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Notes on My Colon Cancer

charlieharrington.com

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Re: Notes on My Colon Cancer

#131

Post by Cthulhu_ »

voxl wrote: post #120
jeswin wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got mine done three years back at 36 (I've had gastric issues, and my mom has colorectal cancer) - didn't use sedatives or anesthesia. Pain tolerance is relative, so my own experience wouldn't carry over. I can understand if some people want sedatives, but anesthesia is pretty high risk like you were saying.

So much "high risk" in this thread, yet its used all over the place in United States and not a single shred of evidence to be found anywhere here...

I did some googling; here's some studies on death rate due to anasthesia: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697561/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3147285/ ; the latter does highlight that the incident rate has dropped a lot since the 1940's. Another one on "anesthetic awareness", or waking up during the procedure / recalling things without being able to respond, which happens 1-2 times out of 1000: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2900098

"Not a single shred of evidence to be found" -> "I didn't actually look but like telling people they're wrong lol"

Re: Notes on My Colon Cancer

#132

Post by johncozen »

dia80 wrote: post #129
cameldrv wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second this. There is evidence that anesthesia causes brain damage. This shows up in the data most for babies and small children, and the elderly, where you can see it on IQ tests and chance of dementia. It's more pronounced with multiple surgeries. It may be that it's damaging everyone's brains, but it's just not as noticeable for adults. One study with twins showed about a 1.5 point IQ loss from a major surgery. Of…

I'm up to about 30 hours of general anesthesia after a near fatal snowboarding accident left me with a spinal cord injury. I like to think how smart I'd be if I hadn't needed it!

Wow thats incredible. Stay strong!

Re: Notes on My Colon Cancer

#133

Post by brodie »

meowface wrote: post #101
tonyhb wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Propofol or ketamine are both safe, low risk, and have minimal side effects when used correctly.

Is propofol not a general anaesthetic? That's what I was given for my colonoscopy. Totally knocked out, and when I opened my eyes again it was all over. Side note: I was never warned about a particular effect of propofol. They started pumping it in and told me to count down from 10. At about 5, I suddenly felt this horrible searing, burning pain in my IV-connected arm that I felt spreading throughout my body. Thinkin…

Propofol is definitely used as one of probably a cocktail of drugs required for various levels of sedation (AKA “general anesthesia” in this case).

I’ve experienced the exact same pain you’re talking about but with IV antibiotics. No nurse or doctor could actually explain why it was happening to me, other than to say the IV had “gone bad.” Because I was in the hospital for so long, they eventually switched me to a PICC line. Absolutely zero pain with that.

My own experiences with propofol involved either the PICC line, or maybe some kind of arterial line or something (I was unconscious when I was first sedated during this incident).

Re: Notes on My Colon Cancer

#134

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Kosirich wrote: post #105

Since "becoming an adult", I've lived in three cities in two countries, which means that've generally had no idea who my primary care doctor is or was, only that I'd need to find one to give me a referral to get this wart on my foot removed. F?%k, this is way to relatable. Same as the author I'm an expat which hasn't had a GP check in 5 years, not counting getting a dermatologist procedures. I feel like this is an ex…

Not only expats; I've moved a few times but hadn't bothered to change my GP for over 5 years because I never needed it (thankfully). The last time I needed it was because the skin on my hands was fucked (cold + dry air and a newfound habit of actually washing my hands; vaseline cream helped) and chronic neck pain (treatment didn't help, but changing my backpack apparently did?).

Anyway I bought a house a few years ago and I'm a bit more settled so I've moved to a local GP, and I hope to never need it.

Re: Notes on My Colon Cancer

#135

Post by Cthulhu_ »

mtalantikite wrote: post #20

I’ve read that there are some emerging theories of a bacterial component of colon cancer, which I find interesting [1][2][3]. A friend, also in his 30s, recently was diagnosed with colon cancer and it seems like doctors are really noticing an increase in colon cancer among a younger population. It just seems so young to be dealing with it. Regardless, I’m glad the author is recovering and found it early enough! [1] h…

Gut biome is IMO one of the most interesting (and gross) areas of medical science at the moment; this morning's news mentioned a 1 million research starting to investigate gut biome and diabetes.

Re: Notes on My Colon Cancer

#136

Post by elihu »

cableshaft wrote: post #65

I've had the blood bit off and on (mostly off lately, but it happened again recently for a day), but I've always been told by doctors that it's just hemorrhoids, I'm too young to get cancer. Then Chadwick died, and I'm like, man, he got diagnosed with Stage 3 the same age I am now, and I'm in terrible shape compared to him. I'm thinking I should probably get a colonoscopy next summer, after this wave of Covid dies do…

Just had a colonoscopy a little less than two weeks ago. The office was definitely less crowded than last time I had one (pre-covid). Now's a good time to beat the inevitable rush, and you might be safer with fewer people around compared to if everything opens up again but covid isn't fully under control.

If you think of each day that goes by a 1% chance of getting cancer, that might work as a motivator. (I don't know if that's an accurate probability, but really I wouldn't risk it. I had a nasty bleeding tumor removed a few years back and it was no big deal because it was caught early and hadn't become cancerous yet. If I had waited a year things might have turned out a lot worse.)

Re: Notes on My Colon Cancer

#137

Post by gautamp8 »

plessthanpt05 wrote: post #92

If the author reads this (or anyone else cares to chime in), are there any other symptoms that were/are noticed?

Colon cancer usually comes with incomplete evacuation, traces/bloody stool, any surprising/major change in bowel habits. Many other diseases have similar symptoms(IBD) so it's difficult to distinguish a bit. In general, any kind of inflammation in body could be a trigger to cancer.

Re: Notes on My Colon Cancer

#138

Post by tidenly »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #124
stevecalifornia wrote: post #5

Fellow readers: Do not be afraid of a colonoscopy. Do not avoid it-- in fact, look forward to it. They are easy and painless. Waking up from the anesthesia I felt more relaxed than I ever have in my life. Also, the prep of clearing your system will reset your digestive system and you'll feel like a new person. I think the prep cleared out whatever it was that was causing us to investigate my digestive system in the f…

Cannot confirm; my girlfriend had a sigmoidoscopy (similar) and she experienced it as traumatizing and violating. I don't believe she got any anesthetics admitted; pretty sure it's not standard. Please don't romanticize invasive diagnostics. If you want to advocate for the occasional bowel purge or using anesthetics to sleep have at it though. But also, general anesthesia should be avoided as much as possible, it's n…

I really did not need to read this the week before I have a camera put in my stomach. Crap.

Re: Notes on My Colon Cancer

#139

Post by thornjm »

hzay wrote: post #122

Great article. My father had a colonoscopy for a polyp (luckily non-cancerous). We were extremely worried, and it was so sudden that I couldn't read up on it. Does anyone have recommended reading for basic cancer knowledge? I'm 32, know nothing, no family history of cancer AFAIK, but I have a large family and I want to start preparing and getting information. Thanks in advance!

It's a tough read without much prior knowledge but the seminal work is: Hallmarks of Cancer by Hanahan and Weinberg (I think this is an updated version: [1]).

It introduces the fundamental features of all cancers. Every cancer ends up with pretty much all of these traits because of strong survivorship bias. Those that don't develop these traits die off.

[1] https://www.cell.com/fulltext/S0092-8674(11)00127-9

Re: Notes on My Colon Cancer

#140

Post by 317070 »

stevecalifornia wrote: post #5

Fellow readers: Do not be afraid of a colonoscopy. Do not avoid it-- in fact, look forward to it. They are easy and painless. Waking up from the anesthesia I felt more relaxed than I ever have in my life. Also, the prep of clearing your system will reset your digestive system and you'll feel like a new person. I think the prep cleared out whatever it was that was causing us to investigate my digestive system in the f…

>Also, the prep of clearing your system will reset your digestive system and you'll feel like a new person. I think the prep cleared out whatever it was that was causing us to investigate my digestive system in the first place.

I had the exact same feeling afterwards. The issue has disappeared since, and that was 2 years ago.

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