In HealthWatch, making excuses. People do it all the time for several things. But in one case, it can be deadly.
Now there's a new character, developed locally, to challenge your excuse on a health issue..
"I would say get it done, get it done, it could save your life," says Jerry Jesse of Neenah.
'It' is a colonoscopy and just before retirement, Jerry had one, just to make sure, "I'd had no symptoms, but I thought it best I get it checked out."
But then, a surprise. "Three other guys were getting it the same day, and the doctor comes in each of their booths and says you're fine, go on home, you're fine, do home, you're fine, go home, and he comes into mine and says does your family have a history of colon cancer? You know, it's like getting kicked in the stomach. I said no, but then he showed me a picture of a big black polyp
His high-grade dysplasia, cells close to cancer, were removed in time. "It's very well worth it and it's really not that big a deal," says Jerry.
But it is a big deal to a lot of people, who make excuses not to have one. "I think there's the most common ones, number one, people don't want to have to go through the prep itself, number two they're afraid that they're going to have to take work off. I think people may be afraid of the procedure itself that there may be complications, am I really high risk enough to do it, so I'm not going to go through it," says Dr. Greg Long, Chief Medical Officer of ThedaCare.
Tell that, to Pauly Polyp, "Hey, Pauly Polyp here, just write your excuse over there."
"Pauly Polyp is this this sinister character that was developed by our marketing team at ThedaCare, really to take a different approach to help people understand what the myths are about colonoscopy," says Dr. Long.
Pauly Polyp's even got his own website where he challenges your excuses as you type them in. He even picks his favorites, actually submitted by Fox Cities residents. But then he let's you know, through the many resources on the page, there is no excuse to avoid a colonoscopy.
"I'm too young, I think, is the one I'd like to type in," says Pastor Steve Savides.
Pauly's answer? "Totally, I'm all for pushing this off for another year or two or three!"
But Savides won't wait that long. He'll have a colonoscopy later this month, despite resisting at first, "It's one of those, I just turned 50 rituals, which to me, is right there along with getting your AARP card, you know, you get it and you feel like well OK I'm old, thank you very much for reminding me of that, so to me it's in the same category.
This challenge, changed his mind. "It made me laugh, and it made me laugh at the absurdity of my own fear and hesitancy," says Pastor Savides.
"I hear ya, I don't want nobody coming down here either," is one funny excuse.
Dr. Long says it's working, "and today we actually have about 300, almost 300 patients that as a result of the campaign, have chosen to get their colonoscopies done."
Another excuse people have written in, is that they're not sure insurance will cover the procedure. So there's a form on the website that you can print out with specific questions to ask your provider. Keep this in mind, colorectal cancer deaths can be prevented upto 70% of the time through a regular screening colonoscopy.
They're recommended for people ages 50 to 75 or younger if there's a family history of the disease.
Top hear more from Pauly Polyp, head to www.idontwantacolonoscopy.com
