Your thoughts on this would be appreciated as I'm 'dithering' over the question.
My adult sons (fathers with their own children) live in different countries to me so our contact, although fairly regular, is done by whatsapp nowadays which is a terrific way of instant communication and it keeps our closeness alive.
Earlier last year I was admitted to hospital with a suspected minor stroke (TIA) following a fall. After a couple of days as an inpatient I was discharged and all was well. At the time I decided not to tell my sons in that they both have stressful, busy jobs etc and I figured I was fine with no after-effects, so what would be the point of worrying them. However, I can't remember how, but later in the year they came to know about it and one son was somewhat 'annoyed' for want of a better word. He said, which of course I knew and understood, that he and his brother weren't young boys anymore who had to be shielded from the more unpleasant happenings in life and I was not to with-hold any similar thing from them again. I felt a bit chastised but had only had their interests at heart.
Well now I have to have a colonoscopy for a bowel condition I've been suffering from since last December. The specialist has said it could be something relatively simple, it could be an irritable bowel condition or colitis or it could be colon cancer. Doctors don't 'beat around the bush' these days when it comes to telling how it is, or how it might be. I'm on a semi-urgent waiting list of up to six weeks so that isn't too long to wait but it's on this forum that I'd like to ask what you would do.
My plan is, or was, is to just have the colonoscopy and if it turns out to be something simple that can be fixed with a change of diet or medication, then I will just get on with it and not mention it to my sons. If though it showed a cancer then of course I would let them know straight away. On the other hand, remembering the slight 'telling off' I got from my eldest son the last time I had a medical 'mishap' I'm wondering if maybe I should let them know that this is before me and until the result is through we won't know if we need to be concerned or not. What would you do? None of us like to add extra stress to our kids' lives but .............. Incidentally I've just had a thought that if one of my family was waiting to have a procedure to see if there was anything very wrong I would want to know. Maybe I've answered my own question? My apologies for the length of this. Your thoughts?
Narrow miss. Bus and student on his mobile
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