After his 40^th birthday party Bill experienced pain in his abdomen which he easily blamed on too much pizza and beer. Several days later he passed a small amount of blood with a bowel movement; this he attributed to hemorrhoids.  When he saw blood a second time he decided to check it out.

Bill contacted Dr. David Faulk, board-certified gastroenterologist, who evaluated him in detail. When taking Bill’s history, Dr. Faulk learned that Bill’s father had colon polyps and his uncle had surgery for colon cancer. Even though hemorrhoids were present during the exam, Dr. Faulk recommended that Bill undergo colonoscopy.

Bill came as an outpatient to the hospital. He was sedated so that he would not experience discomfort and Dr. Faulk passed a flexible tube throughout Bill’s colon. Two small polyps were discovered and removed entirely.

When the report came back from the laboratory several days later, biopsies showed that one of the polyps contained pre-cancerous cells and the other was benign. Dr. Faulk was able to reassure Bill that no cancer was found, but if Bill had waited until he was 50 years old or until he had more symptoms, cancer could have formed and the outcome could have been much worse.

Dr. Faulk has counseled Bill so now he will have surveillance at regular intervals to look for more polyps. Also, Bill knows that he should tell all of his siblings and other close relatives that they should be screened for polyps. And, based on current guidelines, Bill’s children should start having colon screening when they reach 30 years of age.

Dr. Faulk emphasizes that polyps and colon cancer are more common in families, and that even if a family member has non-cancerous polyps, other family members are at increased risk for colon cancer. Screening must start at an earlier age for those individuals.

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