Cologuard Test...

[tcsenter]

Family history (grandmother) died of colon cancer in her late 50s. Mother and brother had excisible polyps with dysplasia removed but clear on subsequent exams. I had a colonoscopy coming up on four years ago found one small benign lesion that was not even large enough to "remove" just took a snip for biopsy and burned/cauterized the remaining nodule. Have not had 2nd colonoscopy since but did the fecal assay for abnormal DNA and occult blood about six months ago. Negative.

One of my classmates from HS was diagnosed with colon cancer at 35~36 was dead by 39. Sad, nice kid too was a little poor growing up and always had some part time job since like 8th grade, often farm work.

 

[marvdmartian]

Just wanted to pop in, to say the 2nd surgery (ileostomy reversal) was a success, and things are slowly returning to normal.
One aspect that my doctor didn't really discuss (and we'll be having a discussion about that), would be the wound care required after my return home. From what I understand, the hole in my abdomen that the ileostomy loop (of intestine) that was formed, even though well rinsed after returning all the pieces and parts back, cannot be considered 100% clean of foreign matter.....i.e.-poop. If they were to simply close me up, and there were something in there, it would fester, and cause an infection, probably requiring them to go back in, surgically.
Instead, they left it open to heal from the inside-out. Talking to the nurses (thank God for nurses!), this hole is about an inch diameter, and 2.5 inches deep! It requires twice daily wound care, meaning taking out the old packed gauze, pushing new moistened gauze into the hole, and then covering it with a sterile dressing.
Since I live by myself, and don't have any family here, and since home nursing care will only come 3x/week, guess who the bulk of wound care falls upon? To make it even better, since it's on the bottom side of my belly, I cannot visualize the wound, or what I'm doing, and depend on a mirror to see.....and, of course, everything is reversed!

Needless to say, it's been a challenge. Hopefully things will close up within the next couple weeks, and I can regulate my diet enough to keep things flowing steadily. Hopefully, also, this will serve as another example of why you want to make sure to get those bottom end exams done in a timely manner. Pretty sure snipping a suspicious polyp out has to be much easier!

 

[pcgeek11]

I hope you heal in record time with no issues!

 

[Muse]

My Kaiser doc is tight ass about colon cancer screenings. At one time I think he recommended one stool test a year, but I had to remind him. I had a couple colonoscopies with Kaiser and got my doc to promise me he'd set me up for another in 5 years but when it came time he wouldn't (I've had polyps in the past and my gastro-enterologist said every 5 years.)! I said "you promised!" He said "what am I going to tell them sending a guy your age for a colonoscopy?" I'm thinking of changing doctors! I'm younger than Biden and he just had one.

I see those ads for cologuard and wonder. I brought up the whole subject when I saw him in person for my first physical since the pandemic, some ~4 months ago. He goes "you're more likely to die of a heart condition than cancer." What could I say? I have a list of reasons to change PCP's. He wants me to stick with him, but I'm not sure he's worth it. He's smart but he's stingy with the HMO's resources.

I finally did switch PCPs. Last one (who I was with for around 20 years), less than a year ago refused to have me tested for possible amyloidosis, saying he didn't see cardiac symptoms. I countered that I have a lot of risk factors and the fact that having cardiac symptoms would render me untreatable already. I sent him links and he said he knew his job and had his own information, wouldn't check my links, which was to recent data driven best practices. He wouldn't hook me up to experts in my HMO who could make recommendations. My hand surgeon did so, however. I quit my PCP, had had enough of his not coming through for me.

I did finally get tested for amyloidosis, was negative. However, only testing would alleviate my concern, certainly not waiting around to see if I was going to have a heart attack or develop amyloid plaque inducing dementia.