# colonoscopy- biopsy necessary. Is this normal?



## alyssmarie (Nov 8, 2004)

Hi there!Whew! Well, I finally got my colonoscopy DONE and over with, and I'm crossing my fingers that that will be the first and LAST time I'll EVER have to go through that hell. (see yesterday's post- lol). I also hadn't eaten for 2 1/2 days and just completed a whole pizza. ha. I am not advocating going against the doctor's orders, but I didn't even end up drinking a HALF a bottle of phosphosoda (maybe 1 and 1/3 ounces) and a glass of water. After that, I couldn't stomach anything more until another half glass of water at midnight because i was so nauseated. And then a couple Ducolax tablets. So all in all, i got by with less than half of the prescribed amount. I was "running clear" by morning. AND, my doctor had no idea. She said I was clean as a whistle- not any 'residue.' Everything had been passed. Just thought I'd share that for those of you who had as much trouble handling the prep as I did. I don't think it's necessary to always tell patients to drink ALL of that godawful stuff. Well ANYWAY, I only woke up once. It was more like a JOLT awake as they were turning the camera. I don't know what it was, but something hurt like HELL, and i WRITHED. They must've added more narcotic, cuz right after that I fell back asleep. LOL.When I woke up, doc was asking me about my family's colon cancer history. I immediately was concerned and scared. There was an "inflammation" they detected - no polyps- and last I heard they were getting it biopsied.I'm so completely frightened I'm almost crying. I'm a 22 yr old female. Are biopsies a normal thing? So if they found an inflamed area, does that mean I have Chron's? I find out Thursday at my follow-up, but I can't wait until then. I'm just so scared. I haven't even told my family about this whole "IBS" thing, i keep it a secret. Can someone please give me some advice? I really need it, if i'm not gonna spend the next 2 days in a worried funk. Thank you so much. BTW- the sedative was a blast. Before I went out, i remember this nurse saying "WHAT is so funny?" and I said "I don't know." and it went black after that.


----------



## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Inflamation can mean A LOT of things. The reason they take a biopsy is to get a look under the microscope to see what the cause is.They often take biopsies when they cannot see any inflamation to check for a disease called "microscopic colitis" where you can't see the inflamation except for under a microscope.I wouldn't get too concerned that they took a biopsy, that they took it doesn't mean that much until we find out what the results are, so try not to worry too much. I know it is hard, but most of the time even when they biopsy things the results come back normal...it just means they saw something they want to check...does not mean they found anything that will turn out to be something that is a worry.I've had to have cysts in the breasts biopsied, and it turned out to be nothing, so a lot of time it is just to find out if something is a something or a nothing.K.


----------



## Janet (Aug 25, 2004)

I've heard that when you get a colonoscopy, insist on biopsies. There are things that can't be seen with naked eye and while they are there they should look into everything. There are people on the webmd site that were upset no biopsies were done.


----------

