Having just gone through the joys of being diagnosed and treated for colorectal cancer myself, and the joys that this entails, I wanted to put this out for the community. Being young is not as protective as it once was. A nurse in my office died at 36 of colon cancer, one of my moms was diagnosed while pregnant at 26. Caught early, it is eminently treatable. Newer surgical techniques like Transanal Microsurgical Resection (what I had) are making treatment much less invasive and life-interrupting, and newer diagnostic techniques are even less invasive… Get your routine screening as early as your insurance will allow, pay attention to symptoms and don’t blow this off. Treatment while it is localized is (relatively) easy, later not so much.
Thanks for the advice and heads up!
Hopefully, your cancer is in full remission!
Also, obligatory!
As far as we know, that would be a yes. I was remiss in following my own advice and is was a bit further advanced, but every 3 month scopes x 2 years have been clean, so I feel pretty good. Part of why I am kinda vocal on this. Give death a near miss and you would be amazed how it focuses your attention!
Eww.
Also guys and gals don’t put this off. Seriously. And really the prep (mmm salty gatorade) is more of a hassle and annoying than the actual procedure.
I agreed to a Cologuard test. I pretty much wish I’d insisted on the full colonoscopy. In accompanying literature, the false negative rate for Cologuard was higher than I’d expected.
Cologuard caught mine, but yes, it is not a perfect test. On the other hand, nothing really is. I was pretty nervous about the first scope, but honestly, the prep is the worst part. You go to sleep, you wake up. No, I take that back. The worst part was “You have cancer, we are sending you to UVA tomorrow.”
For sure. What a shock that must have been. I’m glad it’s working out.
And if you’re hearing about that prep from someone who hasn’t had the procedure in the last 5 years or so, know that there have been some major advancements to make it much less difficult. So if someone tells you horror stories about Go-Lightly, ignore them. The new options are much more palatable (literally).
I had my first just last October.
Only a 24 hour fast before the procedure. I had a three egg breakfast then lots of tea and beef broth the rest of the day. The annoying part is drinking the one liter of Gavalyte in the required time. Salty gatorade is pretty much what it tasted like. Then having to wake up at 4 am for the second liter. 
As much as I wanted to be awake for the procedure and see the goings on the idea of having a good drug induced nap won out as I didn’t go back to sleep after my early morning wake up.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest that you didn’t have first hand experience! I thought I was doing the “yes, and” technique to add to what you’d said.
No problem. I just thought I should elaborate on it just to let our fellow mutants have a better idea of what will happen.
Thank you for your post. Most importantly, I hope you’re doing and feeling well.
I also was gobsmacked when I heard about this last week. It used to be almost unheard of in people under 50.
I have a family history of this particular cancer. My dad passed away at 55, before there were better treatments. His nephew died at 54, but my brother survived stage four several years later st the same age (even after a clean colonoscopy 18 mos prior).
I also urge everyone to speak with their doctor about screening, and be sure to bring up this new data/research. Find out when you should get your first colonoscopy; don’t let the prep be an excuse to procrastinate.
Yes, this was the oddest thing I experienced from the third screening. @chgoliz is correct that it’s so much easier than 15 or even 10 years ago.
Good luck everyone! And three cheers for @docosc !!!
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
