Posted on 02/04/2014 9:12:48 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
There are few medical procedures feared more than a colonoscopy. But what if there was another way to screen patients for colon cancer that's much less intrusive?
Now there is: The PillCam, an ingestible camera that takes high-speed photographs as it works its way through the digestive system and helps doctors spot polyps and other early signs of colon cancer was just cleared by the Food and Drug Administration.
The device is designed for patients who have had trouble with the cringe-inducing colonoscopy procedure, which involves probing the large intestine with a tiny camera embedded in a four-foot long, flexible tube.
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i have no idea who i’m talking to. /breaking bad
there arealot of people whohave thisprocedure and develop problems from it, bad hemmorhoids from it, tearing inside the rectum. it seems it is really dependent on how good the guy snaking you is. many people have problems from this, and it isnt widely reported.
Excellent point
And often.....they do find something
Even if just a fold or mucosal prominence.....both more common than not
Over 55 I wonder what the incidence of a completely unremarkable colonoscopy is?
About 50/50 I read....odds worse as age increases
I was sick for 3 days afterwards. It was 10X worse than I expected.
Yeah, when they use a pill and they find something that needs to be removed they are still gonna have to go in and remove it.
I'd rather have the doctor snip it when he sees it, rather than have me make another appointment.
You will still have to be clean as a whistle when they put the camera-pill through ya. I only want to drink that stuff once.
True. The prep is 98% of the hassle of the procedure.
Can I have the Wifi version.
Yes, you still have to drink that garbage and clean yourself out. And, if the camera gets a bad picture or doesn’t get everything, they STILL have to go back in and look around with a scope.
I’ve had two, don’t “fear” them at all. I do begrudge the discomfort of drinking that stuff to prep. The first batch was nearly un-swallowable. Last time, seven years ago, it was tolerable going in, not so much so coming out.
The good part about this is that they will be able to scan the small intestine as well.
Um, I have not been to a hospital for one. We have a doctors group called “Digestive Care” and they handle endos and colonoscopies on an assembly line basis.
>> I was sick for 3 days afterwards. It was 10X worse than I expected. <<
I was rushed to the hospital in December of 2011 with a burst appendix. They did a lap-appendectomy.
I had to go back 1 day after release (on Christmas day) because everything backed up and I started vomitting uncontrollably.
I was fed only ice chips for 12 days (with an NG tube stuffed in me the whole time) while they were trying to find the blockage, in the mean time my pathology report game back from the appendicitis as being caused by a rare form of a cancerous tumor (adenocarcinoid)
They chopped out 1/3 of my colon and part of my small intestines.
I went through chemotherapy which almost killed me. (I’ll take surgery over chemo any day)
I had a colonoscopy which showed only 2 polyps, which they removed.
The cancer grew back.
Last November just before Thanksgiving they did Cytoreduction with HIPEC (cut out anything they could find, scraped my abdominal wall and then flushed me out with a heated chemotherapy slurry for 90 minutes).
I had many opportunities to share my Christian faith while I was in the hospitals. If my experience brings even one soul to God, it’s all worth it.
A colonoscopy is nothing to fear.
In my first 3, starting at age 48 (1996, 2003, 2007) they found and removed 2, 2, 1 polyps, all benign.
In my last one, age 65 (2013), I had no polyps. I was ecstatic!
I refused the anesthesia, I don’t like to be out of it, and besides, I wanted to be able to drive home immediately.
I hope the cameras are not expensive, because more than a few of them are sure to be accidentally flushed.
Speaking of which, retrieval of the cameras may be an issue. Who is responsible for the “sifting”? Doctor or patient?
I had to swallow one of those camera pills about a year ago, due to a stomach/intestinal bleed of unknown origin. They found the bleed and fixed it.
The pill isn’t bad, and the “prep” was only to go NPO (nothing to eat)after midnight before the procedure. You wear a receiver pack around your waist for 8 hours after you swallow it, which receives the pictures from the “pill”.
The pill has a flashing strobe light on it to illuminate for the photos.
I asked if they wanted the pill back, they said “no”, but told me that one guy had retrieved the pill and returned it to them wrapped in toilet paper.
I never saw mine, but if the battery held up, it’s probably illuminating my septic tank.
LOL !
Since I do not smoke, drink little, am not overweight, am not yet elderly, and do not have a family history of colon cancer, I lack the greatest risk factors for colon cancer. My doctor has therefore not pressed me to get a colonoscopy.
Meanwhile, I have a more pressing requirement for a head MRI every year or two to monitor the residue of a benign pituitary tumor that remained after two surgeries. If the residue starts growing, I will need radiation treatments. If I am lucky, the residue will gradually disappear without further intervention. On the whole, that worries me more than getting a colonoscopy.
That would be my problem. I can’t swallow pills. I either crush them or break them in half, depending on how large the pills are.
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