Just found out something disturbing

[user 37518]

Apparently I have to get and endoscopy and a colonoscopy, I hear the laxative the day before is an extremely fun experience....

 

[boji]

Fun Fun. 

May you have a swift and unmemorable experience.

 

[JohnRoberts]

So far I have declined getting scoped, but I self test every three months for blood in my stool (cheap iron test). If I see evidence of blood in my poop then I will ratchet up to getting probed.

JR

PS: good luck and clean scans

 

[ruffrecords]

The tiny amount of blood that can indicate colon cancer is often invisible to the naked eye. In the UK we get sent a test kit every couple of years. You take a tiny sample and post it to them. Results come back about a week later. All free on the NHS of course.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Brian Roth]

OMG and perhaps TMI.  Several years ago I had an "uh-oh" while playing dominos with my best friend on a Friday night.  I had some stomach distress earlier.

Friend took me to the ER that night after a disgusting bowel problem I had and I passed out at the table. 

Saturday the doctor "knocked me out" and went down my throat with the camera.  Nothing bad there, so they fed me the Laxative From Hell Saturday night.  Was a bad night.

Up the tail pipe Sunday as they knocked me out again.

I am not a doc, but as I it recall it was "diverticulum" or something like that.  Booboo in my lower gut which was bleeding inside.  I passed out the day earlier cuz of blood loss.

Anyway, I had no fun, but I was in bad distress.

The laxative stuff was no fun....but I was in bad shape (iron levels so low they were planning on blood infusion).


ANYWAY....that was an emergency screw-up for me.  I know that many guys "our age" skip the poop=chute exam because it's totally invasive.

My worst thing in hindsight was being knocked out twice in 24 hours.

Jose...if a respected doctor sez "get the exam"....shrug....do it.

Bri

 

[user 37518]

Hey Bri, thanks for your comments, my father had a similar experience also with diverticulum, he had to go to surgery and get like 20cm of intestine removed.

I had not one but 3 doctors saying I need those tests so I guess I don't have much of a choice, it seems I might have something called bad absorption syndrome or something like that, which basically means daily diarrhea, I just thought 6 months were enough and I had to do something about it.

Its quite a hassle, today with COVID its demanded by law that you get a PCR COVID test which is not older than 48hours before the tests.

 

[JohnRoberts]

The tiny amount of blood that can indicate colon cancer is often invisible to the naked eye. In the UK we get sent a test kit every couple of years. You take a tiny sample and post it to them. Results come back about a week later. All free on the NHS of course.

Cheers

Ian

The test for fecal blood is a simple chemical reaction looking for iron (from blood) in stool.

I used to request the wipe test for my annual physical, but now I just purchase an inexpensive kit that drops a test strip into the bowl that changes color in presence of iron. I don't remember the price but pretty inexpensive ( I'm cheap). I self test 4 times a year because it is so cheap.

I have a neighbor who collapsed and ended up in the hospital because of internal bleeding probably related to abusing NSAIDs, I have been using NSAIDs for my arthritic knee for years, so pay attention for undesirable side effects. 

JR 

 

[user 37518]

The test for fecal blood is a simple chemical reaction looking for iron (from blood) in stool.

I used to request the wipe test for my annual physical, but now I just purchase an inexpensive kit that drops a test strip into the bowl that changes color in presence of iron. I don't remember the price but pretty inexpensive ( I'm cheap). I self test 4 times a year because it is so cheap.

I have a neighbor who collapsed and ended up in the hospital because of internal bleeding probably related to abusing NSAIDs, I have been using NSAIDs for my arthritic knee for years, so pay attention for undesirable side effects. 

JR

Ulcers are no joke, my dad once had a little blood in his stool, called his doctor and he basically said go to the hospital ASAP, you can bleed internally and die easily and fast. My mom used to have a lot of ulcers do to aspirin intake, so if you take aspirin for your heart, make sure it is the "special expensive" ones for heart only, regular aspirin can wreak havoc. I constantly use paracetamol for head ache.

 

[Scodiddly]

Yeah, colonoscopy... did that a couple years ago when I got into my fifties.  In the USA it's pretty standard, my brother in Norway says they do some kind of chemical test instead.  Medical industry profiteering?  Dunno.

Anyway, the worst part is the gallon of laxative. Definitely set the day aside and stay close to a toilet. I'd suggest getting a pack of baby wipes as what comes out is still full of acid and things get a bit irritated down there as a result.  For the procedure itself you get knocked out and after that it's no big deal. I just felt like I had a mild hangover for the rest of the day.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Ulcers are no joke, my dad once had a little blood in his stool, called his doctor and he basically said go to the hospital ASAP, you can bleed internally and die easily and fast. My mom used to have a lot of ulcers do to aspirin intake, so if you take aspirin for your heart, make sure it is the "special expensive" ones for heart only, regular aspirin can wreak havoc. I constantly use paracetamol for head ache.

Yup my neighbor with the bleeding ulcer lives alone and he got to ride in an ambulance to the hospital after he collapsed. The current general advice for daily aspirin use to help heart disease is a baby aspirin (81mG) dose.

Aspirin is just one of several NSAIDs that have the same warning about internal bleeding. I take my daily doses of NSAIDs with meals to buffer potential irritation. Back a few years ago I experimented with topical NSAID cream to use externally. Sadly it was a lot more expensive and a lot less effective. At the time it wasn't available OTC so I got my clinic DR to write me a prescription. I notice now that they advertise it on TV talking about how good it works ... cough. 

===

There is a high tech stool test looking for DNA(?) evidence of colon cancer. I'm cheap so I'll wait until I spring a leak before digging deeper. My brother (RIP) had gut cancer, after 4-5 years of expensive chemo they cured that but the cancer spread elsewhere in his body, and he still died.

JR

 

[Rob Flinn]

I have(unfortunately had to have maybe 10-15 colonoscopies over the years.  WHen I was about 40 I passed some blood.  My mother had a medical book so I looked it up, & it said you're probably ok but youy should see your Dr.  So I went to the Dr & for once got the one that didn't say "you're fine, just take a couple of aspirin".  I got sent to hospital for tests, where they found a small carcenoid on the side of my appendix.    A carcenoid is not cancer in itself, but is something that can turn into cancer.  They decided to take it out, which included my appendix & about 6" of large intestine, so I wound up in hospital.  On the first night before the op the nurse said don't worry you will feel much better after the op, which was ironic because I felt perfectly ok. I woke up the next day wired to the moon, needles all over the place, drains down my throat & up my old boy.    I got discharged a week later and was walking like a 90 year old for 3 weeks.    I have to have a colonoscopy every few years even now 18 years later.

If you do have to have a colonoscopy the laxitive is very fierce & makes ones rear end rather sore so the advice in previous posts is very worth heading.  Other than that if you go for the colonoscopy just makes sure you can remember the words to "Moon river" and you will be fine.

 

[user 37518]

My issue is not blood, at least not that I can tell, my issue is diarrhea, I've been having it for 6 months, daily, my stomach doesn't hurt but sometimes I have to wake up in the middle of the night and run to the toilet. Doctors have prescribed all kinds of drugs and nothing works, so its time for the probing, they say its very unlikely that is cancer, but some kind of syndrome or weird bug...

 

[madswitcher]

Whatever it is, its worth the bit of discomfort in order to get a clean bill of health in that area - elimination of the major problem areas.  I've had all three that all came back clear, but is shows that underneath everything is working as it should.

As Ian mentioned, in the UK 'men of a certain age' get a test kit sent in the post (a 'sh?t kit' as my wife calls it) and its one of the things worth maintaining as these things seem to creep up on one with age.  The prostate examination is another worth getting done periodically.

Good luck with it Duoflip - I would recommend that you have an escort with you to both the procedures and don't try to drive home.

Cheers

Mike

 

[PermO]

Good luck with that user 37518 !

 

[ruffrecords]

Maybe time to inject? a little humour into this conversation.

Many ears ago I would for a Tech Consultancy. We used to dream up project names so we could discuss them with the client without them worrying about industrial espionage.

To cut a long story short we developed an endoscope for looking at 'ladies bits' and carrying out surgery with a CO2 laser. The project name was 'Fanny By Gaslight' - which makes perfect sense if you live in the UK but probably means something completely different in the USA.

Cheers

Ian

 

[crazydoc]

Most discomfort from a colonoscopy is the psychological one, imagining a big 3 foot long black snake being shoved up your ass.

In reality, the major discomfort comes from downing the prep liquid, which used to be a gallon the night before, but there are now preps that entail a quart or less, and in a split dose. There is frequent watery diarrhea for a few hours of course, but that's not too hard to tolerate.

I've had 3 colonoscopies, the first with the gallon and the last with the split dose. The only potential problem was driving an hour and a half to the procedure, but I made it OK.

They'll sedate you before, and you won't remember anything. They'll require that you have some one with you to drive you home afterwards so you can't sue them if you have a car accident.

I'm an introspective kind of guy, so I did all mine without sedation and watched it on the TV screen. Minimal discomfort. Put on your big boy pants and it will be fine - good luck, and I hope the findings are helpful but benign.

 

[user 37518]

Most discomfort from a colonoscopy is the psychological one, imagining a big 3 foot long black snake being shoved up your ass.

In reality, the major discomfort comes from downing the prep liquid, which used to be a gallon the night before, but there are now preps that entail a quart or less, and in a split dose. There is frequent watery diarrhea for a few hours of course, but that's not too hard to tolerate.

I've had 3 colonoscopies, the first with the gallon and the last with the split dose. The only potential problem was driving an hour and a half to the procedure, but I made it OK.

They'll sedate you before, and you won't remember anything. They'll require that you have some one with you to drive you home afterwards so you can't sue them if you have a car accident.

I'm an introspective kind of guy, so I did all mine without sedation and watched it on the TV screen. Minimal discomfort. Put on your big boy pants and it will be fine - good luck, and I hope the findings are helpful but benign.

Thanks for your kind words, in my case its a lengthy process, first I need to take COVID PCR test 48hours before, previously I need lab blood work, I need a coagulation test, a torax X ray, and I need a pre-op letter from a cardiologist or internist claiming me fit for sedation and giving the anesthesiologist some remarks after assesing my general condition. I need an escort for the way back, and basically thats it, seems a lot more trouble than I thought, I don't know if this is due to the law in my country (Mexico) but I didn't expect all these problems. Even if its a simple test its classified at the level of surgery here, and I bet its something the doctors use so they can cover their ass in case I die on the table.

 

[Brian Roth]

Years ago, my wife (now RIP) needed some sort of bowel surgery; I don't recall the specifics.  The night before,  she had to drink the "gallons" of laxative with the odd brand name GoLYTELY.  She said it tasted horrible.

In my case while in the hospital, they gave me something else which required a much lower amount and tasted a bit like Kool-Aid.

Bri

 

[AusTex64]

Someone said baby wipes. Very good advice.

The prep is the worst. You won’t even know they did the procedure, you’ll be sedated.

 

[user 37518]

Years ago, my wife (now RIP) needed some sort of bowel surgery; I don't recall the specifics.  The night before,  she had to drink the "gallons" of laxative with the odd brand name GoLYTELY.  She said it tasted horrible.

In my case while in the hospital, they gave me something else which required a much lower amount and tasted a bit like Kool-Aid.

Bri

The one they prescribed me is the nasty one, doctor said it tastes very salty and unpleasant, apparently you stay in the toilet for hours, it is said that even the small plastic dinosaur I ate when I was 2 years old will come out.