That is wonderful news! I have been wondering how you were doing with that.

Good news! Still you had a polyp so it was worth it to go through the whole thing.

Great news! Now go out and celebrate.

You must feel so much better! Congrats ;0)

Thank you all. And by the way, hosp. called awhile ago to say the polyp was benign. You probably got that when I said next colonoscopy not until five years from now.

But I was bad. After the procedures, the nurse told me to go home and rest, etc. I told her I was going to mow yard. She said, "No,no!"..........guess what I did when I got home? Hey, they were calling for rain and the grass was so high. : ) I felt fine and feel good today, actually just sat around today and napped on and off.

Thanks again.

I'm so glad everything is fine.

That is great news!

Great news Schoolhouse!

Glad to hear this!!

Wahoo!

Thanks given for your excellent news.

Thanks for the update, Schoolhouse!

I'm glad everything came out okay.

Now, aren't you glad that you did it?

That’s great news! I have mine tomorrow.

Great news! We're still waiting for results of the two polyps they took from DH on Monday, along with the tissue they took from the endoscopy. He has Barrett's Esophagus, so needs to be checked every 1-2 years.

Thumbs up!!!

I'm very glad for your good news :-)

2 Thumbs up !!

terilyn, do you have to get up at 4am. tomorrow and drink the last of the prep? (or three hours before your appt?). That was the worst part of the prep for me! Good luck. Keep us updated.

nhbaskets, I thought about you and your hubby last night. Good luck to him too.

No, I did all of my prep today, that would be horrible to have to do it at 4 am!

Congratulations schoolhouse! This is exactly the kind of news you want to hear! Now even if you didn't put things on hold you can really move on and forward. :-)

Thinking of you Terilyn. Best wishes for tomorrow.

Happy for you

My comment was intended as a kind response but also a pun. A pun in keeping with the subject matter that no one noticed.

However, those of you expressing Thumbs Up outdid me and probably didn't intend to. This applies to that region in a few possible ways, including being suggestive of an intimate gesture but also one perhaps not known to you women who haven't had a prostrate exam. So yes, by all means, Thumbs up!.

The DRE, Digital Rectal Exam, is probing with an index finger to check the prostate, isn't it, Elmer? The doctor has to reconnoitre thru the rectum, I reckon.

Some time ago when some fellows were discussing health issues, one who had just had one of those DREs was telling how uncomfortable it made him feel and several agreed, saying how much they disliked that finger going up their rump. When I laughed, asking that if they thought that they had troubles, how would they like to be the doc, they agreed that they hadn't thought of that.

ole joyful

Ha, yes Elmer.....we got it. It was just too lame to comment on, and ignoring such a remark is SOP, especially for puns.

Your kind intentions were also obvious.

Happy for your positive results, schoolhouse. It's such a relief to get a clean report.

Hope all goes well for you too, Terilyn.

Yes, Elmer I got the pun too. It made me smile.

I opened this thread hoping it contained good news, but I was also hoping "Please no pictures" :-)

That is certainly good news, Schoolhouse! Congratulations, and thank you for the update.

Rusty

That is great news, congrats!! Always such a big relief when a potentially worrisome issue turns out to be nothing to worry about after all. :)

Has anyone ever had a colonoscopy where *no* polyps were found?

Now why would Cynical Sue have doubts? Something about insurance codes? Justification for re-testing?

Yes, my BF had a colonoscopy with not polyps found. My other friend said she's had three over the years and they find polyps every time. I know what you mean about having doubts when it comes to insurance coding.

bob - after I woke up the doctor came and did hold up a photo of the polyp inside the colon! He said, "See, here it is". something to that effect. ugh. chisue, does he show the same photo to everyone? lol how would you know?

"Has anyone ever had a colonoscopy where *no* polyps were found?"

Yes, I did, the last time. No findings of any kind. I consider myself lucky.

It was a five year follow up after the earlier one found one non-cancerous growth. The advice given afterwards was "we'll see you in ten years". That comes due in a few years and that's fine. I have no issues or trepidation about the procedure or the prep.

FWIW elmer i thought yours and the other 'thumbs up' were both funny. we need a little humor when this procedure is discussed :)

glad all is well... i myself am on the 3 year plan... 3 benign polyps.

everyone: get it done!!!! the other possible outcome is way worse than the test. the test is a breeze!! the prep is the worse part!!

I'm not saying colonoscopies aren't useful, but no business is immune to up-selling, and I've had my share of just that, although with mammography in my case. Thank goodness that has been ratcheted down.

IDK why young schoolhouse here required an upper *and* lower GI on the basis of a single test that found a trace of blood in her stool. Maybe there were other factors...beyond (common) hemorrhoids.

How exactly would a medical doctor "upsell"? Maybe my understanding is wrong - don't medical services need to meet a standard of being medically necessary under accepted practices for the patient's circumstances to be covered by insurance?

chisue, last year I was having some stomach issues and mentioned to it to my doctor. Since I've had acid reflux and taken meds for it for so many years he suggested an endoscopy and even set up the appt. with the surgeon (same one I saw Tuesday). Well, I got to feeling better and canceled the appt!

I think this probably was on my chart and during the original consultation before the colonoscopy the doctor mentioned that he would like to do the endoscopy at the same time as my colonoscopy just "to check things out". I agreed to it and am glad I did.

Schoolhouse, let us know if you were charged for the colonoscopy as a diagnostic procedure versus a screening. Thank you.

Many of the false positives result in a diagnostic (fee based) procedure.

Cologuard doesn't test for blood, it tests for genetic markers. When your test is positive and Cologuard does have a reputation for false positives but nothing like the old test the merely tested for blood, it would be sensible to get the colonoscopy. Maybe we ought to be complaining how much this relatively simple test costs instead of complaining about having the test. Colon cancer is a bad way to die.

When I asked the nurse what Cologuard's positive result meant, she said "there is blood in the stool". ? I'm thinking my white blood cells would have to be elevated for the source of blood to be coming from something else like a tumor?

According to Medicare, if polyps are removed it's considered diagnostic.

Yesterday and today my throat is sore. My aunt said it's probably from the endoscopy and just now catching up with me.

I recently had a friend die of colon cancer, I was way overdue and went just recently. One benign polyp that got removed, so I feel fortunate.

patriciae -- Thanks for the info on Cologuard. (Seems schoolhouse's RN also thought it was testing for blood.)

schoolhouse -- Ah, so there is a history that would warrant the tests. Thanks for the 'back story'.

Elmer -- You know that Medicine is a business. You know it is not cost effective for insurance companies to do more than spot check billed procedures and pay out as long as the coding is appropriate.

katrina_ellen -- I'm glad you are well, but you were well without the colonoscopy. Your post tells me you were scared into having it, not whether it was warranted. That factor is part of my questioning.

I'm a bit suspicious about whether colonoscopy is 'the new mammography'. For years women were told that all of us *needed* regular mammography. Turns out only *some* women benefited, and real damage was done to others due to unwarranted interventions. New guidelines have stopped much of this, apparently without any increase in breast cancer mortality -- and with a decrease in anxiety, pain, and costs.

My interest is also personal. In 2016 I had a physically life-changing colon resection -- for a (benign) 'carpet polyp'. I developed a post-surgical 'bleed' and spent more days in hospital. Every MD remotely connected to my case (and his partners) stopped by my room. They had nothing to offer, but all submitted bills for the 'visits' I finally self-discharged, having refused transfusions.

chisue, maybe I'm lucky but I don't think I'm naive.

I've never had an experience of physicians (or their systems) padding a billing. We've also not had any significant medical needs recently.

There are many ways a physician can be sleazy or unethical and I'd turn and exit from any with conduct like that. Funny enough, one of my kids had an experience recently with a specialist (at a prominent place) who was so full of himself that he was more BS than substance. That kid, also a health care provider but of a different specialization, ended the consultation and needs to find another to see.

Elmer -- I'm happy for you. Sometimes this is like asking a person to recommend someone -- dentist, doctor, *accountant* lol. If that person has never had anything serious that needed to be dealt with in that area of expertise, the recommendation is more shallow.

I have been a very profitable patient for most of my life. I also learned from my late MIL, who was seriously ill in her old age -- and had been a hospital administrator.

Unexpected things happen when you have items inserted into your body. I am due for my ten year this year and will be requesting the endoscopy to go along with it because of hyperacidity or just reflux. My first colonoscopy showed a portion of a Meckel's that was left when I had a problem with it in my teens. Second was 5 years later and since then on a 10 year schedule. Being older the problem with these tests is the requirement that you be babysat for a certain time after the procedures. I know it is for my own good but there should be some type of day/night care that singles could be sent to. End of that bitch.

I would rather unnecessary tests be done to rule out problems than simply burying my head in the sand and doing a lala hoping that I do not have a health problem. One of those things that finding sooner is better than finding it the month or week you are dying of something that could have been fixed because of the low cost of the test but ending up with major medical bills.

The 'catch it sooner' idea was applied to mammograms. I'd just like to know the data on how much 'testing' is 'catching' what. Blanket application is likely as wrong-headed as lifelong mammography for every woman.

There's no way a doctor can "upsell" on a colonoscopy. Either you do have polyps or you don't. In the area where I live, (lots of obesity) only about 10% of patients are polyp free. Smokers also have more polyps than non-smokers. I don't know what a benign carpet polyp is, but I'm assuming it's a flat lying polyp that is difficult to observe by most but the most experienced gastroenterologists. I know that when the physician I work with finds one of these he puts saline under it so that he can raise it up and take it off, and then he usually marks the area with permanent dye so that on follow up he can find the exact area.

Good that he does mark with dye as those will reoccur.

If someone does not want to have a mammography that is fine with me but when you are dying of something that could have been caught early and simply decided not to have the tests vs. not having the money for them do not expect any thing more than a faint "I'm sorry from me.

However having known more women that discovered that they had either cancerous, pre-cancerous, or fibroid tissue in their breasts during their twenties I have always wondered about the guidelines. The first two can kill you and are often silent but the third from those that I have known with the problem the stretching of the tissue as the fibrinous mass grow can cause severe pain.