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had my colonoscopy

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 10/5/2007 12:40 PM (GMT -6)
Well, I had my colonoscopy this am. The pill prep was wonderful. Didn't have the horrible cramps and found them much easier to take than the horrible liquid.


Anyway, GI found that my colon is fine, as it's always been. However, he now wants me to have a barium enema to check the condition in my small intestines (my issues have always been in the terminal ileum). Haven't had a barium in many years. He actually told me I could wait till next year and I was a little stumped as to why he feels I could wait. Anyway I told him I want to have it now and will have it scheduled for next month.I also mentioned that I would like to have a B-12 shot every month instead of my usual 3-4 months, since I have been feeling very fatigued and I want to see if that would help. He said ok "whatever you want". I am glad he has respect for my wishes, but I sometimes wonder who the doctor is here.



On top of this, my routine stress test showed a possible abnormality in my heart and after seeing a cardiologist, I now need to schedule a thalium test.



Don't mean to complain. I know I am luckier than many and I am very thankful for what I have. Thanks for listening. Sending you all my best wishes.
Posted 10/5/2007 5:09 PM (GMT -6)
that's good new potty...hope your heart will be ok
Posted 10/6/2007 11:38 AM (GMT -6)
Thank you megamax.
Posted 10/6/2007 1:11 PM (GMT -6)
PP,
I didn't even know there was a prep pill available to take prior to a colonoscopy, I will definately have to get more info about that because the crap I had to drink last time I had a colonoscopy made me vomit something fierce. Can you tell me more about the pill prep?
Glad to hear that your colonoscopy turned out well, bummer about the barium enema, I had one of those a few years back and it was horrible :(
Not to bum you out or anything..haha. Unfortunely, your doc sounds like so many others, too many patients and not enough time to devote to the very real concerns of each patient. I have often wondered who the doc is when I am sitting with my gastroenterologist and having to remind him each time of who I am and that it's Crohn's disease I have...so sad, but I have little to no options at this point so I am just patient with the poor guy. I do a lot of research on my own so I know what's going on inside of my body.
Good luck with the cardiologist, my prayers are with you and your family. Best wishes!

Marci
DX with CD March 2006
Posted 10/6/2007 5:29 PM (GMT -6)
Hi Marci,

Thank you for your thoughts and kind words. The pill prep I took is called Osmo-Prep. It consists of 32 pills. The directions are that the evening before your test you take 4 pills with at least 8 oz of clear liquid every 15 minutes until you've taken the entire amount. My GI felt that 1/2 of the amount might be ok for me (since I have so much D anyway) and I ended up taking 24 just to be sure I was sufficiently prepared. I found it to be very easy to take and I didn't suffer the cramps I had with the liquid preps. It was rather easy.

As for the barium enema, I haven't had one in many years but do remember them not to be too pleasant. Oh well, anything for the sake of finding out the details and controlling this DD. Best wishes.
Posted 10/6/2007 8:19 PM (GMT -6)
itis called visacol. I have used it for my last 2 scopes...one was in 2005 the other was 3 yrs prior. I always vomit on the liquid prep and they manually had to clean me out once I was sedated until the pill prep.  This one when initially out you took 40 pills now they found 28 pills do the job.  My colorectal surgouns office even has a script pad printed with visacol so they dont have to write it out.  Not sure of osmoprep is the same thing or just along the same lines
Posted 10/7/2007 12:09 AM (GMT -6)
Glad to hear the scope went well! I'm surprised that he wants to do a barium enema. Those are usually only good for seeing the colon. Doing and upper GI, where you drink the barium is better for the small intestines (and goes all the way to the TI). I've had both done. The enema was not fun, and can't say I'd ever want to do that again. Besides a heavy feeling drinking it was okay.

Hope all goes well with the cardiologist! Keep us posted!

Oh and that prep sure sounds better then drinking all that nasty stuff! Wish my doctor would go with a pill prep!
Posted 10/7/2007 8:54 PM (GMT -6)
Actually I mentioned to my brother (who also has CD and is very knowledgeable) that the dr wants to do a barium and he said the same thing. Why would he do a barium if he already checked your colon and found no problem? He probably meant a GI series. That does seem appropriate (the GI series) to me. My brother uses the same GI and we discussed the fact that he seems a bit flaky lately. He's a rather young man so I don't think it has anything to do with age. Just feel he's so busy trying to keep up with insurance company demands and an overbooked patient load that sometimes he's not quite as efficient as he's been in the past. Will speak to him to straighten this out. Although I've always had a great deal of trust in this dr, it may be time to change GI's! Gonna be a bit touchy though, since he is also my primary care dr and that of my husband and daughter too. But I gotta do what I gotta do.
Posted 10/7/2007 11:05 PM (GMT -6)
WHy cant they just go for the camera pill thing right off and save a the nastiness. It sounds pretty evvective...? I'm new to this but am interested in simple non invasive procedures!

Hope things go smoothly...
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