Urgent

[mstewart680]

Hi my names mark jr. 18 years old and im here asking about my father mark sr. age of 46. He has had an on going problem of passing bright red blood in his stool along with bright red blood clots. As of every morning when he wakes up and throughout the day he has blood sepage causing him to change several times a day along with always feeling sick and weak. He is seeing his family doctor and going to others about the problem but they are unable to find the problem causing it. I recieve a call late every night cause he is worried he may not wake up when he goes to sleep. Some of the specialist has found that he has a few polyps but has not did further testing on them. A few years ago he had tubes put in where his bowels was town and the closed them back up. Im really starting to worry myself about all of this and i have not been able to sleep at all. He is all i really have left in my life and it would be tragic if something happened to him at the age he is. Please doctors can someone help me out and give me some suggestions or some ideas of what may be causing this.

[Morecambe]

I understand your frustration and the relative lack of reassurance that your father's recent consultation has caused.  I think your father should now ask:-

"why can't the surgeon remove the polyps now as a precautionary measure via the mechanisms incorporated in the colonoscopy instrument?"

so that in three years time there is no chance of the surgeon saying:-

"Wow I would never have expected these polyps to develop at such a fast rate and we are now dealing with a cancerous situation and a less that 100% chance of survival"

regards
Morecambe

[mstewart680]

Thanks and yes he had a colonoscopy which is what showed he had a few polyps but they wasnt sure if they were cancerious or not. They told him they would see him back in 3 years. Come on seriously im not going to sit back and let my dad die if i can help it. They really need to do something, and something soon.

[Morecambe]

If you type rectal bleeding into google and log on to one of the many sites (the Medicinenet site is particularly informative) then at least your father will learn more about possible causes and can interrogate his GI specialists with more knowledge.

Has your father undergone a colonoscopy?  This should reveal the cause since, presumably, the more minor causes that can be detected visibly (i.e. anal fissure, haemorrhoids etc) have been eliminated?

The ultimate question (which your father should not be afraid to ask) might be:-

"Technically I am old enough to have developed colon cancer.  Can you be 100% sure that I do not have colon cancer?  If not, is there a risk that by waiting further, colon cancer might suddenly develop to an incurable level?  If so what are your thoughts on undergoing a precautionary total colectomy"?

Quite hard-hitting but maybe worth asking.

regards
Morecambe