Medical issues and procedures

[Lady Jane]

I am starting this thread for those of you who wish to discuss issues instead of your conditions getting buried in unrelated threads.

[kscarrol]

Originally Posted by Esteban

.

^^ Hits a little close to home, had s colonoscopy last week.

Edit: Guess I should cross reference the getting old thread...

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by kscarrol

^^ Hits a little close to home, had s colonoscopy last week.

Edit: Guess I should cross reference the getting old thread...

I'm hoping/guessing that went well? Had one myself earlier this year. Found one benign polyp.

[kscarrol]

Originally Posted by Esteban

I'm hoping/guessing that went well? Had one myself earlier this year. Found one benign polyp.

Yes, all clear for another ten years.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by kscarrol

Yes, all clear for another ten years.

Good, glad to hear. I get to go again in five because they found the polyp.

Early detection is the way to go.

[3.0L]

Originally Posted by kscarrol

^^ Hits a little close to home, had s colonoscopy last week.

Edit: Guess I should cross reference the getting old thread...

I've got one coming up soon.

ColoGuard came back positive, so here goes the real deal, steel eel.

[lakefront]

Originally Posted by 3.0L

I've got one coming up soon.

ColoGuard came back positive, so here goes the real deal, steel eel.

Doc told me Cologuard has 30% false positives, so best of luck.

[unluky]

Originally Posted by lakefront

Doc told me Cologuard has 30% false positives, so best of luck.

I was told something similar - I think he said 20% - but same deal. But he said "you were going to get one anyway, so this at least gives you a 75% chance of NOT needing it and it's 98% right on the negative side." Made sense so I did it. I have no history in my family, but still nice to "know".

[3.0L]

Originally Posted by lakefront

Doc told me Cologuard has 30% false positives, so best of luck.

This is true.

I did a search on what can trigger false positives and one was cantalope. I eat cantalope every day.

[kscarrol]

Originally Posted by 3.0L

I've got one coming up soon.

ColoGuard came back positive, so here goes the real deal, steel eel.

Good luck! Hope it is one of the false positives.

Be wary of your insurance though as my GI told me about insurance making the patient pay for the colonoscopy because the cologaurd was paid for as the preventative test and now the colonoscopy is a diagnostic procedure.

[CamasM3e93]

Originally Posted by lakefront

Doc told me Cologuard has 30% false positives, so best of luck.

Screening tests are used to determine if there is a need to move forward with a more invasive, risky, and expensive test like colonoscopy. All screening tests have a high false positive rate. For instance, Mammogram has a 95% false positive rate.

You want a very sensitive test for screening, one that reliably detects every case of whatever you are looking for. But as a test becomes highly sensitive, false positive rates go up. 30% is actually really good and i would personally do cologuard if i qualified for it. It’s not for higher risk individuals, in my case family history.


You do Cologuard to see if there might be cancer or precancerous polyps, essentially identifying who needs the more invasive colonoscopy procedure. For those that use it, a high number are able to skip colonoscopy. Colonoscopy is more than inconvenience, people experience complications with anesthesia and sometimes end up with a perforated bowel and a long hospital stay (or worse). It is absolutely the gold standard to detect and prevent colon cancer, but the idea with stool dna tests is to widdle down the number of people who have to go through the risk of colonoscopy.

Sorry for geeking out. Carry on.

[///MPhatic]

My father asked me a simple question once and I was unable to find the answer with multiple searches. It's unlikely that I'll find it here, but I'll ask anyway.

First let me say that he didn't like taking medication if he didn't absolutely have to.

He had been diagnosed with BPH, as many older men are, and was prescribed FloMax.

His question to his doctor was simple; what percentage of men (how likely is it) that BPH results in complete inability to urinate?

His doctor was unable to give him a clear answer, and I knew the moment he asked me the same question that he wasn't going to take his meds unless it was absolutely necessary, and who can blame him with everything he was already taking?

I read a bit, and told him about possible bladder damage, but he was undeterred.

Anyone know how to find these statistics?

I feel like it's coming for me at some point, so I might as well get the answers now.

[c1pher]

I would say to try soy products which are known to help shrink the prostate and delay or reduce these issues. I'm not a doctor so I let Lady Jane respond.

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

Originally Posted by ///MPhatic

My father asked me a simple question once and I was unable to find the answer with multiple searches. It's unlikely that I'll find it here, but I'll ask anyway.

First let me say that he didn't like taking medication if he didn't absolutely have to.

He had been diagnosed with BPH, as many older men are, and was prescribed FloMax.

His question to his doctor was simple; what percentage of men (how likely is it) that BPH results in complete inability to urinate?

His doctor was unable to give him a clear answer, and I knew the moment he asked me the same question that he wasn't going to take his meds unless it was absolutely necessary, and who can blame him with everything he was already taking?

I read a bit, and told him about possible bladder damage, but he was undeterred.

Anyone know how to find these statistics?

I feel like it's coming for me at some point, so I might as well get the answers now.

tamsulosin is a very effective drug and provide relief for his symptoms. does he have luts ....lower urinary tract symptoms? it will only progress worse causing retention leading to stones and utis. aging is a part of life and medicine helps us not suffer. everything has a side effect.

risk vs beneift

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by c1pher

I would say to try soy products which are known to help shrink the prostate and delay or reduce these issues. I'm not a doctor so I let Lady Jane respond.

I appreciate your vote of confidence, but my expertise is in women's health and geriatric's conditions.

You may find this article useful: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12795445/

[M_Six]

My gripe with modern medicine is the dearth of straight answers to simple questions. Way too many generalities floating around out there and I often find that supposed experts are not really. They just repeat the generalities they've been taught in their schooling.

Case in point. "Sodium causes high BP." Well, yes. But why does sodium cause high BP? My brother, like the rest of our family, suffers from elevated BP. Not dangerously high, but enough that he's on meds. So he was told to avoid sodium, which he did religiously. Then he had all sorts of issues caused by a lack of sodium, like muscle cramps. He complained to his doc about the cramps and was told he needs to take in more sodium, which is just the opposite of what he had been told before. I had to explain to him that sodium causes water retention and it's the water retention that elevates BP. He's taking a diuretic, so I made sure he understood that too much sodium is defeating the purpose of the diuretic, but that a moderate amount of sodium is ok. If the doc had explained that to him in the first place instead of just throwing out the "avoid sodium" generality, the whole issue with muscle cramps could have been avoided.

I'm on a statin drug to keep my LDL levels as low as possible to mitigate arterial calcium buildup. But my question to nutritionists as been, "Which foods will *directly* lead to arterial calcium buildup?" I know eggs and red meat and so on can elevate LDL and the LDL elevation causes the buildup. But if my LDL is very low, are those foods still a problem? All they can tell me is the same line about certain foods that elevate LDL. Yes, I understand that. But if my LDL remains below my target level, will certain foods still cause a calcium issue? I mean, what about the almond milk I drink? It has calcium in it which is important for bone strength. Will that calcium somehow end up in my arteries? These seem like simple questions, yet a straight forward answer seems impossible.

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by G35POPPEDMYCHERRY

tamsulosin is a very effective drug and provide relief for his symptoms. does he have luts ....lower urinary tract symptoms? it will only progress worse causing retention leading to stones and utis. aging is a part of life and medicine helps us not suffer. everything has a side effect.

risk vs beneift

He had hesitancy and weak stream, but that's all.

So we're looking for retention as the marker for when he should start medication?

[Oldgixxer]

Was diagnosed with stage 3 testicular cancer August 4th,currently undergoing chemo which really sucks ass. Completely blindsided me. Such is life. I'll be 54 this friday.

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by Oldgixxer

Was diagnosed with stage 3 testicular cancer August 4th,currently undergoing chemo which really sucks ass. Completely blindsided me. Such is life. I'll be 54 this friday.

Sorry to hear this. Hang in there.

And Happy Birthday.

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

Originally Posted by ///MPhatic

He had hesitancy and weak stream, but that's all.

So we're looking for retention as the marker for when he should start medication?

but why suffer lol?

i get the wait till you need it mentality. but this isn't a self resolving condition

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by cmyx6go

Sorry to hear this. Hang in there.

And Happy Birthday.

^ This!

Good luck Oldgixxer.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by cmyx6go

Sorry to hear this. Hang in there.

And Happy Birthday.

Ditto. I hope the chemo does its thing.