colonoscopy
My brother age 60 now and diagnosed about 30yrs ago has been told he might need a colonoscopy.He cannot go inpatient for prep per insurance guidlines but I cannot see how this can be done at home with only his family here! Family consists of 92yr old Dad, myself and another sister. Has anyone else faced this problem and what was the outcome?? My brother is unable to get to commode and wears adult diapers all the time. This just seems too much to ask a family to do! He is leaning toward forgetting about it because of the problems involved. I am also but I do not want to jeporadize this health in any way too.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
My husband who has secondary progressive MS is considering having one. Did you find a resolution? I'm scared to consider it but know it is something he will need.
Donna, I was glad to see that someone else is contemplating what they will do if a colonoscopy is needed. We have not moved further in that decision yet. My brother has decided to hold off right now because of what is involved in the prep. The ideal setting would be in the hospital but of course there is no "outpatient" coverage for this procedure. My understanding would be that he would have to be currently bleeding in order to get him admitted and the test done. Doesn't seem to make too much sense to me to wait until something is wrong to get it done when a preventive procedure would cost less in the long run and be better care for the patient! So, we are on hold right now about what to do but still waiting to see if anybody on here has another solution. Take care.
We just talked to our PCP about this when we went in two weeks ago. Doing a bowel prep is very difficult on the healthiest of people and the struggle for someone who's medical condition is a balancing act is more than most of us want to even consider but she brought up a very good point. Colonoscopy is a screening tool; you're looking for something wrong. If you're not having symptoms of a problem what she recommended instead is an annual hemocult. It's that test where you put a little bit of stool on a slide and they test it to see if blood is present. If it's not, then chances are very good that you don't have cancer or any other bad thing going on "up there." But if there's blood, then that would be the key to go through with the bowel prep to see what it shows. That made a lot os sense to me. So we came home with the slide kit, did the diet changes to make sure it was accurate and are not waiting on the results. This is MUCH better than a colong prep! Just something to consider.
Just a quick update on my brother. A few weeks ago he was hospitalized for catheter problems and I pushed for them to do colonoscopy while he was there. They did because he had the support of the gastro doctor who had seen him last year and did agree on doing the procedure now while he was in. I am grateful for that. But I still do not see how the insurance companies expect family members to take care of the prep at home. It was quite an ordeal for him even though he was in a professional setting so I am thankful it is now done. Doctor said everything looked ok, but we are still awaiting results on a couple of polyps removed.
