General Medical issues thread

[Major]

I'm also on the 3 year list with my next one due in Jan. The prep is just plain torture

 

[get me outta here]

I have put it off years past when due because of the prep, starting with the taste. For the recent one I ‘acquired’ a larger bore straw used for thick shakes. It could be slurped up mostly bypassing the taste buds. I always go for the 2nd appt of the day - after the Docs ‘warmed up’.
The recent one has them tightening up and refining the prep instructions.

I'm also on the 3 year list with my next one due in Jan. The prep is just plain torture

 

[Antoallison]

I can’t say I look forward to them but those couple of days are the cleanest and lightest I ever feel. Just not sure I would ever voluntarily pay for a colonic irrigation at a fancy health clinic, but maybe that’s what those clients feel.

When I had my first colonoscopy it had to be arranged in a hurry so no choice of where or who performed it..cringed when I saw it was the same Head of Gastro department that I normally chatted to around the photocopier ...Awkward !

 

[JohnM]

Rapid weight loss today and tomorrow as I prepare for a colonoscopy on Monday. Last time was 3 years ago where I jumped the queue based on no shows. I am now on the 3 year list and the medicos send me letters telling me that it’s time. A necessary evil and with the anaesthetic/sedative means I am off driving for a time.

If they are going to do an endoscopy as well, just remind them which one to do first....

 

[cove]

I wouldn’t want to give the doc a bum steer JohnM. Just a regular 3 year probe with about 100 metres of whatever that he keeps hidden from view until I have been knocked senseless.

 

[love_the_life]

Friend with terminal cancer diagnosis is still in hospital (went in 10 days ago with vomiting). He was supposed to go home yesterday but the chemo hadn't finished running through the PICC line and then today he needed a blood transfusion and iron. He is well and truly sick of the place as he is not acutely ill at present and just wants to go home. His second dose of chemo should be on 4 March followed by 3 days of chemo infusion at home. The idea is to try and shrink the tumours so he can at least eat something.

 

[tgh]

just remind them which one to do first…

I opine that while this might be a good one liner for AFF, it is fraught with risk in real life.
No professional would ever deliberately do something like this.. unless recent life had been very difficult and one had passed up the individuals olefactory tract… why take the risk ?
My 3 yearly top and toe's are a feature of remaining alive and I greet my ent surgeon ( of 25yrs) like a long lost lover.. rather than making wisecracks..

 

[JohnK]

The preparation for a colonscopy is a cinch.

Try having a barium meal.

 

[suze2000]

The prep is usually worse than the procedure.

That's why I want to buy a Japanese toilet... to minimise the wiping which is what caused me the most pain last time. Drinking the prep was awful but I didn't find it as objectionable as some here obviously do.

 

[love_the_life]

The preparation for a colonscopy is a cinch.

Try having a barium meal.

Like passing lumps of concrete.

 

[Pushka]

The preparation for a colonscopy is a cinch.

Try having a barium meal.

I’d far rather have a barium meal than colonoscopy. Have had both and know which is worse. You are supposed to drink lots of water after the meal.

 

[cove]

Some no shows would be helpful if I am nowhere near first on the list. Some folks fail in doing the colon preparation. I will be happier tomorrow night.

 

[Pushka]

Some no shows would be helpful if I am nowhere near first on the list. Some folks fail in doing the colon preparation. I will be happier tomorrow night.

Failing in the preparation just means an enema on arrival into the hospital. Yep, I failed! Couldn’t keep it down. I’m not normally a chukky kind of person but I did have a migraine that morning and obviously couldn’t do my usual migraine remedy of toast with vegemite, cup of tea and nurofen and darkened room for a few hours.

 

[JohnK]

I’d far rather have a barium meal than colonoscopy. Have had both and know which is worse. You are supposed to drink lots of water after the meal.

I hope I never need another barium meal....

 

[codash1099]

I'm also on the 3 year list with my next one due in Jan. The prep is just plain torture

I can go one better - I'm annual for both ends. You almost (repeat almost) get used to the preparation but the procedure itself is easier than it used to be. Years ago, you were sedated but still awake - that was a bit difficult, especially swallowing the tube, which was larger than it is now.

On another subject, radiation treatment for my prostate cancer is now complete and the slow recovery from its effects begin. I can't wait until I can empty my bladder in one go and the hot flushes from the hormone treatment finish.

 

[Renato1]

I finally had my first colonoscopy late last year.
I was extremely disappointed - no sandwiches and juice after I woke up, just a cup of coffee and a biscuit.

I had a few other procedures last year where I woke up to tasty sandwiches.
Regards,
Renato

 

[cove]

Well I am back to 4 years for my next colonoscopy. I hope to keep losing some weight before I see my super thin cardiologist in April. I want my sugar reading sub 6. Today it was 6.2 so the trend down is my friend.

 

[love_the_life]

.....

On another subject, radiation treatment for my prostate cancer is now complete and the slow recovery from its effects begin. I can't wait until I can empty my bladder in one go and the hot flushes from the hormone treatment finish.

That’s great to hear. Hope it’s a good recovery and all stays as it should.

 

[Pushka]

If there is one thing I can’t get my head around is the whole insulin - sugar - diabetes - drastic health consequences medical phenomena. I just don’t understand that whole process. I must have missed that lesson in biology.

A friend of mine developed diabetes during pregnancy, she was in her twenties. That disappeared after the first birth but then with the second pregnancy diabetes became fulminant, she lost the baby and she stayed as diabetic thereafter. She was a lovely fun loving girl. But shortly after that her marriage dissolved, and she was sort of fine for a while but then smoked (I don’t think she smoked previously and we’d been in lots of social settings) and by her forties she was blind and in a wheelchair. She died maybe in her late forties. I think she thought her health was rubbish anyway when she had healthy habits and she still developed a severe illness so thought F it, I’m going to enjoy a smoke. She was always stick thin, never a big girl even when pregnant and did not weight gain, I’d say she was around 57 kilos. It was a sad time for us all, their first of our cricket cohort who died.

 

[get me outta here]

I requested non-processed meat sambos and got very tasty chicken w’ a bit of mayo. Sooo, good after the pre fast. You need a better class,of doctor.

I finally had my first colonoscopy late last year.
I was extremely disappointed - no sandwiches and juice after I woke up, just a cup of coffee and a biscuit.

I had a few other procedures last year where I woke up to tasty sandwiches.
Regards,
Renato