Hey all, my first post in this subreddit so please be kind. I tried searching this topic and couldn’t find anything.
I had a colonoscopy at 30 here due to blood from a polyp; I had the joy of watching the entire thing and noticed white spots as well. They didn’t acknowledge it afterwards, which I found a little strange.
I’m now 34 and during my annual work health check, had both stool samples turn up positive for fecal occult blood (basically, nearly invisible blood present). I was scheduled for another colonoscopy at the same hospital. I’m not paranoid about cancer at my age, so I was googling other causes and found some of images of UC/Crohn’s looked similar to my first colonoscopy experience. I’ll add that I’m seriously inaka and they probably don’t have experience with out of the ordinary medical conditions.
So, I need advice:
Should I really risk another colonoscopy at the same hospital, or make the trip to another one? (Keeping in mind that you’ll probably poop yourself a little on the way, haha, prep isn’t pretty…) If they don’t acknowledge my concerns again, can you ask for your results to be released to another medical institution, or is that not allowed here? What kind of specialist should I see for IBD; are there doctors familiar with it, or is it just not a thing here? I’m really stressed and tired about it at this point, so any advice is truly appreciated. My nearest major city is Nagoya, 2-3 hours away.
5 comments
Gastroenterologist is who you want. Just stay in a business hotel the night before to do your bowel prep.
Hey, I have uc and have had about 3 colonoscopies in Japan in the last 2 years.
If you do have uc/crohns, getting that diagnosed as early as possible would be best. It wouldn’t hurt getting another colonoscopy to be sure.
There should be plenty of gastroenterologists around, especially if you do travel closer to Nagoya.
I usually drink the prep at the clinic, I’ve always been given an option before my scopes. No, uh… accidents that way
Hi! First of all I’m sorry you’re experiencing this and I know how much it sucks. My mom and my uncle (her brother) both have Crohn and I most likely have IBS coming from endometriosis.
I’m in a pretty big city so my experience will be different but I had a colonoscopy last year to rule out my symptoms being Crohn and since the doctor couldn’t find anything he wrote me a recommendation letter to send me to a IBD specialist and center in Yokohama so those definitely exist but you might need to go to a bigger city for that and also you’ll need a special letter to get an appointment there.
Did you get anything from your colonoscopy that you could bring to another doctor? It might be a good idea to check with another hospital but they might ask you to redo the exact same procedure in their hospital/clinic before giving you a new answer.
Anyway IBS and IBD are both pretty common here and have been on the rise with the change of the Japanese diet to the western one from what my doctor said so it’s definitely not a lack of knowledge but maybe a lack of ressources and institutions in your area.
I know the prep suck and being far away from the clinic is a nightmare in that case but I would still advise you to try in a bigger city (maybe you don’t have to go all the way to Nagoya and can find a medium sized clinic on the way?) Good luck!
Just because you are 34 doesn’t mean you should ignore any signs of colon cancer. My partner had it at 40
I was diagnosed with UC last year and I live in inaka too so they referred me to a bigger hospital in Kyoto for further checkups and I think you should do the same.