Colonoscopy guidelines
 

While each person is subject to their doctor's advice there are some that seem to be of a general nature, where applicable.

My wife and I are both in our late 70's and are on a cycle of having a colonoscopy every three years because of prior polyps, colon cancer family history, etc.

My wife had her's done yesterday and it was healthy free and clear. The doctor said she would normally go to every 5 years but her age and history of clear results, she need no longer have future colonoscopies, given continued good health.

I see it as good and bad news.

Hooray! No more colonoscopies :clap2:.

Boo-hiss....confirms we are getter deeper into the here today gone tomorrow age group!

OP, I was told by my doctor that 75 was the "magic age" for no more recommended colonoscopy. Of course, unless you had previous issues.

Thank goodness, the "end". of colonoscopy's. :D

I may have to do one more and then he said, it is no longer needed.

I'll have to ask again, as my mom got colon cancer, in her eighties. Hmmmmmmm! I would like to think that with periodic testing, she could have some of her colon removed and not suffered so much, near the end but that's me and my need for ensuring I covered all the bases.

Well, at least you're still here as of writing the post; that's good news. :)

[QUOTE=billethkid;1073312]While each person is subject to their doctor's advice there are some that seem to be of a general nature, where applicable.

My wife and I are both in our late 70's and are on a cycle of having a colonoscopy every three years because of prior polyps, colon cancer family history, etc.

My wife had her's done yesterday and it was healthy free and clear. The doctor said she would normally go to every 5 years but her age and history of clear results, she need no longer have future colonoscopies, given continued good health.

I see it as good and bad news.

Hooray! No more colonoscopies :clap2:.

Boo-hiss....confirms we are getter deeper into the here today gone tomorrow age group![/QUOT

But with age, comes wisdom. Though I do not post often here, you are one of the folks in this forum whose comments I respect the most. Congrats to your wife!

Funny that our parents and grandparents, and great grand parents never had a colonoscopy. And mine lived to be 88 to 102

And mine DIED of Colon Cancer.

I don't believe there is a debate concerning colonoscopy because family history or one's medical history will normally dictate what a doctor will recommend...

What is important here is that colonoscopies are available to us and that this procedure is being improved on continually so that perhaps some day a colonoscopy can be performed non-invasively with greater predictability.

I'm not going to publically disagree with your doctor, but suffice it to say that the "new" recommendation of stopping screening colonoscopy at age 75 (replacing the old one of 80(funny how that happened)), applies to just that, SCREENING CS. With both a personal history of polyps and a family history of colon ca, the decision is much more individual. Given this, I generally recommend CS every 3-5 years as long as the patient is in otherwise good physical and mental health. Even medicare covers CS every 24 months in high risk patients, with no age limit.

Hope soon that they come up with a better tasting prep. That's the worst thing,about a colonoscopy.

No, the worst thing about a CS is what happens a few hours after the prep. But people get intestinal viruses with the same effect that last much longer and don't prevent a deadly disease

Supposedly the Miralax & Gatorade is MUCH better than the nasty stuff I had 9 years ago...it couldn't be worse.:yuck:
I'll find out in a few more weeks.

I happen to agree with you. I had a need for frequent colonoscopies and they always handed me that nasty stuff which I just could not get down.

So I asked the doc why he said because they had a lifetime supply of it on the shelf. and that if I added a flavoring it would help. However he followed with a caveat make sure it doesn't contain sugar Why? because in the event of a spark :boom:

From that point on I demanded another type of prep.

the worse colonoscopy I had occurred at the University Hospital Minnesota in Minneapolis. The two doctors there on staff treated me like a hunk of meat and for the first and last time . They hurt me.

I left that doctor and found another who to this day believe was the best of the best and I had an opportunity to try the doctors at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

Colonscopies may be an inconvenience but they can be your best friend

With the talent pool of doctors here in The Villages be sure to have someone draw an arrow pointing to the circled area where the probe needs to be inserted.