Does the surgeon do a colonoscopy before he cuts?

Posted by lindaatoth @lindaatoth, Apr 15, 2023

I will have a subtotal colectomy with an ISA in 3 days to remove hundreds of polyps. At least that is the plan. With the rapid growth of polyps from zero in 2020 to 50+ in Nov '22 to hundreds in Feb '23, I am worried that some may have progressed to cancer. My timeline is not the usual for polyp growth. The endoscopist put a tattoo where the polyps stopped distally at my procedure in February. Will the surgeon do a 'quick' colonoscopy to find the tattoo and see the extent of the polyps before he cuts?

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They will look when they go inside of you with the scope when they do the surgery I would assume. They probably won't do another colonoscopy per se prior to surgery, but the surgeon will be looking when he goes in to make sure that more polyps haven't spread because there might have to be a change of plans if there is. That's a crazy amount of polyps to develop that soon. I hope they do genetic tests! Good luck!

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I was negative for FAP and MAP and doctors say mine is a very unusual case and can't explain why this has happened. "It must be a gene they have not found yet" is all they say which really makes it difficult to explain to blood relatives that they also need to be screened more often and possibly for other cancers as well.

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