Colonoscopy

Tuesday, September 16th.

I had been having some abdominal pain over the past year. My doctor finally ordered a colonoscopy. I had my procedure today. It revealed 2 polyps (1-4 mm in size). One was located in the transverse colon and one was in the cecum. They were resected, retrieved and sent for biopsy. I hope to find out the results by the first week in October. The doctor states they looked benign. So not worrying about it!

She also noted diverticulosis in my sigmoid colon. This is different than diverticulits.

Diverticulosis occurs when the small pouches, known as diverticula, form in the walls of the large intestine or colon. Ten percent of Americans over age 40 and 50% of Americans over the age of 60 suffer from diverticulosis.

Diverticulitis occurs when undigested food or waste matter is trapped inside these pouches, causing the pouches to become inflamed or infected. Between 10% and 25% of people with diverticulosis develop diverticulits. Diverticulitis is treated with antibiotics.

Treatment:
1) eat more fiber
2) drink more fluids
3)exercise regularly (I think this is a doctor's answer for everything)

Recommended fiber intake should be the following:

Age 19-50
Men 38 grams per day
Women 25 grams per day

Over age 50
Men 30 grams per day
Women 21 grams per day.

Studies show that the average American woman consumes about 14 grams of fiber daily, around half of the daily recommended amount. So I started taking Benefiber.

Wow...now my kids will really think I'm getting old :-)