colonoscopy gone wrong update

My sister had a colonoscopy on Friday the 14th. The general surgeon in Viroqua, WI, decided to remove a 5cm mass from her rectum. Because? He is stoopid. She nearly bled to death, transfered to ICU via ambulance in LaCrosse, WI, had a total of 4 surgeries, 6 bags of blood and a week in the hospital.

Lesson learned: not only to push for early colonoscopies in your family members, but make sure a GI doc does it!! And probably one with years of experience. Don't let a general surgeon touch your colon.

The best news is the mass was NOT cancer!

My other sister, not cancer, but hepC- made it through 6 weeks of horrid meds. She now is in this hospital dealing with blood clots, tanked hemoglobin and vile nausea. They stopped treatment on her due to the blood clots and as the Mayo doctor said, "we can't keep beating you up like this!" The hope is she got enough of the meds, the reality is they won't know for awhile. Without a doubt what she went through and the recovery was JUST LIKE CHEMO= in order to get and kill the virus, lots of RBC broken down. At one point they were talking about her bone marrow failing. No idea how long she will be in the hospital.

And my poor mother- 75 years old- all of her children have had major medical issues- she really deserves a hand for hanging in there as the caregiver. It has been really tough on her!