Re colonoscopy: There is Nothing. To. It. Really. I spent an hour in the dentist’s chair yesterday and THAT was painful and awful and uncomfortable. Not the colonoscopy I had last year. That was nothing compared to the drilling and the gagging I went through yesterday.
Seriously. There is NO humiliation. None. The doc who will do it does this procedure many times a day, and to him/her it’s not in any way about “humiliating” you. Get the fuck over yourself. You’re either asleep or really drowsy (as I was) during the thing, you’re fully covered and draped, and NO ONE who is in the room would ever treat you with the slightest disrespect.
There are multiple colonoscopy threads on this board. Suggest you read a few.
When you do have your colonoscopy (which I’m sure you will soon), make sure you drink lots of water afterwards for the rest of the day and the next day. Even if you don’t feel particularly thirsty.
And once you do it, it will be DONE! For the next 10 years, you won’t have to think about it!
Maggie, best of luck to you! Glad you’re getting some good results. Hope things continue in that direction.
I want to second (third?) this. I don’t react well to sedation, and did it cold sober, and it wasn’t bad at all. There was moderate pain when they inserted the scope – less than some dental stuff, but crampy instead of sharp. The actual exam is done as they pull the scope out, and that wasn’t even uncomfortable, I barely felt it. You lie comfortably on your side, mostly draped in a medical gown. It’s not a weird or humiliating position. The doctors are interested in the inside of your gut, and they are interested in a professional way. The nurse is concerned with keeping you safe and comfortable. If there’s an anesthesiologist, that person is concerned with your breathing and heart rate, and, like the nurse, concerned with your safety and comfort. And the whole thing is quick.
All the GI doctors I know (and I know several, as that was my dad’s field and I have had some GI issues) are prompt about getting their own colonoscopies. That tells you something.
I found this thread, I am glad it isn’t too back-dated.
Less than an hour ago I found out my partner’s dad has Stage III rectal cancer. He lives halfway across the country. He isn’t a well man anyway, diabetes, COPD, other issues.
Prayers, thoughts etc appreciated. Father in law’s name is Marcel.
Good news is, the tumor seems to be greatly cowed by the treatment I’ve gotten. The doc said my numbers are up enough that he didn’t restart me on chemo, and won’t evaluate me for it again until 2/25.
Bad news is, the chemo drugs have given me really bad neuropathy, which continues to get worse even off chemo. I can’t feel my toes at all, and much of my sense of touch in my fingers is gone (Husband has to help me button my shirts and put on my earrings/necklaces.)
I’ve contacted my doctor about a referral to palliative care to get a general management-of-symptoms-and-side-effects thing going.
Yay on the tumor getting scared away. Phooey on the neuropathy :(. Hopefully they can tweak the next round - whenever that may be, and may it be a long way away - to less nerve-damaging drugs.
My 2nd hand experience is not with colon cancer. But in our case there was quite a variety of chemo approaches to choose from. Each with their good and bad points.
Ultimately cancer treatment is an experiment with each patient. It’s certainly **not blind guesswork, but there is an element of “We won’t know how well regimen X will work *on you *or how severe the side effects will be *on you *until we try it.”
If indeed you’ve gotten a lot of tumor reversal the good news is you’ve bought the time to try less intensive approaches with better side effects profiles.
I rarely look at MPSIMS, so I didn’t see this until now.
Anyway, I’m so sorry to hear this, and I wish you all the best, Maggie.
On a personal note, I’m two years older than you (currently 47 years old), and fully intend to start getting the routine colonoscopies when recommended. (It’s my understanding that they are recommended starting at age 50 if a person is of average risk.) That really sucks that you were diagnosed before routine screening is even recommended.
Most current news: I’m scheduled to see the doctor on the 26th - before then I have to get bloodwork done and another CAT scan. Then one of three things will happen:
If all is still good, he’ll tell me to take more time off of chemo, and check again in another 3-6 weeks.
If my tumor markers have increased or the CAT shows the cancer is growing again, and my neuropathy has eased up, I’ll start chemo again and stay on the Oxaliplatin, which was working great for me.
If things are bad as above, but my neuropathy hasn’t eased up (which it hasn’t, it’s even getting worse), I’ll start chemo again with a different main drug that doesn’t cause neuropathy, but has other nasty side effects (really bad diarrhea and hair loss, which I’ve pretty much avoided till now), and may or may not be as effective.
To illutrsate how bad the neurotpathy is, I’m typing this paragraph withou8ght corrtecting my errors. I’ve been touch typing sincwe I was 13, and my spellingand gramar are excellent, but because I can’t eel my fingers and can’t tell where they’r at , I make a ton of mistakes now, wqhich is bad because a hge chunmk of my work is data entry/correction. If I do’t wqnt to have t6o do constant corrections I have to keep my eyes on the keyboard and hu8nt andf peck and it’s a big hassle. Not to mention that (as I said above) I can’t do my own buttons or put on my own jhewelery, or use chopstickes, and I have been formbidden to use a sharp kofe or a curling irob because they’re not safe anyore.
So that’s a thing. (It’s also why I’ve been posting a bit less, and shorter posts when I do, because it’s a huge hassle.)
No worries about the typos. It reminds me of all those articles not long ago about how spelling doesn’t matter that much for comprehension as long as the beginning and the end of the word are recognizable.
Good thoughts that your scans and bloodwork come back as well as they can possibly be, Maggie. SO sorry about the neuropathy! I have a co-worker who was on chemo for breast cancer and also struggled with it. When it eased somewhat, she found those little - well, she calls them finger condoms? - that you put over the ends of the fingers were helpful in allowing her to better hit the keys. Just in case you feel that’s worth trying. {{{hugs}}}
If you do need to go onto the other drug that causes hair loss, look into ‘cold caps’. They can reduce or prevent hair loss. I read about them in a news story about how they’ve just been approved by the FDA, so they should be available.
For buttons: if you can operate a hemostat, get a small one.
Insert tip through button hole and grip button.
Pull button through buttonhole
Release button.
