After my second colonoscopy, I was cleared for 10 years.

We'll see if I live long enough for a third.

Did you clean your trackball too I hope?

I get to have my first routine one soon. Yippie!

I used to just take like a piece of plastic and scraped off the little rollers... Not sure what a q tip is gonna accomplish. That shit (dead skin cells and sebum) gets caked onto the rollers....

My gr10 computer teacher was so tired of kids stealing those balls from class that he mass ordered a big bucket of them so he could replace them. One day he was showing me the massive tub he had. I told him that was really impressive, my collection isn't nearly that big yet.

:/

You’re in this picture and don’t like it?

Side cutters for the win. Hair got wrapped around and got glued by the other crap. 1 cut and the whole thing came off as a single sheet of hells tissue paper.

Who had side cutters laying around during the heyday of the gray-testicled computer mouse, though?

I was playing with electronics projects a lot so ... me?

Seriously, do get a colonoscopy, when appropriate. The risks are minimal and the reward is not having to go through years of chemo, radiation, and surgery and then dying of colorectal cancer.

Recent research has shown pre-emptive colonoscopies don't reduce mortality rates.

Poo tests are much better without the risks.

Hmmm...

Checkmate, @cynar@lemmy.world... Well played...

for now.

That was the argument my wife was giving me six years ago. The stool tests she took showed nothing. She died two weeks ago after a grueling battle with rectal cancer. You're not going to convince me.

Sorry for your loss, cancer fucking sucks...

Just to add to this comment, this is specifically in population level studies rather than on a per-individual basis.

Recommended age for colonoscopy is 45, I’m pretty sure there are people younger than that who had mice like these. They were still the default well into the XP era.

Sure we're old and have to shit all night once a year, but we've got wisdom now!

I don't care how well you clean it, I don't want the dense sphere putting back in.

I still have one hooked up to an auxiliary box in the homelab. It's got the old style barrel-shaped 6-pin PS/2 DIN connector, and the box is a new-ish mini-PC with USB C only, so I had to go mouse > USB A adapter > USB C OTG adapter > PC. Cursed setup, but the mouse works just as well as it did when it was new (which is to say: not that great, lol)

I'm so sorry for your loss. I think it's the top killer for adults. I've got the gene but they won't let me test before 45 (I'm 43). I'm gonna try the poo tests until insurance lets me do a colonoscopy. Take this stuff seriously folks, advocate for yourselves.

Until otherwise proven, I'm not convinced that's not just insurance company propaganda, with the goal of not covering colonoscopies for younger people.

I keep a mason jar full of these on my desk next to my cumjar

Maybe the cotton bud is saturated with ISO? Or the cleaning is done more often

We still had ball mice at school in 2005 so not even close to 45 years

I'm going on friday. Hot date with Cameron Diaz.

Depends on your risk factors my doctors have been trying to get me to do one since 35, I turn 40 soon. I’m just so scared of getting an IV 😭

Sorry for your loss. How old was she?

The oldest mouse I've used was an optical mouse, which required a special optical mouse mat. It came with an SGI Iris Workstation.

Edit: added link to a page describing the glorious Iris 3000 for your viewing pleasure. Starting that thing felt like a Tupolev was taking off next to your desk. It was quite something. I saved one that was getting chucked, and found a place for it in the local national tech museum.

Im 38 and going in for my 3rd or 4th one next week. Obviously im high risk, but ive gotten to the point where ive got no shame and no fear of it anymore.

I cant help with fear of needles or general anesthesia, but the actual process is painless, and youll just be farting for a while after

Next Monday for me! Enjoy your cocktails!

That's gross! Do you have any idea how dirty those balls get?

Early 60s. She was prone to distrusting authority. She believed the youtube doctors who said colonoscopies aren't worth the risk, so she delayed getting one for years. Eventually she had to because nobody could explain her symptoms. At that point she was 57. If she hadn't waited she may have been in time to treat it successfully. After the diagnosis she told her sister (5 years younger) who then went to get a colonoscopy. They found polyps that would have become cancer, but because it was early it was trivial to remove them.

Man, that should be so hard to write. Thank you for sharing this cautionary tale with me and everyone here.

My aunt died in almost the same circumstances. She had Hodgkin's lymphoma, but was treating her symptoms with baking powder following advice from doctors somewhere in social media. Her death was preventable, and it tore apart my cousins.