Virtua Health - The Importance of a  Colonoscopy - video Dailymotion

Beasley Digital

Andrew Salciunas speaks with Dr. Richard Schaller, Colorectal Surgeon at Virtua Health.

Transcript

00:00hello everybody andrew salchunas here from 97.5 the fanatic another great time to talk about our

00:06health i love doing these every single month i get to talk to a different member of the virtual

00:11health team and i learned so much a lot of stuff that's personal to me personal to you and things

00:16that we just need to spread awareness about and this one's very important all these are important

00:20but today especially very important because i get to talk to dr richard schaller the colorectal

00:25surgeon at virtua health and look there's been a lot in the news recently about colon cancer and

00:31unfortunately sometimes it has to be hollywood for us to really take notice of this but chadwick

00:36bozeman he passed away from it in 2020 and of course there's been a lot to it a lot of people

00:41great in hollywood have tried spreading awareness from it like ryan reynolds and rob mckelhanie they

00:46actually did a live screening for people to watch they posted online they went through the entire

00:52colonoscopy screening process uh so people could see exactly what was going on so i'm really excited

00:57to talk to dr shalladay doctor how are you today i'm very good thank you thanks for having me on

01:01oh it's a pleasure i love doing these uh you know i've i've learned top to bottom all over my body

01:07about you know a lot of stuff when it comes to our health and and especially trying to get ahead of

01:11things before we get the bad news so absolutely you joining us and i'm glad we'll get to talk about

01:16this so one of the things i want to start with is symptoms are there any signs are there any

01:21symptoms that we can know about uh especially before we go to the doctor's office we might

01:26unfortunately we do that we wait to see oh i'm starting to feel something wrong with me let me go

01:31get this checked out what kind of signs what kind of symptoms of colon cancer should we be aware of

01:36sure well first of all sometimes the most common symptom is no symptom at all we find this just

01:41through routine screening that's why screening is very important uh that being said symptoms that can

01:46develop are rectal bleeding that's obvious if you see blood in the toilet after going to the

01:51bathroom not fun to talk about or bring up but important to know about doctors should ask about

01:56that um if there's a change in your bowel pattern you know what's normal for you is not

02:00necessarily normal for me or anybody else but if your bowel pattern changes out of the ordinary

02:06if your stools are different sizes namely the caliber are they normally you know of a decent

02:11size but now they're pencil thin that's a problem are you able to empty your colon do you feel

02:16like you're getting everything out when you go to the bathroom uh unexplained weight loss

02:21without trying to lose weight are you losing weight um if you had a blood test and your blood count is

02:26lower you're anemic that can be a sign that you have a slow leak of some slow bleeding happening on

02:32the inside so those are some subtle signs and symptoms that people may have that can be very

02:37common and mistaken for other things but are uh should not be ignored see you said something important

02:43at the very beginning you said a uh there's sometimes no symptoms at all and and b not fun to talk about

02:50when you talked about you know the the blood in the toilet right and you're right it isn't fun to talk

02:55about but i gotta ask you because we might not know the symptoms ourselves should everyone get a

03:01colonoscopy uh short answer yes now there's a lot of caveats there but everybody should be offered a

03:08screening test at the very least uh colonoscopy is our gold standard best available screening test

03:14that allows us to look inside the colon and see a problem that's present or prevent the problem from

03:20ever happening okay okay so other screening other screening tests exist i'm sorry to step on you there

03:27but other screening tests exists but uh most patients and most people are candidates for colonoscopy

03:33so if someone needs surgery let's say they go through the screening process and we find out

03:39that there is some tough news and that we're gonna have to do with this if someone needs surgery what

03:43are some of the benefits of having this done robotically because i know look virtual health

03:48continues to be at the forefront of all kinds of changes in in how we do medicine how we do surgeries

03:55like this so what what kind of added benefit is there sure absolutely any minimally invasive approach

04:01the surgery be it robotically or laparoscopically has proven benefits scientifically proven benefits

04:07um the number one the incisions are smaller so there's less pain it's less disfiguring less scarring

04:14uh benefits that aren't immediately obvious our patients require less narcotic pain medication less pain

04:20medication in the hospital so your intestines start working faster which means you get out of the hospital

04:25faster uh less chance for wound complications uh infections and hernias um those are the benefits

04:33of any minimally invasive approach robotics certainly being the latest tool in our armamentarium

04:38um and is a very uh well tested and proven way to have surgery done safely for colon cancers

04:45now dr schaller knows it i know it you know it if you're watching this right now this isn't a fun

04:51conversation to have but it is an important one and we really hope that you got something from

04:55listening to this today and watching this because it is something that you need to get checked out

04:59and if you want more information on everything that we discussed today including that robotic surgery

05:04and the capabilities that virtua has or if you want to schedule a colonoscopy right now you can call

05:09888-VIRTUA-3 that's 888-VIRTUA-3 or go online at virtua.org slash colon dr schaller i appreciate it thank you

05:18so much this is something that we all need to talk about something that we all need to learn more

05:23about i appreciate you taking the time and doing this today you're very welcome please talk about

05:27it no one should die of embarrassment okay uh not talking about it is not a good idea so bring it up

05:34with your primary care doctor uh colonoscopy can be done as a fast track no office billing

05:39necessary just get plugged in for your colonoscopy get screened tell a friend tell your family

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Virtua Health - The Importance of a Colonoscopy

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