The colonoscopy was scheduled to take place in about a week and a half. My test results for parasites came back. I had giardia. This didn't really explain much. Giardia is more of a small intestinal bug and I was obviously bleeding from the large intestines as the blood was bright red. Upon researching giardia I found that in the U.S. approximately 5% of the population may be positive for giardia at any given time. Most people just don't have symptoms and it will usually run its course after about 3 months. In fact, giardia wasn't always considered a bad bug, they used to consider it normal flora (normal bacteria and such for your gut). In any event the physician's assistant called in a prescription for me to pick up. Oh yeah - I was also reported to the state health department, giardia is a reportable disease apparently.

The prescription was for metronidazole, brand name Flagyl. According to the FDA this drug is NOT specifically approved for treatment of giardia, but is prescribed for that. How is it that the FDA knows this drug is commonly prescribed for the treatment of giardia, but they haven't approved it for that use? I have no idea. Remember that I was having more frequent stools with blood in them. I was not having diarrhea when this started. I took the Flagyl and diarrhea started within 24 hours. It continued to worsen and I also noticed that my throat seemed to be getting irritated and swollen as well. Could this be my first allergic reaction to a medication? After 3 days I decided I couldn't endure the full 10 days of treatment and called the doctor's office.

An actual doctor was on call and he seemed confused that I had been prescribed Flagyl without having diarrhea and more confused that the medication had actually given me such bad diarrhea. I explained to him that I was so sick now I would end up in the hospital with severe dehydration in a couple more days. He instructed me to stop taking the Flagyl, which I gladly did. Testing several months later would show I no longer had giardia anyway. Another interesting development occurred during this few day period.

I remembered that one of my aunts had colorectal cancer when she was very young. I called and talked to her. I know that many diseases can have similar symptoms, but I was scared after speaking with her. I was 30, and she had cancer in her late 20's. When I described my various symptoms to her, she got very upset and said that was how she presented with cancer. She told me she wished I did have cancer. Now there’s something nobody had ever wished on me before.  Her reasoning was that after 1 operation she was cured and some intestinal diseases aren't so easily cured.  I called my doctor's office and told them about my aunt. They seemed a little upset with me for not telling them at the office visit that I had a family history of colon cancer. I apologized and simply said, "I forgot". It's not like we all sit around keeping carefully logs of all the ailments that have ever affected any member of our family tree. Maybe we should. Maybe such logs could come in handy sometimes. My appointment for colonoscopy was moved up.

Waiting seemed to be the hardest part. I really wanted to know what was going on with me. I had seen colonoscopies as a medic, so I kind of knew what to expect. But, it is different being the patient. There was something I had not anticipated that goes along with the colonoscopy - the bowel prep.

They called my name and I left the waiting room.  The nurse or aid took a set of vital signs and asked me some questions: Do you smoke?  Do you drink? Do you have any pain?  Do you have any diarrhea?  Do you have any family history of colon cancer?  These were the same types of questions they had asked me over the phone when I called to make an appointment.  They seemed not to believe me.  That or they thought something really bad was wrong with me.  I could tell by the looks on their faces and the way they got quiet after I answered the questions.  They looked puzzled and concerned.

I visited with a physician's assistant who again asked the same questions.  He also did an exam which included my laying on the exam table while he poked around on my abdomen.  The only pain I had was a slight discomfort in the lower part of my belly, the area of my bladder.  After he asked the questions and did the exam the time came for explaining a diagnosis.  The first thing he said was something like, 'Well, it can't be cancer because you're too young for that.'  Did he seriously just say that?  To me that meant that the first thing he thought of was cancer, and that he was ruling it out solely on the basis of my age.  Deep down I knew he thought it sounded like cancer and this bothered me.  He then explained the 2 things he thought this likely was: Diverticulitis or Crohn's Disease.  I had heard of these, but didn't really know what they were.

He explained that Diverticulitis is caused by a bunch of little pockets in the Large Intestines, which become inflamed at times and can bleed.  I later found out that that disease is much more common in the elderly.  Crohn's Disease is basically inflammation of some portion of the digestive tract (from the mouth to the anus) which can start to bleed.  Surgery is usually avoided unless perforation is suspected or believed to be imminent, because you need your digestive tract, and if they cut out the affected portion, Crohn's will return in another area.  After the explanations, lab tests were ordered, just in case it was a parasite.  I was also scheduled for a colonoscopy.  That was a test that I don't think my dad had even had, I was feeling really old.