No, didn't have any when they looked (I had a colonoscopy just before my surgery). I am due another colonoscopy in five years.

I do have skin tags though, and that is supposed to be related to acromegaly. Luckily they are entirely harmless, though can catch and hurt of course. I seem to have avoided getting anything more serious, so far at least.

John

thank you John I had many many skintags too, forgot to mention

I had heard somewhere colon polyps can be related to the acro it is important to get that checked out...

I didnt have polyps, but had diverticular disease of sigmoid colon and had to have that part of the colon removed because a fistula had formed between the bladder and colon.
The surgeons were surprised as this was rare esp in female 46 years old and very rare among asians.
This was 3 years ago ,before my acromegaly was diagnosed. Although none of the doctors feels its connected, I'm pretty conviced it was bec of my acromegaly.

My docs had a different take than John's. They want a colonoscopy every year, especially since there were several dozen skin tags and then there were a couple of polyps found when the first colonoscopy was done. It seems that acromegalics are at a higher risk for colon cancer and they seem to think the presence of skin tags is another indicator.

I had lots of boils and abcesses, too, even on my scalp and a golf-ball sized one on the abdomen. Now that the tumor has been resected I have only had a few skin tags, which I promptly removed, as I had been taught how to do by the doctor I had who removed the others - prior to the acromegaly diagnosis and I have not had many problems with skin infections and many fewer cysts. I think it will be interesting to see if they are further reduced because i am finally being treated - since April and the IGF-1 is being brought into normal range and the tumor (remnants) has been "shut down".

Jo, I have also been diagnosed with diverticulosis.

Another interesting phenomenon I've heard of related to acromegalics and the colon is to have increased length because of the excess hGH. I will try to remember to ask the gastroenterologist who will perform the colonoscopy in a week if mine is longer than usual because I'm thinking someone once told me that mine was.

BTW, for those of you who remember how irate I was 13 months ago, I will NOT be going back to the same guy who invited people to come look at the acromegalic without my permmission.

At the risk of going off topic, Rose, I had people come "look at the acromegalic" immediately after my op too. However, I must say that I was treated in the gentlest manner by the senior year med student, and he asked most nicely. He wanted some first years to come in and try to work out what I had wrong with me. He said he thought it would do their education some good to come up against someone who was not textbook acromegalic. I'm all for education, especially if it means another acromegalic doesn't get missed for years.

As for the polyps, I am low risk ("come back in 5 years") as they found nothing at the colonoscopy and am under 50.

John

besides the colon polyps I aslo had many boils and abcesses. Did any of you have bone cysts too?

I'm not against either going off topic if that's the direction that things go or against the idea of educating anyone, especially doctors about acromegaly, John, but I'm still not too thrilled about having someone bring a bunch of people around when I went in for a colonoscopy last year, when I was bloated and miserable and I least expected it. It was done in the guy's office and my permission was not requested. That was RUDE and wrong. I like the way you guys get to play "stump the doctor" in the UK and I think I might be able to stump one, too. I like the idea of educating people.

Im all for education of this chronic illness but there was someone who just had photos taken of their looks look at the acromegalic thats not the best way to treat someone the way its said *Nice* NOT look at the acromegalic. Its not good so I totally understand how Rose felt ok different end LOL and we did laugh in one of the discussions specially what SJ s thoughts were on shoving up the tube up someones backside for being rude LOL but thats a different story.At my doctors surgery I had a couple of skin tags removed but asked the nurse about them she went alot of people get them should they go for colonscopys as well

I had lots of skin tags removed and they have not recurred after my surgery. I also have diverticulosis, but not polyps. No abscesses. I have read the same facts Rose has. The colon size issue is called dolichomegacolon, and contributes its own hassles. Do a search for that term with acromegaly. My upper spine also curved, but with a strong family history of scoliosis, it wasn't too surprising. Once again, the question of what caused what.

I had lots of skin tags before the surgery and they found some polyps in my colon which they removed. I had another one recently and they didn't find any more. No abcesses or boils though. I do have problems with my colon and have been told twice now that it is longer than normal, which would explain the constipation problems I have now. Things are so bad at the moment, that the GI doctor doesn't think the lower half is working. If it doesn't get any better he's thinking about a resection and removing half of it.

Wow Northwest2 !!! I knew there were some issues going on with your "tummy" but I had no idea it might lead to this. I hope it gets better, but I'm glad you have some people paying attention to you and glad that you had someone at M.D. Anderson who took those issues seriously ! I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers! Take care.

PS - Just a note, My DIL was about to lose her entire colon to some local yokels but she tranferred to Cleveland Clinic and they kept her from having to go that route and they even kept her from having to take any of the butt-kicking drugs that people often have to use when they have severe ulcerative colitis. US News and World Reports lists them as Number 1 in the US for that discipline, just in case you want to consult them for a 2nd opinion.