(Image courtesy of UW Medicine)
With colon cancer screenings now recommended at age 45, more of us will go for a colonoscopy, and now there’s an alternative to the bad-tasting liquid prep.
As I write this, I’m just a couple days away from my first ever colonoscopy, and it’s not the procedure nor the anesthesia I’m thinking about. It’s my mother’s voice, saying ‘stay close to the bathroom!,’ but it’s also the prospect of drinking a gallon of bowel prep mom says is pretty nasty.
That’s where SUTAB comes in. It’s a 24 pill regimen split over the hours before your colonoscopy and taken with plain old water, says Doctor Jennifer Ray, Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology at UW. “The benefit of SUTAB,” Ray says, “is that it’s significantly less time and torture from drinking the liquid bowel prep over a long period of time.” You take 12 pills the night before with 48 ounces of water and then do the same thing the morning of your procedure.
Doctor Ray says while SUTAB is an option, your insurance might not pay for it. The out-of-pocket cost can be up to $120.
Really, Doctor Ray says the most important message is to get that colonoscopy as recommended to catch any cancers early. That’s why we recently saw actor Ryan Reynolds and his friend Rob McElhenny from “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” get their colonoscopies on camera to encourage younger adults to stay on top of their health and those potentially life-saving screenings. I hope with those men and me sharing our personal experiences, you’ll be encouraged to follow those recommendations and have the screening.
You can see more on SUTAB with Doctor Ray in the video below:
