I was 4 years late on mine, 9 years since last one. There is a carcinoma. Going in for surgery next week. They don’t know the stage til after surgery but I’ve been assured it’s not stage 4 anyway.
Jello contains gelatin. It is not equivalent to gelatin. It gets confusing because Jello is called “Jello brand gelatin,” but there the gelatin refers to gelatin desserts, not pure gelatin.
The amount of protein in Jello is negligible. The box I have, sugar free raspberry, says it contains 1 gram, which it says is 0% of the recommended daily amount of protein.
I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I hope it turns out to be stage one. Let us know how you’re doing post-op, please.
I wish mine would be fixed. After not having one for several years I had one in mid-January, then another in early March, early April, mid-May, late June, and I’m scheduled for another in September. Every time I go in they have to put varying amounts of bands on bleeders or varices (expanded blood vessels in my esophagus caused by my liver condition). After one of them my friend who comes over to serve as my driver and medical contact was told that I might have to have one every six to eight weeks.
It is common that there are no symptoms at all until you are in stage 4. That is one of the reasons that colon cancer is so deadly. And why early detection is so important.
Like many of you I was worried about hunger and tried to maximize protein during the prep. My doc allowed me to use Ensure Clear which was helpful. Ask your doc if he/she will allow it.
I cup of bone broth has 9g protein. Between that and jello for my sweet tooth, I managed hunger fine.
Thanks. Will do
Yes, a colonoscopy can detect problems when they are easy to treat, and if you wait until there are symptoms, it’s usually too late. That’s why it’s such a valuable screening test.
I guess this is a benefit of my very low-level religious observance. I started fasting once a year when i was 13. I’ve done it every year since except when i was pregnant or nursing. I know that i can manage the hunger.
But i think you can eat gelatin on the fast day.
Either my memory is really bad (possible) or y’all have very jerky doctors.
My best recollection: Eat a normal breakfast the day prior. Which means 2x your normal, but low in bright red or highly spicy stuff. Skip lunch & dinner. otso hotso, bit tolerable after a big enough breakfast or two.
Drink a couple bottles of spiked Gatorade in the afternoon (same volume of liquid as normal if you’re living in a hot place and hydrating properly) and eat a bottle of pooping pills.
Duly begin pooping around what would be dinner time if you were eating dinner. Fun to watch and the pounds just melt away! Such fun.
Go to bed as the innards excitement subsides, and next morning Uber or ride with a friend to the clinic. Easy peasy.
I stopped reading the thread at this point, because this is the most sensible thing I had read up to this point.
Here is my perspective: if you are going to ignore medical advice, why go to a doctor at all? Or do you think it actually makes sense to ignore only that advice that you don’t like?
Well, you can always shop around for a doctor that will tell you what you want to hear. So there’s that.
I agree. I am not a doctor, and internet “research” is worthless. My doctor gets paid to tell me what I need to do to stay healthy, and I will heed his guidance. A second opinion may sometimes be warranted, but there is no reason to disregard his/her advice.
Yeah.
A friend had a colonoscopy about 15 months back, as she’d developed some bleeding. Stage 4. She was 49 years old - one year younger than the former recommendation; screening at age 45 might have caught things (or might not - I have no idea how long it takes from inception to Very Bad News).
Right now, they THINK she’s clear. They won’t say “cured” until 5 years after the surgery. But she had a very rough year, with chemo, radiation, and ultimately fairly drastic surgery (she will use a bag for the rest of her life).
Another friend’s husband battled one form or another for a very long time. I thought it was 8ish years; it had been closer to 15. Basically all the time his kids were growing up, he had the big C. I remember once there was supposed to be a gathering at their house, and she emailed me and asked if it could be moved to mine - as her husband needed an emergency colonoscopy the next day. A surprise colonoscopy is one thing. An emergency one is quite another.
A colleague’s husband had not (I gather) had screening. He wasn’t feeling well. They did a scope. Got the news the day before happy-fucking-Thanksgiving. He was gone within 6 months and they were unpleasant.
I was completely asymptomatic - which makes sense, as I had not yet developed colon cancer. Had the scope as a “while we’re at it” when doc wanted to check the northern end of things. That one morning put me on the “no Cologard for YOU” train. My polyps were a precancerous sort - as the doctor said, it wouldn’t have been good for me to go another 5 years as things were.
As far as surviving the prep day and hunger: I’m somewhat lucky, in that I can actually go most of the day without eating if I’m distracted. In addition to laying in stashes of broth, Jello etc., I have a snack right about midnight the night before Hell Breaks Loose. I stay up a while longer - and sleep as late as I can manage. So really, there are only a few hours between waking up, and beginning my jet engine testing.
I’ve gone from annual, to 2 years, to 3 years, then in 2021 got demoted to 2 years, then this year have rejoined the annual crows. In 2012, I had three of them because they didn’t get good enough margins after 1, they cleared things up 3-4 months later, then had me repeat in 6 months.
It’s still better than battling full-on cancer.
I’ll actually be a bit of a devil’s advocate here. In 2010, doc put me on a new BP medication (an ACE inhibitor). I developed coughing and reflux-like symptoms. Doc was convinced it was not the medication - despite ACE inhibitors being known to cause that problem, and the timing being spot-on. 3 months of worsening misery and I finally REFUSED to take the damn medication. Symptoms went away within a week or two.
Doctors don’t know everything (though they usually DO know more than you do). I was on a spiral of increasing misery, unnecessary medical testing, and medication to combat the symptoms.
On the flip side, that’s what got me sent to the gastro for an upper GI, and the “while we’re at it” colonoscopy, and I’ve bored you all to tears with my proselytizing on THAT subject.
I trust your memory. There’s disagreement in the medical community on pre-colonoscopy diets. Diet A allows you to eat normally two days before the procedure but only allows clear liquids the day before the procedure. Diet B puts you on low-residue foods 5 days before the procedure, switching to clear liquids the day before the procedure. Diet C allows you to eat cream-based soups, puddings, and other opaque liquids/semi-liquids the day before the procedure. Diet D lets you have a normal breakfast the day before the procedure, then switch to clear liquids. Diet C proponents claim it’s just as effective and patient compliance is higher. I’m sure that’s true with Diet D, too. There may be other variations I haven’t heard of
I thin that’s terrific. I didn’t grow up fasting an entire day, but during Lent, I could only have 1/2 meal on Fridays and Ash Wednesday. I believe some people have an easier time with fasting due to brain chemistry. I once tried the Atkins Diet. I was miserable. I was unable to concentrate, restless, and cranky. I later asked a nutritionist about this. She said some people’s brains require more serotonin, which necessitates eating some carbs, particularly, if memory serves, grains. Apparently I’m one of those people.
I’ve also heard of all those. My doctor told me to follow diet B. I complied, and i had an adequate clean out. But it was a slow process, and the result was only adequate. I gotta say, i wondered if it would have worked better if I’d consumed some soluble fiber every day except the last, just to keep things moving.
I found the low residue diet to be… problematic in the days leading up to the clear liquids day. With medical permission, I added some Miralax to my life on those days.
My doc puts me in category B: low residue, clear liquids the day before. For the first one, it was TWO days before - which, as I was flying home from vacation, wasn’t all that much fun.
I was wondering if psyllium powder (the main ingredient in metamucil, siblin, and other fiber-based laxatives) wouldn’t have been more useful.
Miralax is basically what they give you at the end.
Metamucil is ALL fiber. It’s the last thing you’d want to consume while doing a prep. It would probably be OK to use afterwards.
There’s a Doper who charted his weight as he went through the various stages of the prep and follow-up. IIRC, his weight varied by 3 or 4 pounds from start, to middle, to finish.
Yes, but it’s soluble fiber, and i wonder if it wouldn’t help move everything else along. Not in the last day, of course, but in the week leading up to it.