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Sometimes the doctor might ask you to get a colonoscopy, which is an exam that doctors use to find any anomalies in the large intestine using a colonoscope, which is a tube that’s about a centimeter in diameter with a small camera.
This is the only nonsurgical procedure used to look at the problems in your digestive tract, and it can detect problems at the most treatable levels. Colonoscopies are used to find colorectal anomalies, which of course let the doctor look at the inside of your colon to find either polyps, or cancer signs. Polyps of course are growths which over time are cancer. This of course can be treated quicker if you find it quicker, hence the procedure.
The doctor will use a hollow, flexible tube that’s about the thickness of a finger with a small camera. There are special instruments to remove polyps and tissue samples as needed. People get these a lot, and they’re used to screen for cancer, so they’re a helpful procedure.
Your digestive system helps with breaking down food. The last part of the bowels, which is the large intestine, or the colon, is a tube which is hollow that lets you absorb the water out of your food and passes stool. Your colon can get cancer. There isn’t a cause of t, but almost all colon cancers begin as polyps. Polyps are of course, the small growth on the colon that turns into cancer. Removing this might prevent it, and if you already have it increases your chances of survival.
Doctors will tell you to get a colonoscopy if you have abdominal pain, or variations in the frequency of defecation, and if the lab tests show blood in your stool or urine, or anemia.
You might be advised to undergo this to find the cause of this, and your doctor might use this to help with further investigation. You’re supposed to get these ever decade for people over fifty to get the disease in time. Only about a sixteenth of Americans will get colon cancer, and most people will survive if it’s caught early, but only five percent will survive if it’s caught late.
You might be at a higher risk if you’re older than 45, have polyps, or if someone in your family has either had colon cancer or polyps. If you eat lots of fatty foods, smoke, drink alcohol, don’t exercise, or are overweight, this puts you at risk too.
They’re performed in a private room. Usually, before this is even done, you get tests to help with the diagnosis. You’ll from there look at medications, and of course, heart and lung conditions, and for women a pregnancy test. It also involves cleaning the colon with either enemas of magnesium citrate. You’ll have a fluid diet for a few days beforehand, to help clean out the bowels.
The colon will be cleaned out as much as possible so the doctor can get pictures and see inside, so you might have to drink up to a gallon of liquid laxatives and enemas. You also might not take medications before the test.
You’ll need a diet that’s low in fiber and high in fluid intake, and steer clear of fluids.
You’ll want the stool to be clear.
The doctor will from there sedate you and insert the colonoscope to your rectum to the final section of our large intestine in order to look at it. Tissue samples are then taken.
It’s a bit invasive, but if you’re doing this early on, you’ll be much better off, and it could save your life in certain situation.