Colonoscopy

[Medic Mike]

 

 

 

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02756213

 

Eighty-one children with giardiasis have been studied clinically and the response to treatment with metronidazole (Flagyl) and furazolidine (Furoxone) has been evaluated. Success rate with Flagyl was 95.6 per cent and with Furoxone 94.4 per cent. Apart from nausea or vomiting in a few cases no significant side-effect was noted.

 

 

 

Doctor Google tells me its 6 of 1 or half dozen of the other.

 

Dave do you remember your dosage with

furazolidone ?

I can't read it it stated 1 tablet of 100 MG every 8 hours or more ?  I am reading online they recommend average is 3-4 a day but perhaps that is not required. Just want to make sure and see if you remember what she prescribed you.

 

usually i prescribe that drug as 100mg QID for at least 5 days....QID means 4 times a day...

 

 

 

OK hard to read so small the tablets i have here are labelled Metronidazole Amibazole but I am pretty sure they are 500 MG tablets.. should i eat only one a day ? I guess I can just go and get that one that Dave was using... unless you have a better one that you can recommend

 

personally it sounds like to me that you might have the normal run of the mill viral gastro, bascterial is more rare. I think drugs are great, but if you were to walk into my clinic, I would treat you for viral gastro first, which is really increasing fluid/rest, and an aggressive bland diet for a week....if no improvement, then most likely it will be the bacterial type.

[Americano]

Sounds like you have some good advice from our readers and some good recommendations too, but I think you should also be trying to figure out what caused your health problem in the first place. The treatment may work but your problem could continue if you don't know what caused it.

 

I drink about 3 liters of beer per day and sometimes coke but I'm afraid to drink the water here. Sometimes I think I will stop drinking beer mostly to save money but would I be saving money or spending even more on medications and medical bills?  Some may disagree with me but I think most of the water in the Philippines is not safe to drink. Some of the hotels in Cebu City even have signs beside the bathroom sink warning that the water is not safe to drink.  All kinds of bacteria and microbes can be in the water that can cause you a lot of health problems, so the question is, what did you start drinking after you stopped drinking alcohol?

Edited June 18, 2014 by Americano

[Shol]

Sounds like you have some good advice from our readers and some good recommendations too, but I think you should also be trying to figure out what caused your health problem in the first place. The treatment may work but your problem could continue if you don't know what caused it.

 

I drink about 3 liters of beer per day and sometimes coke but I'm afraid to drink the water here. Sometimes I think I will stop drinking beer mostly to save money but would I be saving money or spending even more on medications and medical bills?  Some may disagree with me but I think most of the water in the Philippines is not safe to drink. Some of the hotels in Cebu City even have signs beside the bathroom sink warning that the water is not safe to drink.  All kinds of bacteria and microbes can be in the water that can cause you a lot of health problem, so the question is, what did you start drinking after you stopped drinking?

 

 

Well I only drink high quality mineral water. Going to try and see if the diet and stuff will work not sure though as I pretty much ate almost nothing but apples and bananas for the first week.  Will see what happens.   The thing that makes me feel its diet / drinking related is I only had issues with it once I STOPPED drinking........anyway yer right got lots of great advice....

[JJReyes]

As non-physicians, we need to be careful about giving Shol medical or medication advice for his digestive problem. 

 

With regards to the costs for a medical procedure, that's market driven. Each medical doctor has his own way of setting fees. Sometimes they will look you over, guess how much money is in your wallet, and state an opening price. In the Philippines, everyone bargains including how much to pay doctors. The opening price is just to start the negotiations.

[Americano]

Some tropical fruits can give foreigners LBM as its called here, loose bowl movements, so I wouldn't count those out as a possible cause.

[Shol]

As non-physicians, we need to be careful about giving Shol medical or medication advice for his digestive problem. 

 

With regards to the costs for a medical procedure, that's market driven. Each medical doctor has his own way of setting fees. Sometimes they will look you over, guess how much money is in your wallet, and state an opening price. In the Philippines, everyone bargains including how much to pay doctors. The opening price is just to start the negotiations.

 

True enough. And I will be getting some help from a local if i do indeed end up getting a colonoscopy next week.  The question I am trying to figure out is if It's the best option at this point before trying what was suggested here.

 

I will decide tomorrow and have already started a more intense rigid diet.  So well shall see

 

I apprecaite the help

[JJReyes]

Have someone local call for the appointment and negotiate the price for the procedure. It saves the embarrassment of trying to bargain yourself. In most Western cultures, bargaining over professional fees is not a common practice. 

 

The current recommendation is a colonoscopy at age 55 years and a follow-up 5 years later if the first one is clear. Since Lynch syndrome runs in my family, I have had one every year since 35 years old. They found a pre-cancerous polyp in 2000 and I had a partial colectomy. In 2007, another polyp was found and with the availability of genetic testing for Lynch syndrome, I opted for a sub-total procedure. That's removing all the large colon except for 8 inches. 

 

I am alive. I could have died in 2000 without the constant monitoring. Still get checked once a year for upper and lower GI. It was embarrassing the first time. After that, the whole thing is routine medical. One year they had to do it four times because they couldn't find the source for after surgery bleeding. I was starting to like the one gallon Golyte prep liquid. 

Edited June 18, 2014 by JJReyes

[Thomas]

I have found out that one doctor intended to charge me like 3 times the professional fee standard for that procedure. None have recommended any bacteria or viral solutions until they get some idea as to what is the cause.

Well. As I wrote, I'm no doctor, but thar seem "scam" to me to not check bacterias BEFORE colonoscopy...

I asume you mean stop drinking alcohol. Diarrhea is definetly one of the most common signs of gastrointestinal disease, however it often reflects primary disorders outside the digestive system.

I'm never drunk myself, but one of my friends have often stool problems, because of his drinking.

 

But your text made me think of an OTHER possibility, which I got diarea of    = Eating more SPICY FOOD than I'm used to*.

My problem solved itself in 2-3 days,

I did eat that spicy food only two times, months in between, and got same problem both times, BUT I suppouse the problem would go on IF I had went on eating to spicy food   :)

 

*It was extra spiced bamboo sprouts, so it can't have been bad meat or such, and I got NO problem, when I did eat less spiced bamboo sprouts.

[MikeB]

As non-physicians, we need to be careful about giving Shol medical or medication advice for his digestive problem. 

Amen to that.

did a full exeuctive check up and nothing is wrong with my blood and other tests but it just won't go away.

I hope they positively ruled out amoebic dysentery. I contracted that on my first trip to the Philippines and the symptoms are the same. It doesn't go away by itself, you have to kill it with antibiotics prescribed by a dr. 

[Shol]

 

As non-physicians, we need to be careful about giving Shol medical or medication advice for his digestive problem. 

Amen to that.

did a full exeuctive check up and nothing is wrong with my blood and other tests but it just won't go away.

I hope they positively ruled out amoebic dysentery. I contracted that on my first trip to the Philippines and the symptoms are the same. It doesn't go away by itself, you have to kill it with antibiotics prescribed by a dr. 

 

 

Agreed. It's just so far the doctors I have interacted with want me to undergo 25k+ tests first before theyll prescribe... I am going to go with my friend to get the prescriptions this time that were recommended here.  Education is powerful :)