March is ...

Colon cancer screenings are a must for everyone over 45.

https://i.postimg.cc/QdC9rBhb/fc.jpg

I am due again for a colon screening this year. Thankfully, my insurance pays for it, and they give a $50 bill credit after I have it done. They really want to encourage people to get this test.

Stay well Soberbyker.

Thank you. Yes insurance companies rather spend a little and prevent cancer than pay for chemo (and other cancer fighting drugs/therapies) for a long time.

A colonoscopy is literally a couple days of discomfort that can add years of healthy living to your life.

I learned a little about anesthesia when I was in an anesthesia experiment at the NIH. One component of many anesthesia doses (is that the right word?) is an amnesiac.

Many years ago, likely at my first colonoscopy, I had the results discussion of the procedure of course at the end. My wife fortunately was with me. I’m told that I participated as a normal human but the amnesiac still ran the show and I had no idea that the discussion even occurred. For lots of reasons try to avoid going to the Doc alone.

Cologuard result was negative.

you are doing well, Bill!

Thanks for your words of wisdom.

I am overdue. And I got the same advice from someone else, whose husband had his colon removed.

My lousy and lame and weak excuse, because I do have health insurance? I'm too busy at work. Well, what's work going to do for me if something happens?

This is on my list this year.

As a matter of fact, a coworker did his this year, and he was at work from home in the afternoon.

My own physician did it in the morning, and I had an appt to see him in the afternoon about 3 weeks ago.

It hits home when you and everyone else says many cases are preventable.

I have done that test at home 2X, but we are also cautioned there are false negatives and false positives.

Let's take care of ourselves, all. Excuses to not, are lame, and I'm guilty as charged, too.

Another thing I didn't do correctly? I got one shingles shot, Jan 2023, and I never went back. My physician said in his opinion I'll need 2 more shots. I didn't think so from what I read, but we'll see. That one did give me a reaction, which is why I didn't return for another shot...

I've been following your ordeal soberbyker, and am very glad your treatment has been successful!

I've had 4 colonoscopies since age 55 and all have been negative. I was due for another last year but at age 77, the risk/reward ratio is no longer in my favor.

With my doctor's approval, I switched to Cologuard, which was also negative.

Thanks for posting this, since it is information we all should know!

Good luck in the future and I hope you continue to stay in remission!

Taking any kind of test is better than nothing. That said ....

How accurate is the Cologuard test? Cologuard can detect 92% of cancers but only 42% of large precancerous polyps. Cologuard is better at detecting cancer than FIT (92% versus 74% for FIT), but the false positive rate is higher. Cologuard has a 13% false-positive rate, and that rate increases as people age.

https://www.jackson.org/partners/issues/partners-magazine-fa....

Some colonoscopies are able to be performed at the doctors office. I have other health issues that made me a candidate for a hospital based colonoscopy since they had to knock me out fully. I was required to have a ride home, my wife was my ride.

Thanks.

Shingles. I know people that have had it and it scared me. I went and got my first of the two shots required at the end of January 2020. Just my luck in another month or so COVID had shut everything down. They say you need your second shot between 2 to 6 months after the first. I was so nervous about not making the window because of COVID but managed to get it at the end of June 2020. My only reaction was a little soreness at the injection site.

Thank you, I truly appreciate it.

I am one of those high-risk people that has do a colonoscopy every 3 years, and Cologuard is not an option for me. 2024 is the year again . Can't say I like it, but I do it with a smile and hope for good results ... so far so good.

In 2003, I perforated my colon and needed emergency surgery. Thankfully it turned out to be diverticulitis and not cancer. It was actually 2 surgeries, one to cut out a foot of infected colon and 3 months later, to put me back together again. In that process I had my first colonoscopy and they found 8 polyps, 5 of which were precancer putting me in the high-risk group at age 56. My last colonoscopy in 2021, there were 3 polyps, 1 precancer so I am going in the right direction. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best in 2024.

Don't put it off folks! Git 'er done!

There is a new blood test on the horizon that is very good at detecting colon cancer in early stages while it is still relatively easily treatable.

Actually it's not just on the horizon but available now but not yet covered by health insurance. The FDA is reviewing the research and is expected to issue a ruling in the next year that could lead to it being covered by insurance.

https://www.webmd.com/colorectal-cancer/news/20240314/new-bl...

The advantage: like Cologuard: no bowel prep needed, and unlike Cologuard, you don't need to follow a detailed list of instructions to collect and mail a stool sample, which makes some people squeamish. The new blood test would be just a medical blood test like any other, safe and reliable if performed by trained personnel following the protocol.

The disadvantage, compared to colonoscopy, but also similar to Cologuard: though it's not as statistically accurate but is still fairly accurate at detecting early colon cancer while treatable, what neither this blood test or Cologuard can do that colonoscopy does is find and remove precancerous polyps.

For that reason, if you can afford a colonoscopy, which depending where you live and what your health insurance covers, can be free or low cost, you are much better off getting a colonoscopy, because a good GI surgeon will remove any precancerous polyps that are visualized on the scope and sharply reduce your risk of colon cancer.

If you take a Cologuard test, or this new blood test, and it pings positive for possible colon cancer, you will really need to get a colonoscopy anyway, to be safe.

Twenty years ago, colonoscopy was an unpleasant, somewhat tougher procedure. Not as unpleasant or tough as treating colon cancer... just ask Soberbyker... but unpleasant. And that was not so much because of the colonoscopy procedure itself, which under sedation is usually a "Wait? You're done already??" 25-45 minute nap... but because of the liquid prep which makes you stay near a toilet, feeling nauseated and with urgent needs to pass liquid stool the afternoon and night before the colonoscopy.

There are easier oral liquid (or even pill) preps available now. Try not the free-when-covered-by-insurance Go Lytely (what a misnomer!) but split prep with Suprep which cost me $100 out-of-pocket five years ago but was well worth it. MUCH easier day before all around.

Whatever you do, follow the doctor's detailed instructions to the letter for colonoscopy prep. This is not a time for coming close enough for jazz. If you shortcut the instructions, you may well have to undergo a second round of prep and colonoscopy on another day, because the GI surgeon will bail if your colon isn't properly prepped and truly clean.

all great advice here.

My uncle just passed away yesterday from prostate cancer. He was perfectly fine last September.

That's something I don't understand either, as my own dr once said that progresses so slowly one dies from something else....

Point is sometimes we need a nudge to follow great advice.

That's right, do it correctly, why go through it again because you didn't, better to get it over with once. As mentioned, it's not that bad these days, 12 or so hours of discomfort, for peace of mind or starting a course of action.

Sorry for your loss. There's a lot of things that can kill us, sometimes slowly, others right away, but with today's medicine and technology the odds are in our favor if we do some relatively simple things, and, of course, if the insurance companies allow us .

In Ontario, we get an annual self screening test, up to 70 Years Old.

We just referred to it as Poop On A Stick.

We mailed it back and within a few weeks, we'd get our results. Very easy.

If anything is of concern, the Doctor can prescribe a colonoscopy.

Most times prostate cancer is very slow. You'll usually die of old age first, but there are more aggressive forms.
My brother-in-law got the aggressive form and the only reason he ultimately had it diagnosed was after he absolutely insisted that his doctor prescribe a PSA blood test. Prior to that his doctor refused. Said it's prone to false positives. That is true, but it's the only way of early detection, along with a finger.
Don't let your doctor refuse the PSA.

The poop on a stick tests are better than nothing, but nothing can replace the accuracy of an actual colonoscopy. The poop on a stick tests can fail.

In the last 6 months I have had both the colonoscopy and PSA. Negative with some polyps,(removed), and PSA of 2.46 ng/mL. At 73, the range acceptable is <=6.0 ng/mL.

I think I got a few years left. I'm counting on a jealous husband to do me in!

Due to age and other concerns, my doctor switched me to Cologuard. She said candidly, that some of her patients have a problem with putting their excrement in the mail.

I told her I wasn't one of them. The USPS has been sending me crap in the mail for years and this is a way to return the favor. She laughed so hard, she dropped her stethoscope!

Thank you, funny as

I was in the hospital a couple of years ago for a procedure. There was a guy in the bed next to me surrounded by the usual curtains, but I could tell he was going through much difficulty. We were both there for 2 days but only started to talk about 3 hours before I got released. Great guy that had colon cancer and rectal cancer and what he was going through was terrible. He said he had not had a colonoscopy before it was discovered. After it was discovered, he said everyone in his office went in for a colonoscopy literally the next day. I had not had one. I took my wife in for one and the doc asked me if I had it done. When he asked me why not, I really did not have a valid reason. Seeing what the poor chap was going through put the fear of God in me. I scheduled one for two weeks after I got released from the hospital.
The thing that really got me was what a great attitude this guy had. The rest of his life was going to be severely affected, yet he was one of the most positive people I have ever spoken to. I don't think I could have been that positive.
Of course the moral of the story is.... GET A COLONOSCOPY... For years I avoided it. After having it done, I realized it was not a big thing and I should have done it years before.

Cincinnati had a weatherman by the name of Tim Hedrick who died several years ago from an aggressive form of prostate cancer. If I remember correctly, he was in his early fifties when he passed away. But he received his diagnosis when he was in his forties. Myself, I was diagnosed in June of 2020. My VA doc had been watching my PSA creep up for 3 or 4 years, but my civilian doc hadn’t said anything about it until my PSA hit 5.4. At that time he said that it was time for me to get a biopsy. I was referred to a urologist who is one of the top five urologist’s in Cincinnati. The biopsy showed cancer in 4 out of 12 core samples. I was given the opportunity to get a genetic test, which my insurance paid for, and the results showed that I had a 2.33% chance of dying from prostate cancer. I elected to wait before getting any type of treatment but in July of 2021 after getting a PSA result of 9.4, I decided it was time to get this taken care of. I elected to go the Cyber Knife route and after 5 days of lying on a table for about 10 minutes a day, I was pronounced free of prostate cancer. I have my PSA checked every 6 months and it is holding steady between 1.2 to 1.4. I see my urologist once a year now and he seems to think that I will die of something other than prostate cancer. So, the lesson here is to get that PSA check done. My civilian doctor did both a PSA and a digital exam on me every year. But, he felt no lumps on the prostate. Even my urologist felt nothing, so raising PSA results was the trigger here. A simple needle stick could be the difference between life or death.

Very Well Said!

Good advice, and here's to your full recovery!

Cold!