Are Colonoscopies Worth The Misery, And The Expense

[tex]

Hi All,

I still think they are, because without them, MC would probably never be diagnosed, but apparently they aren't as great at detecting cancer, as most people think they are. On the average, they miss almost 8% of cancers:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6955LI20101006

Here's the research report abstract:

http://www.nature.com/ajg/journal/vaop/ ... 0390a.html

Tex

[mbeezie]

My mother died of colon cancer. She had a colonscopy in September and was diagnosed with colon cancer the following March and died 8 months later. The doctor clearly missed it.

Mary Beth

[starfire]

Mary Beth,
I'm really sorry your Mom fell into the 8%. I know it has to be heartbreaking for you.

Love, Shirley

[mbeezie]

Thanks Shirley. I think the doctor who did the colonscopy was incompetent. My mother's oncologist pretty much confirmed this for us - apparently they had dealt with his shoddy work more than once.

Mary Beth

[wonderwoman]

Very sad to hear about your mother.

[tex]

Mary Beth,

I'm so sorry to hear that. I suppose it's true of most medical procedures that it isn't the procedure itself that leads to adverse outcomes, it's usually the skill of the operator that determines the outcome. It's sad that your mother was the victim of a shady operator.

Tex

[Ginny]

Mary Beth, a loss of a mother just touches the heart deeply. I am so sorry for your family and yourself. I have trusted doctors way too much in the past only to find out my common sense would have served me better. Ginny

[ant]

Dear Mary Beth

So sorry to hear about your mother.

Best wishes, Ant

[Gloria]

Mary Beth,

What a tragedy. I'm so sorry that you had to lose your mother that way. I'm sure you've wished many times that you could turn back the clock.

Gloria

[mbeezie]

Thanks everyone. We were really angry at first, and yes it was tragic. Earlier diagnosis may have made a difference - we will never know. I have come to accept that it was just her time to go. There's a bit of a subplot here . . . my mother, grandmother and great grandmother all died on November 5, so when she died on that date we all felt like there was more at work than just poor medical care. Whether there's something to that or not I don't know, but my sister and I find November 5 uber-creepy for sure.

Mary Beth

[MaggieRedwings]

So sorry to hear about your Mother but the fact that the 3 went on the same day is really very strange but one never knows. I lost my mother years ago and my sister at 41. I do know your pain.

Love, Maggie

[tex]

but my sister and I find November 5 uber-creepy for sure.

Wow! I can certainly appreciate your concern about that date. As you are probably aware, my father and an uncle bled to death in a hospital, due to massive colonic bleeding. When I had my episode in February, it seemed that "the handwriting was on the wall", as they say. Fortunately, though, due to my doctors being willing to take aggressive action, and remove my colon, without further delay, (after I told them of my family history), I survived. As proactive as you are, about your own health, surely you are a survivor, too.

Incidentally, there is a new blood test being developed which promises improved early detection of colon cancer. It's supported by the doctor who originally developed the colonoscope, so it has good credentials.

Tex

[swytthang35]

sorry to hear about your Mom ..I lost my Mom 6 years ago to brain cancer it does get easier but you can never fill that emptiness...I feel for you...it's like people who have lost a Mother have their own understanding of the feeling.

Jill

[MBombardier]

I am so sorry, Mary Beth. I lost my mother in 2002. I think it's worse when people we love have a hard illness that finally takes their life instead of suddenly losing someone who dies in their sleep, for example. Though how can one really compare?

I had a colonoscopy in September because a dear friend died of colon cancer less than six weeks after she was diagnosed. No one in my family has had colon cancer, but the MD found a tubular adenoma and told me that I am genetically predisposed to develop colon cancer. Yippy... He said that earned me a colonoscopy every five years, but that the MC trumped that and earned me one every three years. I didn't ask him why because at that point I had the mistaken idea that MC predisposes to intestinal lymphoma. Now I know it is celiac disease that can increase the chance for intestinal lymphoma.

I was adamant that I would not have (what I considered) an unnecessary colonoscopy before my friend died, and disinclined to ever have another one prior to receiving my biopsy results. After the 24 hours of discomfort preparing for it, I woke up a couple of times during the procedure, and I remember what I said and did and what the GI doctor said to me. This was after receiving three times the amount of Versed/Demerol that is normally given. But I will do it again to prevent the same tragedy happening in my family that happened in my friend's family.

So, long story short--I believe colonoscopies are worth the misery and expense.

[tex]

but that the MC trumped that and earned me one every three years.

I've never heard of that before. It sounds as though your GI doc may be interested in learning more about MC, and he's using you as a study subject, to see if it will "go away" within approximately 3 years, as some of the old research literature claims :

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9824342

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8995938

If you look at the history of our membership on this board, those studies are obviously invalid, as we have had only a handful of (lasting) spontaneous remissions over the years, and even those have a flare now and then. The vast majority of us, (roughly 98%, more or less), have to either take meds, or follow a strick diet, in order to achieve and maintain remission. Many of us have had this disease for over 10 years now. If those reports are valid, why do we still suffer a relapse, anytime that we slip up on our maintenance treatment? It just goes to show that a good researcher can prove virtually anything they set out to prove, by selectively manipulating the data.

The pathetic part is, many GI docs actually believe this

Tex