that darned serrated polyp!

I had an appointment with my GI this morning, 8 weeks out from my last scoping (which was a chromoendoscopy, with dye to highlight any irregularities.) The inflammation that was evident had pushed him to put me on Uceris for 8 weeks.
When we sat down to talk, he asked how I am feeling (good! 2-3 poops a day, depending on what I have eaten, no urgency, no blood, no pain...) He said that the thing that worries him most is not from the chromoendoscopy, which showed no dysplasia on the numerous biopsies, but rather the serrated polyp he spotted in October.
The choices as he saw were to keep vigilant surveillance (annual chromoendoscopies) or, if I couldn't stand the tension of living with this, colectomy. Which, (as he said) was hard to recommend, since I am feeling so well!

So, the plan is as I thought all along: annual scopings with dye.

And I am doing the Prometheus test (enzyme test) to see about going on an immunomodulator.

I know there are a couple of other folks who have had serrated polyps - how long ago were they spotted?

It would freak the heck out of me. But, as long as you do yearly surveillance, I think you are good for now. It is what I would choose, unless you have a close relative with colon cancer.

As I read, these polyps are getting new attention, but a lot is still unknown:

"In an ideal world, recommendations about management of serrated neoplasia of the colon would be based upon an understanding of the natural history and overall malignant potential of the various types of serrated polyps. Unfortunately such detailed information is not yet available and there are no controlled studies of follow-up intervals of serrated neoplasia of the colon." www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3437745/

Yes, I am experiencing some moments of being freaked out!

It's the unknowns.

Old Hat, I didn't communicate very well - he really wasn't "pushing" colectomy; he was saying that if I couldn't stand to live with the uncertainty, I could always have surgery. And he said that if I were feeling crappy, surgery might seem like a decent solution all around, but seeing as I am feeling so well, he was not going to push that route.

Where did you hear about the helix hydrojet, OH? I may ask him about this. He seems to be up on new developments, but one never knows. This Doc is a GI Prof at an Ivy League university and is associated with the related teaching hospital, and I've liked his knowledge base thus far. But I've only been with him 5 ish years, and in those years I have not had any particularly dramatic issues. So this issue will be the test as to how we work together.

Songlady, I read about the helix hydrojet about 3-4 yrs back on Gastroendo News online. It jumped to my attention 'cause my gastro had told me ca. 2002 about spotting a flat-lesion malignancy during c-scope of a 31 yr-old (a UCer from age 8!) who had otherwise seemed to be in remission. At that time this patient had no alternative but immediate colectomy. / Old Hat (35 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)