Colon and Rectal Surgery of New York

Colon and Rectal Surgery of New York For the past 20 years, Dr. Lynn M.

O’Connor has made it her mission to provide patients with the foremost treatment, technology, and information related to preventive public health issues, and colon and rectal health.

The surgery is the part most patients fixate on.I understand that. But what happens after you leave the OR matters just ...
07/29/2026

The surgery is the part most patients fixate on.

I understand that. But what happens after you leave the OR matters just as much as what happens inside it.

Recovery from colore**al surgery isn’t passive. It’s work — and the patients who do it well tend to have significantly better outcomes.

A few things I tell every patient before they go home:

Follow the instructions exactly. Not approximately. The guidelines I give you are specific to your case, your anatomy, your procedure. Improvising is where complications begin.

Get ahead of the pain. Take your medication on schedule, not when the pain becomes unbearable. And know that pain medication causes constipation — we’ll talk about how to manage that before you leave.

Walk. Starting the day after surgery if possible. Short distances. Around the house. It prevents blood clots, moves gas through your system, and signals to your body that it’s time to heal.

Watch what you eat — and when. Your diet will start liquid and progress slowly. This is not the time to test your digestive system. Let it rebuild.

Pay attention to your incision. Increased redness, swelling, drainage, fever — these are not things to wait on. Call us.

The patients who recover fastest are the ones who treat recovery like a job.

07/28/2026

As a colon and re**al surgeon, I don’t often get to tell patients to eat more chocolate.

Today is that day.

Dark chocolate — the real stuff, 70% cocoa or higher — contains prebiotic fiber that feeds the beneficial bacteria in your gut. It’s also loaded with polyphenols that reduce inflammation in the digestive tract.

Translation: that square of dark chocolate after dinner might actually be doing your microbiome a favor.

A few things worth knowing before you raid the candy aisle:

Not all chocolate qualifies. Milk chocolate, candy bars, anything with a long list of added sugars — that’s not what we’re talking about. You want high cocoa content, minimal ingredients.

Moderation still matters. A square or two. Not the whole bar.

But within those guardrails? Go ahead. Enjoy it without the guilt.

I spend a lot of time telling people what to cut out of their diet. It’s genuinely fun to tell them what to add.

A colonoscopy is not something most people look forward to.I know that. My team knows that. So we treat every patient wh...
07/23/2026

A colonoscopy is not something most people look forward to.

I know that. My team knows that. So we treat every patient who walks through our door like the procedure feels to them — like a big deal. Because for them, it is.

Lauren came to us after a referral from her primary care physician. She was nervous. Most people are. By the time she left, she felt taken care of — not just clinically, but as a person.

“She made the whole process of getting a routine colonoscopy much better than I ever could have anticipated.”
— Lauren B., patient

That’s not an accident. The way my staff shows up, the way we communicate, the team I choose to work with in that procedure room — all of it is intentional.

A colonoscopy done right shouldn’t feel like an ordeal. It should feel like you were in good hands the entire time.

If you’ve been putting off a screening because you’re anxious about the experience — that’s exactly why I’d want you to call us.

The myths about colore**al cancer aren’t just wrong. They’re dangerous.I’ve sat across from patients who waited — becaus...
07/22/2026

The myths about colore**al cancer aren’t just wrong. They’re dangerous.

I’ve sat across from patients who waited — because they were “too young,” because they felt fine, because they assumed bleeding meant hemorrhoids. By the time they got to me, we had fewer options.

Misinformation costs people time they don’t have.

Swipe through every slide. Share this with someone you love. And if you’ve been putting off a colonoscopy because you feel fine and you’re not “that old” — this is your sign to schedule it.

Early detection is the difference between a conversation in my office and a much harder one.

Colore**al cancer is rising in adults under 50.I see it in my OR. The data confirms it.A 2023 study in the Journal of th...
07/15/2026

Colore**al cancer is rising in adults under 50.

I see it in my OR. The data confirms it.

A 2023 study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute identified four symptoms that often appear months — sometimes up to two years — before a diagnosis in younger adults:

Re**al bleeding. Not “probably hemorrhoids.” Get it evaluated.

Persistent abdominal pain or cramping. Your gut is trying to tell you something.

Changes in bowel habits — especially diarrhea that won’t resolve.

Unexplained iron deficiency anemia. Chronic fatigue with no clear cause. This one gets missed constantly.

The numbers behind these symptoms are not subtle. One symptom nearly doubles your risk. Three or more raises it over six times.

And yet diagnosis in younger patients is still delayed — sometimes by nine months or more — because both patients and providers assume cancer isn’t possible at this age.

It is possible. I operate on these patients.

If something feels off, push for answers. “You’re too young for that” is not a diagnosis.

07/14/2026

Not all polyps are created equal.

Found during your colonoscopy? That’s good news. But what happens next depends on what we’re actually looking at.

Three things I’m evaluating immediately:

Size. Anything larger than 1 cm gets my attention. Small polyps carry far less risk.

Number. One polyp is very different from four. More polyps means more surveillance, sooner.

What the cells look like under the microscope. This is called histology. If I see dysplasia — cells that look abnormal but haven’t crossed into cancer yet — that changes your follow-up timeline entirely.

A clean colonoscopy doesn’t always mean come back in ten years.

It means come back when your findings say you should.

This is why cookie-cutter screening schedules don’t work. Your results are yours. Your next step should match them.

Ask your doctor what your polyp findings actually mean for your surveillance plan

Red meat is the most nuanced entry in this series — and I want to give it the honest treatment it deserves.The IARC clas...
07/09/2026

Red meat is the most nuanced entry in this series — and I want to give it the honest treatment it deserves.

The IARC classifies red meat as a Group 2A probable carcinogen. Suggestive evidence, not conclusive.

Most guidelines land at the same number: no more than 18 ounces of cooked red meat per week.

But quantity isn't the only variable.

High-heat cooking — grilling, charring — produces compounds called HCAs and PAHs that directly damage DNA in colon cells.

How you prepare your steak matters almost as much as how often you eat it.

Red meat doesn't have to disappear from your plate. Moderation and preparation are the levers.

Bake, broil, or slow-cook when you can.

Fill the rest of your protein needs with fatty fish, legumes, and poultry — foods that actively support the colon rather than stress it.

That's the full picture.

Five foods, five mechanisms, one consistent theme: what you eat over years and decades shapes what I see in the operating room.

If you've followed this series from the beginning, you now have the same framework I give my own patients. Share it with someone who needs it.

Soda. Sweetened tea. Flavored coffee. Fruit juice.The connection between added sugar and colore**al cancer is indirect —...
07/02/2026

Soda. Sweetened tea. Flavored coffee. Fruit juice.

The connection between added sugar and colore**al cancer is indirect — but it's real, and it compounds quietly over time.

Here's the mechanism: added sugar feeds the bacteria in your gut you don't want to encourage, disrupting the microbiome balance your colon depends on. It also drives weight gain and obesity, which is an independent risk factor for colore**al cancer. Two pathways, same destination.

The research on sugar isn't as stark as a WHO carcinogen classification. But in 20 years of operating on colons, the patients who fare best share a common denominator — and it's never a diet built around sweetened drinks.

Every swap matters. Unsweetened green tea. Water with citrus or cucumber. Whole fruit instead of juice.

Small shifts that add up across years, not weeks.

This is Part 4 of a 5-part series on what to cut from your diet to protect your colon. One more to go.

A patient came in last year — nervous, embarrassed, had been putting off the appointment for months.Before she even got ...
06/30/2026

A patient came in last year — nervous, embarrassed, had been putting off the appointment for months.

Before she even got to me, one of my nurses had already sat with her for ten minutes. Not reviewing paperwork. Just talking.

Asking about her kids. Making her feel like she wasn't about to face something alone.

By the time I walked in, she was calm.

That's not something you can train into people. You hire for it.

I've thought about that moment a lot. Because that's the part of this practice I'm most proud of — and it had nothing to do with me.

Colore**al surgery is a specialty people avoid. The fear isn't just about the diagnosis. It's about the experience — who they'll have to talk to, what they'll have to say out loud, whether anyone in that office will treat them with dignity.

My team answers that question before I ever enter the room.

If you've been sitting on a symptom because you're not ready to make the call — you're more ready than you think. And the people on the other end of that phone are the reason I can say that with confidence.

We're here when you're ready.

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380 Park Ave
Huntington, NY
11743

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 7am - 5pm
Friday 7am - 4pm

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