Please get your colonscopies, but also be aware of symptotms post colonoscopy.
I had my first colonoscopy Aug 2022, all clear, no cancer, no polyps. My diagstive track did not go back to normal after aweek, a month, I put off seeing a doctor until after Thanksgiving and by then started with my internist.
She immediately thought it was SIBO which is a known side effect was colonoscpies and prep. She gave me a 1 page summary of the low FODMAP diet and said it couldn’t hurt to try it for a week. I thought I was following it correctly, but learned later I wasn’t. By the end of the week I was in severe pain (reminded me of childbirth). I stopped the diet. Also, due to how my symptoms were presenting I had to get a CAT scan to rule out Pacreatic Cancer - thankfully everything was clear. I tried getting into my Gastro early December.
After many false starts, delays, an endoscopy and breath testing SIBO was confirmed. Another delay getting the $1400 antibiotic approved by insurance. After the 2 week course of antibiotics, I started 6 weeks of low FODMAP diet, I am currently on week 5. At the end of 6 weeks, I will return to a normal diet and take soil based probiotics for 6 months. There is a 70% chance this will resolve the SIBO - if not I will repeat the entire treatment starting with the antibiotics.
Until April of this year, this was having a major impact on my day to day life. I am thankful I don’t have cancer or any signs of pre-cancer. My only regret is not pushing sooner and harder for answers after the colonoscopy which is why I am telling me story. And I wouldn’t have minded the unintentional weight loss, but that was probably the only symptom I didn’t have.
Both the Internist and the Gastoenterologist said this was caused by the colonoscopy and prep. Gastro already said immediately after colonoscopy I should do colo-guard in 5 years (so 4 years now) and then another colonoscopy in 10 (9).
I will have a long conversation with gastro before having another colonoscopy, by then the antibiotic should be more available, maybe they will have be go on it proactively or specific probiotics? I only thing I know for sure is medicine will be different in 9 years and I will be more aware and cautious.
Wouldn’t plain old FIT every year be more effective and less expensive than FIT-DNA (Cologuard) every 5 years? Of course, a finding with FIT or FIT-DNA means a colonoscopy follow-up, with whatever attendant issues it may cause for you.
My doc orig prescribed some pill for me. I didn’t realize it until spouse went to pharmacy and it was over $160! (And we have a great prescription plan!)
Got the big gallon (?) stuff to mix w water instead (free).
Not so horrible bc I drank over time the night before. But I had to drink more in a shorter time the next AM and couldn’t keep it all down. (Just too much liquid so early in the AM on a very empty stomach!)
Had mine this morning. Went well, just one small polyp removed. Prep was ducolax followed by miralax in 64 oz of water. The first 32 oz bottle was torture to get down. I decided to just do it slowly not follow the 15 minute each 8 oz recommendation. Two hours later the second 32 oz bottle went down pretty easy. I think by that point I had released so much water from my body, I was needing hydration.
H had his yesterday. Last three, he had polyps … this time, polyp free! I’m pretty jealous of him, because he survived his prep without the kind of side effects I had.
Agreed not to take the $160 pill and go for the gallon. Actually it is not bad. I added a lot of ice and Gatorade(just avoid the red ones). It went down very well. Obviously, the sit on the stool is no joke, but do not scare of the large gallon.
He had been doing every five years, but the doctor told him that he can wait 10 years for the next one. This has something to do with the type of polyps he had (not sure the decision would have been the same if the polyps he had before were a different type, but I don’t know for sure).
Well, a lot of us parents have “graduated” from college admissions; our children are now in their twenties and thirties. And yet we hang around and continue to partake.
That is wonderful. Since my father had colon cancer (at age almost 89), I’m always going to be on the 5-year plan, even though no polyps have been found during my 3 colonoscopies. And now I’m on the 3-year plan, because I had a sub-par cleanout this last time (I did the 24-pill prep, followed all instructions to the letter, and on my own did the 5-day low roughage diet, too).
H has had polyps found at all 3 of his colonoscopies, and sub-par cleanouts before at least 2 of them. Yet his doctor didn’t put him on the 3-year plan after his last sub-par cleanout with polyp. Grrr…well, I may or may not get a colonoscopy in 3 years. As it was, the 5-year plan I stretched out to 6 years.
I tell people if I want information about any subject, like beetles of Uruguay, I ask on CC FIRST, because there’s bound to be a response from an expert.
I drank 2 liters of the solution s c 1 liter of water and only water today. I think I did a great prep and have my colonoscopy and endoscopy 1st thing in the morning—8am!
I’m sureH would be happy to take me anywhere afterwards.
That is wonderful. Since my father had colon cancer (at age almost 89), I’m always going to be on the 5-year plan, even though no polyps have been found during my 3 colonoscopies. And now I’m on the 3-year plan, because I had a sub-par cleanout this last time (I did the 24-pill prep, followed all instructions to the letter, and on my own did the 5-day low roughage diet, too).