Getting my colonoscopy done and scared as h***?

[bgb1976]

Getting my colonoscopy done and scared as h***?
Some of you know my questions I ask.. I talked to my dr. today and he is going to set up my colonoscopy next week. I have been having blood on bowel movements alot over past year and a half and it happens everytime I go. I am scared to death, not of the procedure but the end results. I am 33 and act like a huge baby... I am terrified of having colon cancer well actually having colon cancer that has gone too far... I just wanted to let you know ( those who know my anxiety) that I am going to get done.. wish me luck!!! and good outcome.

[Matthew007]

Hey bgb1976,

I can relate..I had a dumb coworker tell me he did it without sedation and told me he watched the whole thing on TV and such...stressed me to pieces!

I will say this though..i've had 2 of them done over the years and the prep is the worst part of it..you'll go in wearing very little *hospital gown basically*, they'll turn you on your side and your heart or anxiety might be racing but then they'll put in an IV..the room will spin...

and then you wake up.  You won't feel a thing you'll be out the whole time and you'll get the best sleep in your life.  If I had to do another one it wouldn't even bother me to tell you honestly.. (course the bill is another story..)

[ggreg]

Thinking that "cancer" might be applied to yourself, hey, that will turn ANYone's life upside down.  But I may be able to reassure you that the likelihood is you just have hemorrhoids.  That is swollen tissue from straining when a person gets constipated, so whenever waste passes by those sensitive areas, it'll bleed.  The colonoscopy is recommended for you, though, because it IS so good at detecting a variety of problems, including cancer in the bowel, which colon cancer is one of the most curable forms of cancer you can get, by the way, the success rate is very high.  But amongst the other things a colonoscopy can do is, if it sees a little polyp, for example, which is a tiny irregularity in the intestinal wall that can lead to cancer many years down the road, the instrument they pass thru the bowels can remove those little polyps, thus clearing out anything that might flare up in the future.

I might add that the fact that they did not give you a CT scan first, this tells me that when you described your symptoms, they probably did not think you had a growth, or else they would have given you a scan first.  But this varies from hospital to hospital, doc to doc, sometimes they ALWAYS scan first and then do a colonoscopy.  But since you didn't mention it, I think it's reasonable to assume they are not too concerned about your bleeding situation, and instead ascribe it to hemorrhoids, and they're just doing the colonoscopy to make sure it's hems and also do a very valuable preventative exam.