Colonoscopy alternatives

[LeeH]

Originally Posted by LeeH

My brother in law was too busy, too. My sister will probably be a widow before this time next year.

Still putting off that colonoscopy? My BIL has started hospice care. He was told on Friday that he has a max of about 6 weeks left to live.

[5String43]

I don't think that avoiding a colonoscopy is worth the risk. But at 73, I'm a high-risk patient with a family history of this disease. So I endure the test every few years, whenever my doc sez I need to. That said, I also recently used the outpatient fecal test, which I'm very glad to say pronounced me good to go. I in no way believe that replaces the much more comprehensive scope test.

As for the process, what works for me is doing the prep on a Sunday so I can be sure that I will be close to the facilities I know I will require, then having the procedure, which is quite painless, on Monday morning.

[J P Stein]

I did the sh it on the shingle blood screening. I also have/had Crohns.
I have had 3 scope shoots.....all clean (NIP), thank God. It's worth your time.
Most of the time you seem pretty sharp....

[Steve Carlton]

JP- have you heard of the (this sounds terrible) fecal transplants for Crohns? Supposedly it works really well and not yet approved by the medical profession. Almost like a blood transfusion, it provides the needed flora to balance out the gut.

[J P Stein]

Knock wood.......
A combination of Remicade & Humira......it's a long story..... seem to have slain the Crohns dragon. My doctor ( a good one) said that one can "out grow" it as the immune system weakens with age. Either way I'll take it.
I'm not sure it's over as it is a slow progressing disease, but it's been about 5 years since I've had "troubles" but I'm about out of growing old......71 later this year.

3 bowel resections are enough for anyone.

[Sunroof]

The craziest thing to me when you are wheeled into recovery after the procedure and suddenly come too, is the sound of everyone else in recovery FARTING like crazy!!!!!! Reminds me of Mel Brooks, Blazing Saddles movie when the cowboys ate too many beans and all are farting together!!

Hey, they knock you out just as you see that fifty foot long black garden hose with the camera at the end ready to be inserted. Piece of cake aside from that thick syrupy gallon jug of "cleanse" that you have to force down the night before.

Bob

[gchappel]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

JP- have you heard of the (this sounds terrible) fecal transplants for Crohns? Supposedly it works really well and not yet approved by the medical profession. Almost like a blood transfusion, it provides the needed flora to balance out the gut.

Fecal transplants are presently used for c- diff colitis, not crohns. Works really well in the correct population.
Data for crohns patients is still a little sketchy.
Gary

[dennis in se pa]

10 year return plan? NO. Don't buy that. Maybe 5 years if you have no polyps. After 60 every 3 years for sure. A friend was on the 10 year plan because at 64 he was clean. He got very bad news last fall at his 10 year colonoscopy. Might not make it. I am 64 and have had a few. The cleanse is actually good for you, and the procedure is painless.

[CurtEgerer]

I'm thinking of scheduling a gratuitous colonoscopy just so I can experience the anesthetic again! This stuff was incredible. I remember the anesthesiologist, with a smirk on his face, saying he was using some 'new stuff, you'll like it, guaranteed' and then counting back from 100. I think I made it to 98, maybe 97 Next thing i know, I'm waking up from the deepest, soundest, most restful sleep I've ever experienced before or after. No grogginess, felt like getting up and running a marathon.

[jamesnmlaw]

[rcooled]

Originally Posted by BlueSkyJaunte

I drank the "prep" liquid which tasted like salty cough medicine. Pretty horrible.

Drinking that swill thru a straw helps avoid the taste and makes it much easier to get down. Use a fat straw, like one for milkshakes, and keep it as far back in your mouth as you can. Suck down as much as you can handle as quickly as you can, then take a little breather and repeat 'till it's all gone.

[Halm]

We (or should I say my wife) just finished a brutal 5 months that started with a colonoscopy and ended with neuroendocrine cancer surgery.

The colonoscopy found a sisal poly that would require a Right Hemicolectomy. The new surgeon ran some additional tests and found 6 tumors in her liver. The surgical oncologist removed the original sisal polyp, a large section of her small intestines and the tumors from her liver. She is doing great. Life expectancy is being discussed in decades. Not bad for a 65 year old!!!

Get the colonoscopy!!!

[Nathans_Dad]

Originally Posted by jyl

I was overdue to have my first colonoscopy. Just never found a week when it was convenient to drink bowel prep, scour my bowels clean all night, go into the hospital, go under general anesthetic, and recover. Silly, but there it is.

So when I went to the doctor this week and they offered me the option of an outpatient screening test, I took it. This is a FIT (fecal immunochemical test). You are sent home with a vial, a plastic stick, and an envelope. Poop, push the end of the stick in the poop, drop it in the vial and seal said vial, put in envelope and mail.

My understanding it, the FIT test does a good job of finding colon cancer, but doesn't find polyps, so the test has to be repeated annually, unlike a colonoscopy which is done every several years. But - I'm not a medical person, so I'd like to hear others' views on this and other alternatives to colonoscopy.

I will chime in with the other docs on the forum and say there is no substitute for colonoscopy. The point is not just to detect bleeding (which the fecal test does) but to find and remove the colon polyps that can turn into cancer.

Just get it done.

[Tervuren]