January 25, 2008 11:40am by David Farrar

Tim Blair on fight vs cancer

I blogged last week how top Australian blogger Tim Blair is needing surgery for cancer.

Tim has an article in The Daily Telegraph on how he missed all the warning signs. It’s a useful read for men especially, and despite the subject is very funny at times. Some extracts:

I was now more than two months into my new life of pain, and hadn’t thought to ask it myself.

Around the same time, distressing new symptoms appeared. Toilets shouldn’t generally be filled with blood, but one morning mine looked like the Japanese had been harvesting humpbacks in there.

Politically incorrect and a gross visual image!

Now, rectal exams remain an issue with men, who are urged to submit once we turn 50 and commence our bowel cancer years.

I’m here to tell you – they aren’t so bad. The trick is to focus on something distracting while the procedure is under way.

Like, for example, the sturdy handle on the wall next to the specialist’s exam table. It’s fascinating. Why is it there? It seems entirely redund . . . OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED JESUS CHRIST SOMEONE HAS PARKED A FREAKING BUS UP ME!

Having had such an exam myself, I can entirely relate to the sensation caused by a sigmoidoscope. Words can’t do it justice!

But there is one bright side to all of this: