General Chat

My daughter has just told me that she has been for another colonoscopy ....... all clean and healthy and "come back in 5 years"

Glad that she is taking it seriously.

OH will be making an appointment for around June, it's 2 years since his last check-up.


Kick your OH in the butt, ZZzzz!!

Well he has had a wake up call from me, I said I won’t support him and that he is being selfish by not taking the simple test so see how it goes from here, thank you all so much for your help in letting me rant.

AnninGlos Not online so much these days and stopped adding to fam history. Dont put much on here either unless of real interest. have a family group on FB so in touch with more of the family tho. Hard to believe how active GRU used to be. Stay safe

OH had no symptoms, but at 67 an annual test showed he had slight anemia. The doc decided he should have a full medical to see why ........... I think he might have had a hunch that something else was wrong.

The full medical included the stool test.

Sure enough, he had colorectal cancer.

He had to have 18" of his colon removed, but was lucky that he did not have to have either chemo or radiation.

BUT he does have to have regular colonoscopies ........... every 3 months at first, then 6 months, then every year, now every 2 years. The surgeon finds new polyps about every second or third time, and removes them.

He's fine now ............... although losing so much of his colon means that not as much water is re-absorbed from what passes through the colon, so he has very liquid stools, and sometimes little leaks.


The strange thing is that we were very aware that colon cancer ran in his family, so he had been watching for symptoms. His paternal grandmother died in the 1920s of it, his father died in the 1980s, OH survived. His sister ignored some symptoms and didn't go to the doctor until it was well advanced and died in 2014 after it had spread to the brain.

Our daughter and her 3 cousins were all under strict instructions to get a baseline colonoscopy at age 40. The 3 girls have done that, although a couple of them had to really pressure their GP to refer them, and will go back for other tests when they get closer to 50, unless they get symptoms. The youngest, a boy, has just turned 40 ............. and he had some symptoms 3 years ago that had them extremely worried that he might already have developed it, but turned out to something else that was benign. He'll be watching and testing.

A free test which may save your life which you can do in the privacy of your own home - what's not to like?

I had prostate cancer which was picked up by chance before it had spread. If I'd had a test earlier then I'd have needed less radical treatment.

My next door neighbour done his about seven or eight years ago no symptoms but it came back positive he was very ill but glad to say mr grumpy ( my nickname for him ) his wife and I are good friends he made a full recovery so yes it is worth it because 9 times out of 10 it comes ok

Ron I’m so sorry that you have suffered so much and hope you are good now, hubby will most definitely have a kick up the backside from me when he is back from working abroad. Thank you for posting what you have and I shall tell:him about it.

Always important to take any tests going!

I am sorry you've had such a tough time Ron, hope the future is comfortable for you.

Lizx

Ron I hope Zzzzz's OH listens to your story. Sorry you have been so Ill I had thought the other day we had not seen you posting. Let us hope that the cancer you have is a very slow growing one and that you can continue to enjoy life for some time.

Dear me you have gone through it Ron .hope you are comfortable look after yourself .we all go use the loo nothing new there but a test is life saving surely. My OH has Ulcerated Colitis he's had it 14years .after being really ill .lots of test over a few weeks .but he is okay diet is important no nuts or seeds. Please if you can get tested. Get it done It could save your life .Barbara

He’s probably just being a bloke. I was sent the test strips few years back but simply couldn’t be bothered to do the tests not because I considered it dirty or owt. Then had over 2 years of bowel probs resulting last summer with two weeks of the trots then 2 weeks of vomiting.
Turned out the bowel was full and couldn’t accept any food. Eventually, in August 18 was a case of emergency admission to hospital, CT scan etc and they found the bowel cancer on the Thursday. I was quite ill. The consultant wanted me to have emergency op’ on the Friday night but couldnt get a team together until the Saturday morning. I then had a bowel stent inserted. The bowel then emptied but wot a mess, had to have a week in hospital
In December 18 I had the four hour stoma op but had been warned of possible probs/survival as I had heart attack some years ago and had heart probs, plus, on the pre op assessment they found I had a heart murmur and that I also needed a blood transfusion. They cut out the infected part of the bowel, cut hole in me belly and created a stoma so that body waste exits into a stoma bag. That was another week in hospital.

All this because I couldn’t be bothered to test.

Had another CT scan early 2019 and they found the cancer had spread to my gut, nowt could be done apart from chemo to stop cancer spreading to major organs. I’m 79 and refused chemo – discussed with family. Sooooooo all I know is I have terminal cancer but no knowledge of how long I have left as not having tests of any sort..

All this because I couldn’t be bothered to test

I am leading a more or less normal life but tis painful as I have arthritis and I’m old of course – lost a lot of strength but laid some turf in the summer and did some paving but I’m very slow, did other diy jobs as well.

Your hubby needs a kick up backside and told to get sorted. He doesn’t want to have to go thro what I have gone thro

It's worth noting that ' if you're 75 or over, you can ask for a home testing kit every 2 years by calling the free bowel cancer screening helpline on 0800 707 60 60'.

MIL died of bowel cancer at age 82 after ignoring symptoms for a long time. I also have 2 friends who had polyps removed because they did the free bowel tests. They now have regular follow up to check for more polyps as they can become cancerous.

You keep onto him as you don't have to touch anything to do the test, that's what the stick is for. It could save his life and the months of illness.

I know somebody who had a letter back asking them not to send such a big lump next time.

We both did the tests until too old to have them. You can't make him do the test but you can tell him all the stories that are on here. Some people avoid tests because they are scared of the result, If found early enough tell him there are excellent chances of recovery. If he has thrown the test out though there is not a lot you can do about it now.
You could also tell him he is being selfish too as a lot of people over 75 would have liked the opportunity to continue getting the tests sent to them.

My OH was very good and did them every time from the first until they stopped sending them because we had reached 75.

My grandfather died from it and my aunt had an op. and lived another 20 years. My brother-in-law, a doctor, had symptoms, saw an oncologist, had the op and is now fine, several years later.

Zzzz, I agree with the others, tell him it is better to be safe than sorry.

Used the kit myself and getting my husband to do same....if like ours basically easy to use and could save your life a no brainer as they say.

My husband ignored the kits the first few times until he was diagnosed with kidney cancer. He does them every time now.

Annie

PatinCyprus, that is exactly what intend to do. So sad that people ignore the symptoms, my Aunt at the age of 74 needed to have a hysterectomy but she had little idea that it was cancer and had 3 rounds of chemotherapy as a result and still not out of the woods yet.

The newest test only involves taking one sample instead of three as the older one did, so it is easier to do.
You are right to rant at him.

My LATE brother in law ignored symptoms and my sister's pleas to go to the docs until he was in so much pain he couldn't cope with it. That's why he's late.

My daughter's friend died this year aged 40 with it, another who had warning symptoms but his was an aggressive type.

OH's step brother saved at 30 as he played sport with 2 doctors and asked for advice, his mother started to talk to her family and people started admitting that they had it in their family and kept it quiet. Both her parents had died from it (unbeknown to her) 1 brother already dead another who refused to do tests later died. Nephews had been hit with deaths and big ops.All kept quiet which cancer it was. OH's step mother went to docs for advice - sent for check up and cancer found. She was in her 60s she died almost 90. Her children and grandchildren have annual check ups and non cancerous polyps removed in a couple of them.

Threaten to start telling family members, friends etc about how stupid he is being if he doesn't do test. Shame him into it.