If you read the warnings on any medication, you wouldn't take it--the same with a colon prep. Unfortunately the prep is a necessary evil and if you skimp and don't drink all the solution, you may have to do it all over again. This is the time to have a colonoscopy--BEFORE there are any major issues. Having one now will give your doctor a baseline if you have problems down the road. Colon polyps usually have no signs and while they may not be cancerous now, they can become so. Depending on the type of cancer, it usually grows very slowly. So if you have any polyps removed now(it's painless), you have saved yourself from huge procedures and treatments that may come down the road if they do become cancerous. Patients are sedated during the procedure and usually remember nothing. This is a diagnostic test, just like a mammogram or a chest Xray. The life you save will be your own.