Giant colon greets shoppers

Sometimes, digestion might feel like a dozen children tunneling through your intestine like a McDonald's Playland. But at College Mall Thursday, children really were mucking around the bowels. \nAs part of an initiative to educate the public about colon cancer and prevention, Bloomington Hospital's Regional Cancer Institute teamed up with an organization called Colon Club to bring the Colossal Colon exhibit to town. Spanning 40-feet long and 4-feet tall, the coil of colon reveals the progressive stages of cancer, beginning with healthy looking tissue and tailing off with polyps -- cancerous growths -- and internal hemorrhoids. \nThe display, resembling an enormous strand of al dente spaghetti, lies across the center of the mall in front of the Target mainframe, and will remain there through Sunday. \nAs shopper traffic shuffled past the organ, a woman dressed in a berry, droplet-shaped costume accosted customers. \n"Hey, check out the colon! C'mon, don't be shy!" hollered Stephanie Toby, a nursing student volunteer from Ivy Tech Community College. \nToby explained that she was a human model of a polyp, just trying to provide the public with what she feels is crucial health information. \nAccording to Bloomington Hospital findings, colorectal cancer is one of the foremost causes of cancer deaths in the country. Doctors will diagnose about 150,000 people this year with the disease, and more than one-third of those victims will not survive its impact, according to the hospital's research. \nSonya Zeller, executive director of the Regional Cancer Institute, said the project's goal was to urge people to take better care of their colons today to prevent illnesses tomorrow. \nShe pointed out information tables with free at-home screening kits, dieticians on standby and a nurse demonstrating a colonoscopy with pictures and a miniature model. \n"There are four stages of cancer," she said. "We want people to be aware, so that we can catch it at stages one and two. It's much more curable and treatable." \nTammy Fiscus, a registered nurse, handled a long, thin tube with a built-in camera, showing how the tool snakes through the colon. \n"The average colon is about six feet long," she said. "But you don't really have sensory nerves in your colon. Most people say the worst part is the preparation for it." \nFiscus explained that prep for a colonoscopy requires flushing out the system with a saline solution. \nZeller stressed the importance of colonoscopy check-ups for everyone. \n"With colon cancer, the most common symptom is no symptom," she said. \nThe brain who thought up the enormous colon belonged to Molly McMaster, a 23-year-old cancer survivor. When a close friend of McMaster's, Amanda Sherwood Roberts, died of colon cancer at the premature age of 27, she dedicated herself to the cause. Scribbled in a pucker by the entrance of the colon, the words "For Amanda" remind the volunteers why they're there. \nZeller said despite the humor of the exhibit, colon cancer is something they all take very seriously. \n"This is just a unique twist, instead of just saying, 'Hey, how's your colon?'" she said. "We just want to get people talking about it." \nA tiny head popped through one of the viewing openings, then plopped back into the colon. Emma Underwood, 6, accompanied by her mother, Kim Underwood, was having an abnormal anatomy lesson. \n"Mama, is this what's inside of us?" her voice echoed against the fiberglass polyps. \n"Yes," her mother confirmed. Emma vowed to eat more fruit at dinnertime in the future. \n-- For free at-home screening kits, visit the exhibit, call 353-HOPE or visit the Web site at bhcancer.org.