I have a very hard time with the fasting part of the prep–I know you get water in various forms (broth, popsicles, jello), but I got a terrific headache even with the jello. Of course, it was worth it. I got a clean bill of health and was told to repeat 10 years later. Since I had a clean bill of health, I went with the Cologuard.
Since I had breast cancer, I’m grateful there are screenings. If I hadn’t forgotten to get a mammogram one year, I wouldn’t have had to go through that nightmare. Be an adult and do the colonoscopy, mammogram, skin check. And don’t skip dental appointments.
I didn’t get my first one done until about a year and a half after my last chemo, so what the OP said. Chemo is less pleasant than a colonoscopy, and by all accounts I had it easier than most.
I was reminded by this thread - though I had to get my first oncology appointment book (which I keep as a sort of diary) to check the date - that Thursday the 9th will be the three year anniversary of my first chemo session. Mine was initially diagnosed as stage 4, but changed to 3C when the full pathology report was done.
No family history at all, so got my first at 55 and then last year did the Cologuard test at 65, so far, so good. But yes, it’s something everyone should do, especially if you have a family history.
Put it off for a while because of a very bad hospital experience.
Begged the doctor for Cologuard, which he did not recommend. It was either that or not do it all, so he grudgingly had it sent.
Results were positive, so I had to have the colonoscopy anyway.
Read all of the threads here, and decided to try a Low-Residue diet for a week before the procedure. My prep the day before was as easy as could be - no cramping, or sitting in the bathroom all day - all thanks to smart Dopers!
Just went to dr today for results, and the polyp he removed had dysplasia, and the potential to become something bad.
Even if you’re phobic about hospitals, like I was, just get it done - it can save your life (and really try the low fiber diet - made things so much easier).
Re the low fiber diet: one problem with that is, well, a certain tendency for one’s normal output to approach brickitude. This can be offset by including Miralax or similar product in your daily regimen when you go low-fiber. I am usually told 2 days low fiber before the liquid diet day, and it really, really helps.
It’s drinking the aquarium water that is the hard part for me. I just can’t stand the stuff. In the UK, my ex gets to take two pills and drink a ton of plain water. Why can’t we have that option? Sigh. I’ll still do it though.
I have one whenever I’m told to. Prep is not the worst thing in the world. I watched my father in law die from colon cancer. That seemed worse. A guy at work is about to have a colonoscopy and is in in my office complaining about it every day. You do you, dude.
Mom died at 69, grandfather at 73, cousin at 57, all from colon cancer. Had my first colonoscopy at 40, had a large adenomatous mass and 10 polyps. Get one every two years, always have new polyps, usually adenomatous. I got the gene.
prep now is piece of cake compared to that gallon of golightly years ago.
I had my first last month. I did a lower fiber diet with no nuts or seeds for a full week before, and that was by far the biggest pain of the whole process. The last day of liquid-only diet isn’t great, but wasn’t a big deal with the end in sight. Drinking the prep and sitting on the pot for a couple hours was way easier than I expected. I mean, it’s not fun, but I expected to be miserable and it’s just not that bad. I sucked on a popsicle to get over the unpleasant taste, and the toilet-sitting was less than 2 hours total.
I get the appeal of the home test (for those who don’t know, you submit a poop sample and they look for cancerous cells in it). But I recommend everyone just do the real thing. Like Wallet mentions, you might have to do the full procedure anyway, in which case you’ve dealt with the ignobility of collecting poop for no benefit. But more importantly, they can remove precancerous polyps during the procedure and prevent them from becoming a problem in the future. They won’t find those with the home test.
They removed more than 5 polyps in my procedure, which puts me on the schedule to get another in 3 years. And I’ll gladly do it.
I would absentmindedly chat with someone within his hearing about my personal case of stage 3 colorectal cancer … how the last 15 cm of my digestive tract was entirely involved, full depth and the entire diameter, and had already sort of started making a break for the outside world in the form of what I originally thought were thrombosed haemeroids … and that the colonoscopy 4 years previously saw me as squeeky clean and no polyps. And if I didn’t get it dealt with immediately, my entire anal region would be open weeping sores, and my rectum would effectively scar shut as the tumor alternately broke open and healed, and spread upwards towards my stomach, and spread into other tissues … how the fecal matter would build up since I couldn’t expell it out downwards until I was literally vomiting it up … until something burst and I developed peritonitis and died a horrible painful death.
Even though there were only 2 years between our procedures, my prep was easier than his.
My dad had a colonoscopy appointment and they didn’t even tell him to prep or provide the stuff. He changed to a different doctor after that.
And then there’s the friend of the family. She has family history, and when she was in her 30s she felt that something was wrong. Doctor didn’t take her seriously, so she found another doctor that did. It was cancer, which she beat. However, 30 years later her scar tissue started causing problems with the rectum, so she had to have another operation and wouldn’t know until after the surgery if she would have a colostomy or an ileostomy.
Moral of the story: Sometimes it’s really worth getting a second opinion. Don’t suffer with a doctor you don’t like.
I found out a bit more about the person who passed away. Turns out, his was first diagnosed fifteen years ago, not 8 or 9. I did not ask for details, but whatever it was, presumably they thought he’d beaten, until 5 years later when it reared its ugly head again.
So, he was 46 when his initial diagnosis was made.
With current guidelines (screening starting at 45, not 50) things might possibly have turned out differently.
Well, the pill version in the US is 32 pills, not 2.
Or there’s PrepoPik (Pico-Salax in the UK, I think) which is two small cups of bad lemonade. And supposedly SuPrep winds up being 16 ounces of semi-vile stuff (6 ounces, that you dilute to 16).
If your doctor prescribes the hilariously-misnamed GoLytely or similar next time, ask for alternatives.
My oncologist told me that at younger ages colon cancer has to be more aggressive to get a foothold, so the younger one is the greater the chance it will come back. In my case (I was 56) he said it was 2/5 it would come back. He went on to say “The good news is that means it’s 3 out of 5 it won’t.”
And while not fun, the prep for my colonoscopy really wasn’t that bad. One optional pill to prevent nausea, a few OTC laxative pills, and a whole bottle of Miralax mixed in a half gallon of whatever. They recommended apple juice, which I did, and it really wasn’t bad. The hardest part was not being allowed to eat for a day. Well, that and the frequent bathroom visits.
My cousin just passed away from colon cancer a couple of weeks ago :(. She was a year younger than me.
Though remarkably she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and operated on about 11 years ago. Thereabouts, anyway. At the time of her diagnosis her prognosis was quite poor. That she made it that far was actually pretty remarkable and I’m thankful she got the extra time.
She was adamant after her diagnosis that everyone in the extended family get checked. All the more so in that her own initial diagnosis was bungled( which was probably why it was stage 4 by the time it was properly caught ).
For some number of years, my HMO had me do the DIY mail-order test annually – they sent me the materials, and I sent them back the, um… materials … in an envelope in the U. S. Mail :eek:
One not-so-fine year, the test was positive. So they scheduled me for the full-bore full-bore. Found two small small polyps, which they chopped out.
(I’m also told that the occasional polyp or two is not worrisome. Some people, they say, have a whole forest of polyps down in there, and those are the worrisome cases.)
Then … here comes the question …
They told me I don’t need another full-bore full-bore for another ten years. But in the meanwhile, they say, I no longer need the annual DIY mail-order test either. Why is that?
