Why does this surgeon like doing colonoscopies?

People often ask why a girl like me would want to do a job like a colonoscopy. My enthusiastic answer is there is not much we can do in medicine to actually prevent cancer, but screening colonoscopies are one great way to prevent colon cancer.

Anyone without a family history of colon cancer should get their first screening colonoscopy at the age of 45. If there are not polyps, you only need one every 10 years. If there are polyps, the doctor may recommend doing them more frequently.

A colon polyp is a benign growth in the colon that has the potential to turn into a cancer over the course of a few years. Not all polyps will become a cancer, but we cannot tell which ones will and which ones will not. If we see those polyps with a colonoscopy while they are still benign and remove them, then they never get the opportunity to become a cancer.

The colonoscopy procedure can be intimidating, but the most difficult part is the night and morning before the procedure. Your colon needs to be very clean for the doctor to see the polyps, which may only be a few millimeters in size. You are asked to not eat solid food the day before the procedure and then your doctor prescribes you a colon preparation. This usually entails a liquid drink, pills or powder you mix with liquid. You then must drink a lot of fluids to push the preparation through your bowels to clean out all the stool.

The day of the procedure you meet the team and get a light sedation. While you’re taking a nice nap, the doctor inserts a long, thin tube with a camera on the end to look at your entire colon which is usually a few feet long. If the doctor sees polyps, they can painlessly remove them during the colonoscopy. Most people wake up saying they felt they had a great nap and do not remember any of the procedure. Your friend or loved one can take you out to a nice breakfast while you celebrate that you just prevented yourself from getting colon cancer.

There are less invasive ways to screen for colon cancer, but are not as good at detecting colon cancer as a colonoscopy — and you may still end up needing a colonoscopy.

There are stool tests that check for blood or DNA from cancer or a large polyp. These tests must be done much more frequently than a colonoscopy and if they are positive, you will still need a colonoscopy to check to see if there is a cancer that caused the positive test. A virtual colonoscopy still requires you to do the colon preparation, which is the worst part of the procedure, and if a polyp is found, you must still do a colonoscopy with a second colon preparation.

While everyone over the age of 45 should get a screening colonoscopy, anyone who is experiencing a change in bowel habits, blood in their stool, or unexplained weight loss should talk to their doctor about getting a colonoscopy even if they may not be due for one. If you have a family history of colon cancer, it’s recommended to get a colonoscopy every five years and start 10 years younger than the age of your loved one when they were diagnosed with colon cancer.