Mommy

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One thing I noticed when I became a mom was how easy it was to talk about all things potty-related. When you’ve got babies, it’s all about the frequency and, yes, even the consistency. When you’ve got toddlers, potty training consumes your conversations. You can discuss these delicate issues with other moms without even one raised eyebrow.

And if there were ever an issue with what we found in our kids’ diapers or potties, or if we noticed them having a lot of difficulty in that area, would we hesitate to get things checked out?

Probably not. We’d make appointments, take our kids to specialists if necessary – we wouldn’t rest until we figured out what was wrong.

So why, dear friends, do we hesitate when it happens to us?

It is too embarrassing? Are we too busy worrying about everyone else to make an appointment?

(FYI, neither of those are good reasons.)

When I was 25-years-old, I started to see blood in the toilet after I went to the bathroom. It wasn’t that time of the month, so that was not something I was supposed to be seeing. I consulted my personal experts (my mom and grandmother), and they said what I expected them to: GO TO THE DOCTOR.

I won’t lie to you – I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to go to my primary care physician and talk to him about it. I didn’t want to go to a specialist.

I also didn’t want to pretend nothing was wrong.

So at 25-years-old, I went to my primary care physician, who sent me to a gastroenterologist. I had to endure the indignities that went with having a concern with all things potty-related, and then I heard a word that I hadn’t expected to hear for another 25 years… COLONOSCOPY.

The prep for the procedure was far, FAR worse than the procedure itself. After it was all said and done, I woke up giggly and groggy and was told that a polyp was removed and I should hear from my primary care physician. I thought everything was all taken care of and I was good to go. (No pun intended.)

Fast forward almost 6 years, as I was sitting at home, married with two children. I saw a commercial recommending colonoscopies and I remembered the doctor had suggested my having another one in 5 years. Oops.

Now, it’s not like I had nothing going on. It was right around the holidays when I came to this realization. But I also knew that if I didn’t go while I was thinking about it, there would be one thing after another that would distract me and I would forget.

Also, that same commercial kept coming on, and I hadn’t realized that polyps could be more than just a pain in the…

So I made another appointment, and guess what. The nurse told me they’d been trying to get in touch with me for 2 years. Why? Because that little polyp they found? Not so little. And actually, precancerous.

The second colonoscopy showed nothing (yay!), and I was told to have another one in 5 years, and if that one was clean, I could wait 10 years. You know, about the time I was actually supposed to start having colonoscopies.

What would have happened if I hadn’t gone when I was 25, though? What if I’d let the embarrassment stop me, or the fact that I was “too busy”?

Well, frankly, I don’t even want to think about that.

Do you?

Vanessa is definitely “much more than mommy”… she’s also a wife, a daughter, a friend, and a Christian. She’s also a blogger; you can learn more about her by visiting here.

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