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Who Keeps Up With Regular Checkups?

klutzo

Senior Member
Messages
564
Location
Florida
Mammos and colonoscopies

Jenbooks,
I also read recently that the most important thing a mammo report should tell you is if your tissue is dense or not, because if it is, you should have a different test. I forget what it is called. My reports never say if my tissue is still dense now that I am well past menopause, so I have no idea, but I never was able to bring a baby to term, so it is possible.

I forgot to address your earlier question about colonoscopy prep. It almost killed me. It raised my blood pressure to 230/114. I was shaking like a leaf until I thought my teeth would break, with goosebumps all over me, and I still had another full bottle to drink. I called the ER and the triage nurse told me to cancel the test and eat something immediately. She also told me to call the GI doc even though it was 3 am. That idiot doctor actually asked me if I couldn't just keep going and hold out until my appt. at 8 am!!! Needless to say, I do not go to that GI doc anymore. I drank some milk and felt better almost immediately. My new GI doc told me at my last appt. that the stuff I took (Fleets) has been taken off the market because it caused fatal kidney failure. Now they tell me. My husband had no problem with it at all. My new GI doc is trying to convince me to try the newer stuff, but I told him I am "all doctored out" for now. I have to have Endoscopy once a year and that is bad enough, esp. since I can't take the pain med.

klutzo
 

jenbooks

Guest
Messages
1,270
Klutzo thanks so much for telling me about the prep. Yes one of them was black boxed for causing kidney failure.
I'm worried since having done four days of salt/c 3 years ago and really strained my kidneys, I was very debilitated, depleted, had to take all salt out of my diet, had metal taste in my mouth for months and salt taste whenever I drank water, and my kidneys ached for months.
My body very slowly recovered but I think my body decided it would really not get near salt for quite a while after I did flood it for four days in my naivete.
Anyway, since then I am very concerned about my kidneys and the amount of sodium in these preps.
My former hyperbaric doc says they can actually flush you out in the hospital mechanically, I suppose with super enemas lol, I have no idea how, and then do it. She was a harvard/stanford educated doc and is very smart.
That's special care though and I have to find a doc willing to do that?
Also in NY 80% of the docs use propofol, the anesthetic that Michael Jackson overdosed on. When I read about propofol a few years ago I decided it was very dangerous--in a small percentage of cases. It's done IN office not hospital by most NY gastro's AND by a nurse anesthetist and IF you stop breathing they cannot reverse it.
They can reverse Versed or Demerol.
So a colonoscopy should be done in the hospital anyway and I would not use propofol. Being on an HMO, the only kind of plan I can even get in NY as a freelance writer, I don't think a harried doc would be too pleased with me asking for expensive special care.
I had a sigmoidoscopy some years ago and used magnesium citrate as the flush. I don't think I did too good of a job though.
 

klutzo

Senior Member
Messages
564
Location
Florida
mechanical flushing

Jenbooks,
I had not heard about mechanical flushing, thanks. Being on Medicare, I doubt I could get the special care either. I do know procedures cost a lot more in hospital, since I had to have one EGD done there so they could do a special procedure along with it, and it cost a lot more than when it's done at the EGD facility outside the hospital.

It sounds like you are between a rock and a hard place. I feel pretty much the same and am just hoping I can ignore the whole issue. I have enough wrong with me already :eek:

On the other hand, if you really want a quick and easy way to go, that stuff Michael Jackson OD'd on would be it. When I contemplate pancreatic failure or stomach cancer, and both are in line for me down the road, I would maybe have the colonoscopy on purpose, if you get my drift. Sorry to be so morbid; just being honest.

klutzo
 

BEG

Senior Member
Messages
1,032
Location
Southeast US
Use Dr. Lapp's recommendation for surgery

Given how delicate our health is--did the colonoscopy prep and anesthesia take a toll on you? Did surgery? Thx...

Hi Jenbrooks,

I've had 2 surgeries while ill with CFS. The first one, for a smashed elbow, I didn't have Dr. Lapp's surgery guidelines. The nurses had to wake me up from a deep sleep at 5:00 because they were closing for the day. I felt very ill for a couple of days. The second one, for a lumpectomy, I gave Dr. Lapp's paper to the anesthesiologist. What a difference! No leftover grogginess whatsoever. Go to Hunter Hopkkins Center to find Lapp's surgery suggestions. And while being prepped for surgery make sure they have the guidelines in their hands.

Yes, the prep for the colonoscopy was nasty, messy, and miserable. The next day, I was very thirsty, which isn't good for CFS patients. During my first colonoscopy I was awake during the whole thing, watched everything on the moniter, and heard everything the doctor said. During the second one, I was out of it. The procedure is very draining and there is recovery time.

My breast cancer (DCIS) was found during a mammogram 6 years ago. It wasn't palpable, the size of a piece of rice. It was a very aggressive cancer on its way to becoming invasive. I had a lumpectomy and 30 radiation treatments Often I wonder what the radiation did to me for the longterm (I already had CFS). I was tatooed and my lung and heart were "clipped" with the radiation directed to my breast. I had a terrible time with the radiation while other (normal) women can sail right through it.

I was later tested and found to have low Killer T-Cells. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the first line of defense for the really big diseases such as cancer?

Take care, everyone.