Not able to get to use a commode at all? How can any prep be done at home? I can't see how that is possible! Right now a caseworker is trying to get the insurance company to approve a stay at the facility to get the job done. If they don't approve this, I just can't see how this can happen here at home!! Help!
"the United States Preventive Services Task Force reviewed years of research and recommended against routine screening for colorectal cancer in adults over age 75 and against any screening in those over 85."
The risks far outweigh the benefits of colonoscopies in the elderly. Why put a frail person through the trauma and humiliation of prepping for the colonoscopy and the possible delirium resulting from having the procedure?
Here is the link to the article http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/too-many-colonoscopies-in-the-elderly/
You might want to share it with your loved one's doctor. Ask questions. Find out why he/she thinks this is necessary. Unless there is a very good reason, consider refusing the procedure altogether. And get a second opinion if the doctor is insisting that it be done.
God bless your brother and you.
There was a little blood in her stool and some of the health care people involved were all up in arms, worried and all. But it didn't happen again. Sometimes, when I am constipated, there might be a bit of blood on the tp. It doesn't repeat and I've never worried about it.
I am also an RN and in school and in practice, we didn't really worry about blood unless it was obviously blood that had gone through the alimentary canal for some time, maybe from the stomach or upper intestine. But that blood isn't bright red and it has a terrible odor.
There are little cards with reagents that you can use to see if there is blood in the stool BEFORE you and he go through this ordeal to make sure there is something to investigate. A lot of times hemorrhoids or just overstretching and trauma related to the size of the BM after being constipated for so long can cause a little blood, But the thing is, if the blood is bright red, it is not from deep in the body but right inside or outside. If it doesn't repeat or doesn't show up on the little cards (ask the dr for an Rx to get some), then I would either talk to the dr about alternatives and/or get a second opinion!
It seems unnecessary unless there is good reason to suspect something going on. And from what you've said, I think there is more investigation that should be done before having to suffer the prep and aftermath of a colonoscopy.
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