Poorly explained, sorry.
I was on the 3 year plan-3 years, 3 years, then he gave me 5 years and finally 10 this last time. Nope, back to 3. Shit, literally. It’s a pain in the ass, again, literally.
About that. I don’t remember any of the actual procedure and when I woke up, I was in the recovery room. And I have to admit, I felt no pain in my rectum.
And the weird thing was that I wasn’t particularly hungry the rest of the day. I expected I’d be starving. The only other oddity, and this was mentioned in the discharge instructions, is that it takes a couple of days to get back to regular bowel movements (because, according to the instructions, everything was emptied out).
Dulcolax makes both laxatives and stool softeners. The prep instructions generally say to make sure you DON’T get the stool softener.
Glad that you had it done. I had my first colonoscopy at the beginning of this year. They found a couple of polyps which they went ahead and removed. I’m on the three-year plan as well. Honestly, for all that people talk about how horrible the prep is, I didn’t find it that bad. It’s certainly inconvenient, but I’ve had worse medical procedures.
2nd Mamma Zappa’s advice: DO IT
I had my first one at 42. And they removed pre-cancerous polyps. Had them every other year for the next eight years, then to the five year plan. The prep is a bitch, but nothing compared to colon cancer.
I always reward myself by going and eating whatever I want once I"m done with the procedure. After three days of “white food” and a day of melted salty jello, I’m usually ready for something that crunches so I get a salad or something like that. But I bribe myself with visions of gingerbread pancakes and snausages.
Your first colonoscopy was at 42? That’s young. Most people start at fifty. And every other year after? That’s also frequent. Was there some reason you started that early and had them that often? Family history, perhaps?
My BFF had his first one when he was in his early 30s, but he was having some persistent GI symptoms that weren’t yielding to treatment. He turned out to be lactose intolerant and had, per his words, a leaky gallbladder. In the meantime, his mother got, and ultimately died from, a rare form of colon cancer that usually has no symptoms until it’s too late, so he’s pretty diligent about it.
Plenty of people have colonoscopies before the age of 50, if they’re above-average risk for colonic disease, or if they’re having the colonoscopy not for screening purposes, but because of specific signs or symptoms. There are dozens, if not hundreds of scenarios which would cause me to order a colonoscopy on a patient well before the age of 50.
And colonoscopy is not required for average risk people when they hit the age of 50, either. There are other screening tools for colon cancer besides colonoscopy. Colo-gard, which looks for the DNA of colon cancer cells in stool, is getting quite popular, but annual stool screening for blood is still often used as a screening tool.
You’re telling me that now? You’re three days too late (I had my first one on Monday.)
Did you ask about alternatives? If you don’t ask about what they want to give you, you’ll tend to always get what they want to give you.
Not that colonoscopy is a bad thing; I finally had one at age 61 after using other screening methods for over a decade.
One of the best features of my prep was that you actually were allowed a light breakfast the day before. IIRC, I was allowed one egg, a half piece of toast and a small bottle of Ensure.
I had a friend that used to stay in a hotel near the hospital the night before the procedure. Partly because the trip to the hospital could be challenging the morning after the prep, and partly because it’s way easier to deal with the whole fasting/prep thing when you’re away from food and family.
I’ve been on my neighbor J’s case for years to get it done. She is nearly 61 and has never had one. She thinks the test where you send a tiny smear on a stick to a lab through the mail is enough. Also, her friend across the street, an elderly lady, had complications from hers (she also had adhesions) that put her in the hospital for a week, so now J says no way will she ever get one herself.
sigh
Then again, this is the same person who has a family history of breast cancer but can’t remember the last time she ever had a mammo.
Plus when you’re crapping like a goose, you’re stinking and messing up someone else’s bathroom rather than your own.
If she’s not otherwise at high risk, it appears that the fecal occult test can be an option.
The newer, more sensitive one (Cologard?) is also an option.
I thought that link was interesting in that they mention starting at age 45. I think the kids’ principal might have been caught if that ha happened (he was somewhere in his 40s).
There may be some correlation between breast cancer and colon cancer risk - so the neighbor might possibly be considered higher risk, though I haven’t found a cite that strongly makes this case. So the neighbor might be at slightly increased risk, all else being equal, and it’s possible a doctor might tell her to go for the scope instead. Still, the fecal occult test is better than nothing.
And yeah, complications CAN happen (as DavidM could attest :().
Me: I’m in an elevated risk category, so I get the full money on a fairly regular basis.
I’m at risk for both kinds of cancer because of both sides of the fam. I get regular screenings.
J. Hardly ever goes to the doctor. I can only imagine what such a person would say if they ever checked her out and saw her record of virtually no exams.