I'm 60 years old, and tomorrow I will have a colonoscopy for the first time -- about 10 years late.

I did have a sigmoidoscopy -- the minor-league version -- five or six years ago, but for whatever reason, I haven't been ready for The Show.

Until now. In November I had a slightly scary experience involving blood coming from somewhere you don't expect it to, and I spent nearly 10 hours in the emergency room. It turned out to be a mild case of colitis, but the doctor told me I should <em>not</em> skip my colonoscopy again this year.

[caption id="attachment_252" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Informal colonoscopy"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/colonoscopy.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-252" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/colonoscopy-300x237.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="237" /></a>[/caption]

I hadn't particularly enjoyed the sigmoidoscopy, but at least it hadn't been as unpleasant an experience for me as it was for my friend Mitch. When Mitch had his first sigmoidoscopy, the doctor told him he had never seen anyone whose muscles were so tightly clenched and so difficult to test.

It's all starting to happen for the baby boomers -- hair loss, weight gain, bodies starting gradually to fall apart.

Who would have thought it? I look in the mirror and I still see the same face I saw at 30. Apparently my eyesight and my looks are deteriorating at approximately the same rate, which is wonderful. It would be really difficult to have great vision and notice the sagging under my eyes, the wrinkles and the age spots.

So I'll take the precautions I should and get my colon tested. I don't want to let it go and wind up wearing a colostomy bag, and I certainly don't want anything like what happened to the guy in the photo to happen to me.

Just being 60 is tough enough.