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Are you 50 years old?


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I just diagnosed another person with colon cancer.

If you're 50 or older, do yourself a favor and go get screened. It's not that big of a deal. It's a lot easier to take out a polyp than to treat metastatic colon cancer.

For some reason, the stories of what it used to be like in the old days are still lingering. The bowel preps are better. You don't have to drink a gallon of crap anymore. If your kidneys are working ok, you drink two small bottles of fluid, meet your doctor the next morning for happy hour, do some time travel, wake up in recovery, go home, eat a nice meal and take a nap the rest of the day. You might say weird things after the nurse gives you the drugs, but nobody will find out. If you start playing with yourself during the procedure, it doesn't mean you're gay. (I'm just kidding, no one has ever done that). Just go get screened!

Send me a PM and I'll tell you exactly what to expect. If you've had a colonoscopy, please feel free to post your experience here.

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Just had one at Scott & White. Still had to drink a gallon of crap the day before, and yes my insides are in perfect health. Out cold for the procedure. Nothing to worry about there. It's like nothing happened as opposed to a prostate exam. The prep the day before, on the other hand, is not something I'd soon want to repeat. A gallon of vile liquid and turned inside out raw. Pardon my French. Still, not worth whining about and an absolute necessity as far as your health is concerned.

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I had it done almost 4 years ago, right after my 50th. My experience is almost exactly what Chris stated. I don't know why some doctors have you drink the old stuff, when Phosphor Soda is so easy to use. I think I was back to sleeping 10 minutes after getting home. Sleeping.....the best way to watch TV! :D

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A gallon of vile liquid and turned inside out raw.

Gallon of electrolyte solution aka: Go-Lytely or Co-lyte (pharmaceutical companies are ... creative ... with drug names). We used to pump that through a naso-gastric tube to flush somebody's gut after an overdose, too. Effective. Somewhat brutal.

The gentler methods involve laxative/stool softener pills + some electrolyte solution, usually less than a quart. Both seem to give an adequate 'prep'. If your doc gives you the Rx for the gallon jug, ask about the other option, it really is much more tolerable.

Edited by FranDoc
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I had one in December, the prep (4 liters of Co-lyte) was much worse than the procedure. Being diabetic was the reason given for me getting the nasty stuff and my wife getting the 2 little bottles. Both had a polyp removed, nothing found, see you both in 10 years. :D

Bruce

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I just diagnosed another person with colon cancer.

If you're 50 or older, do yourself a favor and go get screened. It's not that big of a deal. It's a lot easier to take out a polyp than to treat metastatic colon cancer.

For some reason, the stories of what it used to be like in the old days are still lingering. The bowel preps are better. You don't have to drink a gallon of crap anymore. If your kidneys are working ok, you drink two small bottles of fluid, meet your doctor the next morning for happy hour, do some time travel, wake up in recovery, go home, eat a nice meal and take a nap the rest of the day. You might say weird things after the nurse gives you the drugs, but nobody will find out. If you start playing with yourself during the procedure, it doesn't mean you're gay. (I'm just kidding, no one has ever done that). Just go get screened!

Send me a PM and I'll tell you exactly what to expect. If you've had a colonoscopy, please feel free to post your experience here.

Chris,

I've never had a colonoscopy, but it brings up an interesting question.

I was diagnosed with prostate cancer last August.

During my workup I was poked, prodded and violated so much, I felt like I had been kidnapped by aliens.

With a CT scan, bone scan, PET scan, and a pelvic MRI in my medical resume,

wouldn't any cancer in the colon have shown up in one of those tests?

Do I really need to be scoped?

I am now 33 treatments into a 45 treatment course of radiotherpy (IMRT)

Some rectal irritation comes along with prostate radiation.

Would that make the colonoscopy more difficult?

I suppose it's something I would want to do in the future as secondary cancers are a (small) risk in radiotherapy.

Tony

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CSEMARTIN: VERY sorry to hear about the diagnosis. We'll keep you in our prayers. Let us know how you do.

I don't think CSEMARTIN was the patient diagnosed with cancer, I believe he was the doctor making the diagnosis.

-Chet

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Since we are telling dirty secrets, I have been subjected to a sigmoidostipy?(SP) and 2 colonoscopies and other than the nasty tasting crap to drink I would rather have the colonoscopy. At least being asleep I didn't get to see what my tonsils looked like from the wrong end. The Dr thought he was doing me a favor having me on my side so I could watch were he was going, I have an enlarged prostrate so there will probably be another test this year.

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Had a colonoscopy and an endoscopy at the same time a couple of years ago. From what I remember I had to drink a small container of stuff that flushed you out. The worse part imho was fasting. Btw, I was put under for the procedures.

Edited by walangkatapat
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A gallon of vile liquid and turned inside out raw.

Gallon of electrolyte solution aka: Go-Lytely or Co-lyte (pharmaceutical companies are ... creative ... with drug names). We used to pump that through a naso-gastric tube to flush somebody's gut after an overdose, too. Effective. Somewhat brutal.

The gentler methods involve laxative/stool softener pills + some electrolyte solution, usually less than a quart. Both seem to give an adequate 'prep'. If your doc gives you the Rx for the gallon jug, ask about the other option, it really is much more tolerable.

That was it. A gallon of Go-Lytely preceded by FOUR Ducolax. :sick:

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Focusing too much on the test is a mistake.

Focus more on the vile disease you are trying to prevent.

I would drink a swimming pool full of that stuff if it would cure me.

"And that's all I have to say about that" - Forrest Gump

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I have had three procedures over the years.

A barium enema, flexible sigmoidoscopy and more recently a colonoscopy. Of these the first was by far the worst. The air introduced into the gut to allow the barium to show all the aspects of the walls in a series of x-rays was very very uncomfortable. The pain and cramping and unbelivable flatulence accociated with expelling all that air was most unpleasant.

The flex sig was much less unpleasant.

The colonoscopy was less so. I think I will have to have another in the next year or so. I am 57 and had the colonoscopy about three and a half years ago. When I retire from the Army, I expect that I will have to have another. I will be 60 in 2010, so I expect I will have one in 2009, and may have to have another in 2010 when I have to retire.

Edited by Michael Carlin
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My MD will probably have me in for one much sooner than 50 based on my family history. It's tough to overstress CSE's recommendation. My Dad's polyps turned out to be cancerous, and by then it was too late. He was 66 or 67 when they found the "polyps." Over the next 4 years of treatment for cancer it eventually spread to his liver and elsewhere. It's really a godawful way to die. If you don't do it for yourself, do it so that your kids don't have to watch you literally disintegrate.

Some cancers are very treatable. Colon cancer doesn't seem to be one of them.

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I had the scope up the butt and down the throat last year. Hope they did the throat first... :unsure: They said I just had bad reflux and some irritable bowel, probably from stress. The preparation sucks, that's for sure. Might as well get a good book and camp out on the crapper. The drugs they give you to put you out are wonderful though! If I had more of that stuff, I probably wouldn't be so stressed! :rolleyes: Unfortunately, I've also had a series of prostate infections the past year. Probably also from stress. I've had so many doctors' hands up my ass the past year I feel like a ventriloquist dummy.

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Just turned 50 and had an exam. Other than the fasting, drinking the stuff to clean you out and banning the family from the downstairs bathroom it was NOT a big deal. Went to sleep, woke up and it was done. The Dr. found two polyps and both were nothing to worry about. One of the guys at work had it done and the Dr. told him if he waited another year it may have been too late. Bottom line........Get it done!

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Be advised that some insurance companies will not pay for this procedure until you are 50.

I have an employee who was having a lot of lower GI issues. Doc wanted to do a colonoscopy but Group Death would not pay for it because she was only 46 at the time. Two years later, at age 48, she ended up in the OR having emergency surgery very, very near death. Metastatic colon cancer had totally occluded a portion of the colon and spread to uterus and one ovary. Nodes taken at the time indicated further spread.

A year later the found more in her liver.

A whole pile of surgery, chemo, etc later and she is back to work and is healthy.

There are some insurance companies that are more progressive and if your doc recommends it will pay for the procedure prior to age 50.

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Things to say during the procedure:

1. "Take it easy, Doc, you're boldly going where no man has gone before."

2. "Find Amelia Earhart yet?"

3. "Can you hear me NOW?"

4. "Oh boy, that was sphincterrific!"

5. "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

6. "You know, in Arkansas, we're now legally married."

7. "Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?"

8. "You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out. You do the Hokey Pokey...."

9. "Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!"

10. "If your hand doesn't fit, you must acquit!"

11. "Hey, Doc, let me know if you find my dignity."

12. "You used to be an executive at Enron, didn't you?"

AND FINALLY (drum roll and cymbal crash.....)

13. "Could you write me a note for my wife, saying that my head is not, in fact, up there?"

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I have an employee who was having a lot of lower GI issues. Doc wanted to do a colonoscopy but Group Death would not pay for it because she was only 46 at the time. Two years later, at age 48, she ended up in the OR having emergency surgery very, very near death. Metastatic colon cancer had totally occluded a portion of the colon and spread to uterus and one ovary. Nodes taken at the time indicated further spread.

This is one example of the hidden danger of lawsuit reform. The ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) contains a provision that someone who suffers a bad outcome due to a failure of employer provided medical insurance to pay for a procedure may sue only for the expenses they incurred in paying for the procedure - not for the adverse outcome. Insurance companies are able to consider this protection when figuring the risk/benefit (to them, not the patient) of authorizing a procedure.

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Happy to report that my first and only colonoscopy found nothing. Come back in 10 years.

Other than the discomfort of the purging, I had no problems.

And the Valium/Demerol Coctail.....Some of the best sleep I can (or can't) remember :wub:

dj

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I had my first one done a couple of years back (I'm 56). The doc had asked me why I wanted one, and I told him that my mother - and her mother - and her mother - had died from colon cancer. My two older brothers had also had them done, and we're thankfully all clean - a couple of non-cancerous polyps each.

Other than the knowledge that I was clean, one of the best feelings in my life was that huge cup of coffee I had after two days of no caffeine. :)

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