\Hi Tina: I obtained all of my records after my second lap but seemed to have misplaced the letters sent to my pcp. I remember it though, and there was no mention of the difficulty of the colonoscopy in the letter. I don't believe it even said "essentially normal", just normal exam, good prep, etc. The written endoscopy report he gave me to take with me says "colon to TI (which I know is terminal ileum) negative. Negative exam". However, he told me verbally that I was "letting him know" it was painful and I was too wiped out at the time to know to ask him possible reasons for this and my husband wouldn't know what questions to ask. The last thing I remember is seeing the nurse with a black tube in her hand (I assume this was the colonoscope) and the end of the procedure someone saying "we're all done now." This was very disappointing because my husband had one and he told me it was going to be like a guided tour of my colon. He watched (with a weird detached feeling) his on the video screen with the doctor explaining everything he saw. There is the possiblity that this weird arrangement of my lower colon resulted from the first lap done 2 months after the colonosocpy but I don't think so because 1) I was told 20 years ago that I had what appeared to be massive adhsions on the left side of the pelvis, which is where your sigmoid colon is and 2) The gyn didn't lyse these adhesions he found in the left side of the pelvis at the first lap so I doubt he caused this to happen to my sigmoid colon. I know this is probably confusing but what I'm getting at is that I believe these adhesions were what was distorting my sigmoid colon at the time of the colonoscopy. When I had the second lap 8 months after the colonosocpy the surgeon told me that they didn't see the sigmoid colon's abnormal position until they lysed the adhesions on top of it (I asked him how the gyn could have missed this at the first lap. The surgeon told me the gyn probably didn't see it becuase he didn't remove the adhesions on top of the sigmoid colon) What you said about having pain from adhesions is the unusual reaction-this is why I believe that my pain is not caused by my adhesions, even though it looks like it should be. I had these adhesions 20 years ago and all of a sudden they cause pain? Doesn't make sense to me. But I got interested in this forum back when everyone thought my pain was from the adhesions, in case you are wondering why I am here. I got the example about the unusual presentation of crohn's from a case I saw at work. A woman came in one day, just couldn't stand the abdominal pain she'd been having for 6 months any longer. No nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps,(that she admitted to anyway) just pain. The only finding was a positive occult blood. The doctors were sure she had a malignancy (she was 50 years old) They did a CT and it turned out to be crohn's of the jejeunem. When they do a colonscopy they can only look as far as the terminal ileum. The pain management doctor told me that when they do a lap they can "see" crohn's but I'm wondering if this is only in severe cases where there are abscesses/fistulas etc. within the abdominal cavity. I am sure there are mild cases that only affect the inside of the bowel. I have asked some doctors if a test could be done to see if my sigmoid colon is back in the wrong place. That was when the surgeon said it would probably only show something if I were totally obstructed. I would think the xray would show barium in a spot where you wouldn't expect to find it at that point of the exam. (such as a barium enema there would be barium way over on the right side long before it should be there, in my case.) In any case, should I need to have another colonoscopy I will definitely mention this (and they probably would refuse to do it) because I don't like the idea of them poking in the wrong direction! Sorry this is so long! But as I said, it's great having someone to talk to who knows the technicalities of this stuff with lots of experience. Thanks
Chris S.