The Drs: Dr Andrew Ordon Barrett’s Esophagus & Colonoscopy

The Drs: Dr Andrew Ordon Health Scare

The Doctors shared that doctors can need help just like us, and when Dr Andrew Ordon recently started experiencing some mysterious symptoms, he knew he needed to seek some help of his own. He had to undergo an upper endoscopy and colonoscopy. A couple years ago he had an upper GI and a colonoscopy and was given a diagnosis of Barrett’s esophagus, which is a pre-malignant lesion. If left untreated, it can actually lead to esophageal cancer, so he was a little worried that he put off getting it checked out.

Dr Omid Shaye explained that they were going to be taking biopsies of Dr Ordon’s esophagus to make sure that his Barrett’s esophagus is stable and has not progressed into something more serious.

The Drs: Barrett’s Esophagus

They found three polyps during the colonoscopy that looked benign. As he was coming out of his anesthesia, Dr Ordon said to Dr Shaye, “Clean as a whistle!”

Dr Shaye joined The Doctors to reveal the results. Dr Shaye explained that while looking at Dr Ordon’s esophagus, they noticed some inflammation and damage. He said the Barrett’s esophagus looks stable, which is definitely good news. But there is some inflammation there, which suggests there’s ongoing acid reflux that they have to get under control.

The Drs: Andrew Ordon Colonoscopy & Endoscopy

Dr Shaye explained that chronic cough, chronic hoarseness, and asthma that isn’t helped with medication are signs that you should consider getting an endoscopy. He explained in the colonoscopy, they found some benign polyps and some internal hernias that could explain some of the bleeding he was seeing, but the good news is that he did a great job with the prep to help the doctors be able to find those polyps.

Dr Shaye shared that a quarter of the Americans who are eligible to have colonoscopies have not had them, and only two thirds of people are up to date with their colon cancer screening. Dr Ordon said it’s not bad at all.