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Check 6: March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Awesome post, Mike. :thumbup1:

Cancer takes so many people by surprise. By the time you find out it's there, it can often be too late. For years, scientists have tried to come up with simple tests for all kinds of cancers, only to find out that the cancers are a little more creative than we are when it comes to avoiding detection. Colorectal cancer is one of the few cancers where you actually have a chance to catch it early or before it even turns into cancer. I have more than a little experience with this, and I will share it along the way this month (no pics! :eek:)

Here's the thing, we all tend to shy away from a procedure like this because, well, it seems invasive and the prep for the procedure is infamous. Thing is, though, it's not all that bad and they keep coming up with better preps. My last one was a snap. Here at B&B, we want our community to be healthy, so we think of our Moms, wives, daughters and sisters as we honor Sue Moore and raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness. We actively support Movember to raise awareness about prostate cancer. Colorectal cancer is an equal opportunity killer and affects us all.

So we want as many people as possible to get checked, and want to provide a little incentive to do so. Badger & Blade will randomly select one member to receive a $100 gift certificate to West Coast Shaving. Those of you on a sabbatical get a mulligan for this, and it will not disqualify you from any of the various sabbaticals here. To be eligible, you must meet one of the following criteria (honest badgers):

1. You have scheduled a colonoscopy and are waiting for it with bated breath.
2. You have a colonoscopy during Colon Cancer Awareness month, March 2015.
3. Between now and March 31, 2015, you make an appointment for a colonoscopy.

In this thread, please post if you qualify, and we will select one winner on April 1, 2015.
 
Thanks to Mike and the Mod/Steward team for posting this. Go see your Doctor, ask if you need to get checked and do it.

I'm not due for the colonoscopy for a while but get the other checks done for fun....just had my check up in January and I'm clear.

For anyone interested, my Check6 PIF is up here
 
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Amen!!

Reminder that participating in any B&B endorsed giveaways do not count against any Sabbaticals.

Go get your Check 6 badge of honor.

Also get check-6 if you are anemic, as leakage of blood is not good in a man. I had my GI tested last year.
 
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I had a colonoscopy at age 50,then another at age 63 , 3 years ago...I can tell you the technique has improved dramatically,they have it timed to the minute,no more groggy brain now,you wake up fresh and alert ,and that's maybe 1 or 2 minutes after they complete the process...Don't fail to get one if you are 50 or older,colon cancer is one of the easiest to cure.
 
Mike: This is a great post and a great way to bring awareness to a silent problem, I just turned 50 Yesterday, and called my physician today to not only set up the colonoscopy but an overall head to toe check up as well, slated for April 4th. I had been putting it off, as I hate going to the doctor, My dad was a Surgeon and my mom an RN , so I grew up in and around the hospital setting. Rules back in the 70's allowed kid to go to work with their parents at this Hospital, so I was always around it. Seeing my father die at 48 ( not related to Men's GI health ) got me to thinking yesterday that I am two-years older than when he passed, so it was a reality check for me that I don't want to be on borrowed time. So off I go to be violated by a Video Camera :w00t:

Thanks again for bringing this to the forefront, and reminding us.
 
My mum had colon cancer at age 90. I had a colonoscopy the following year at age 60 and no issues were detected. That was three years ago. I can tell you that the procedure was simple and totally painless. I was conscious during the procedure, albeit in an altered state from the anaesthetic, and I was completely comfortable the whole time. An hour later my daughter was driving me home and I felt fine. It is a good idea to get checked regularly. Awareness is what it's all about.
 
Thanks for posting, Mike! I certainly hope all our members are taking care of themselves and getting checked out if appropriate.
 
July 2015 I will be 27 years old.

In 1988 I had adenocarcinoma of the colon. I beat that cancer that day (with the help of some surgery, radiation and chemo) so it counts as my birthday.
I had colonscopes 2 times a year for the first 3 years. and have been on a yearly schedule since then. The preps have changed over the years from 4 liters of fluid to a liter for me last year.

It's a cake walk guys.... GET IT DONE !!!!! not only for yourself, but your family as well... Easiest peace if mind you can have !!!!!

I'm scheduled for the end of April..... and count me out of the prize drawing....... I already won a hell of a prize of 27 years so far
 
Last November I had the joy of turning 50. Along with the usual reflection that comes along with one of those milestones I had the opportunity for my first colonoscopy through our health plan. It wasn't something that I was looking forward to doing. The stories of the preparation are enough to make anyone decide it isn't worth it, but honestly it isn't that bad. Anyone that has ever consumed too much cheap beer, had too many greasy burritos, or had a bad intestinal bug has been through the same experience. I will admit it is intimidating to look at 4 liters of liquid that you are told you need to get drink in a few hours, but for me, I only needed 3 liters to be cleaned out.

When I went for my annual physical, my doctor reminded me that I was now eligible for the colonoscopy. I said I was feeling fine, and didn't have time to do it then as it was right before the holidays. When my blood work came back it showed that I was slightly anemic. I had to go back in for more tests because of the anemia and told her that since I was travelling that far, we live two hours away from the doctor in the heart of Appalachia, I told her to get the colonoscopy scheduled as well.

January 29th found me in a hospital gown waiting for my first colonoscopy. I wasn't anticipating any problems so I was thinking, "Get this done and I won't have to think about it for another 10 years". I took my shot, laid on the table and had the best sleep I had had in ages. Unfortunately, I woke up to the physician talking to my wife about a large mass in the cecum. The cecum is the blind end of the large colon. It is located where the small intestine connects to the large intestine and where the appendix is connected. At that point my world changed. There was a meeting with the surgery team where they reviewed what the colonoscopy physician saw, a CT scan to check for spreading of other tumors in my abdomen and chest, and some additional lab work. Surgery was originally scheduled for February 23rd, but when the CT scan showed spots on my liver they pushed the surgery back until the 26th so that the liver specialist would be available as well.

On the 26th I went in and had the right third of my colon removed, along with some lymph nodes. Thankfully the spots on my liver were simply cysts. I really have no memory of the rest of that day, but on the 27th they allowed me to have jello, and the 28th, solid food. The criteria for release from the hospital are very simple, have a bowel movement and be able to tolerate the pain with some medication. On March 1st, which coincidentally marked the first day of Colon Cancer Awareness Month, I met the criteria and was released.

I still have some pain. I now have scars I never anticipated. I am on work restriction and can't lift more than 5 pounds for the next 6 weeks. I am waiting on the pathology results and hoping that I will not need chemotherapy or radiation. Most importantly though, I am a colon cancer survivor.

I am no expert on colon cancer but according to the American Cancer Society colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common newly diagnosed cancer and the third most common cause of cancer death among US men and women. Do yourself, and those you love, a favor and get yourself screened. Encourage others to get screened as well. While colon cancer may not be totally preventable, it is treatable and survivable.
 
A lot of people develop colon polyps and colorectal cancer by simple (bad) luck of the draw. Something inexplicably goes wrong in the colon, something weird starts growing and a few years down the line you've got a full blown tumor. For a lot of us, our genetics and family history deals us a whammy, and there is something fundamental about us right out of the gate that makes us more likely to develop a tumor. I'm one of those people that got dealt a bad hand in the genes department. My dad died of colon cancer almost 25 years ago at age 55. They didn't do routine screening back then, and he just started feeling worse and worse all of a sudden until he went to the doctor and they sent him for an abdominal ultrasound. As it happened, one of my high school classmates was the technician who did the exam. I could tell by the look on her face when they came out that it wasn't good. As it happened, they diagnosed him at stage four with tumors in his liver. He had surgery and chemo, and hung on for another nine months. I hear the drugs to treat the disease are better now.

About ten years later, at age 32, I called and made an appointment with a gastroenterologist for a colonoscopy. My gut just didn't feel right, and I went in and the doc found....nothing. I was clean as a whistle. At the time, despite my family history, the doc said "come back in ten years." (the guidance now is for someone with my history to come back every 5 years). My brother, two years younger, had one done the following year and they found polyps in him. Genes are interesting things and I thought, "Hey, my brother had them and I didn't. I think I dodged the bullet." Maybe I didn't get the bad gene. I was feeling pretty good about myself and just decided to ignore it. What did I have to worry about? My brother had it and I DIDN'T!

Fast forward 11 years. My wife, bless her heart, kept bugging me to get one done. I kept saying, sure, but I need to get a family doctor first. I finally got one because my blood pressure was through the roof, and she said a few days later, "So, you have the family doctor now. How about that colonoscopy?" Excuses gone, I made the appointment, three months later, and proceeded to really worry. I became convinced SOMETHING was wrong. Oddly, I didn't want to know. I don't know why, but for some reason, it felt more comfortable to have a nagging feeling in the back of my head than to get it done and know for sure. The day of the procedure came, I did the prep (it ain't so bad, folks), and woke up the next morning scared out of my mind. I vividly recall standing at the kitchen sink in the pre-dawn darkness literally shaking with fear. The five hours that followed were the longest of my life.

So I went in, the doc was great, the drugs were better and I came to in recovery, convinced that she was going to come into the room and tell me the bad news. She came in, and she did have news. At first, I couldn't believe it. They found something. Four somethings as a matter of fact, polyps of different varieties in different parts of my colon. All were removed and sent to pathology. One of them was a nasty looking thing that reminded me of the eye of the creature that appeared in the garbage hold of the Death Star in Star Wars. The doc said, no, it doesn't look like cancer, but we're really glad you came in today. Pathology determined that they weren't cancer, but they were well on their way to becoming it. If I didn't come in, I would have gotten it too. They made me come back six months later for another check to make sure I didn't have a weird polyp factory in me, but I was clean as a whistle. I had a follow up procedure last year, 2 years to the day since the first one and they found two more polyps. Lucky me. I'm alive.

In the last few years, I've been doing some family history research. All I knew about my father's mother was that she did young of "stomach cancer." As I did more research, I discovered that she died back in 1943 of colon cancer at age 39. The more I looked, the more I found and discovered that her sister died of it too, just six years later at age 47. As you can see, sometimes these things run in families. Some of these genes have been discovered, and you can point your finger to "that one." My family doesn't have one of those. I just have a genetic predisposition. My kids probably do too, but they will know and they can take steps to stay healthy. Knowledge is power.

For less than 24 hours, you're uncomfortable from a prep that is a heckuva lot better than getting the stomach flu. The effects are the same. Then you get wheeled into an out patient clinic get some great sedatives, sleep like a baby and wake up. Oh, and the first meal in 24 hours is fantastic. My last one was an 18 inch Italian hoagie with everything. Pure nirvana. Especially on top of a clean bill of health.
 
Caught my cancerous polyp by accident on my first Colonoscopy, luckily we caught it early and the removal of about 2 feet of intestine was all I needed (I don't ever want to do that surgery again). I get scoped every year, no big deal, doesn't hurt but I admit the prep (cleansing) is a bit uncomfortable .

Get a colonoscopy exam at least by 50, the sigmoid scope misses too much. Your life could depend on it as the old commercial said.
 
When I turned 50 a few years ago, I ducked getting a colonoscopy. Last year, I took note of the B&B check 6 campaign and eventually scheduled one. It was just completed a few weeks ago. All clear! It might have taken me a while, but I'm glad that I finally did it and got it behind me, so to speak.
Thanks, Mike!
 
Great awareness thread Mike!

I started getting a colonoscopy since I was in my 30's due to some issues I had at that time and some family history on the subject, so now either every 3 or 5 years I get it done and every time there are little polyps they remove.

For those who are postponing getting it done, don't, the only down side is dealing with drinking the large volume of fluid the night before, after that's behind you (no pun), the actual procedure is nothing to it. I prefer the anesthesia where they knock me out, then about 30 or so minutes later you wake up (not groggy) and ready to make up for the diet of the previous day! It's also nice to hear your Doc come back and say you're clear (zing!), see you in a few years!

Oh and I'll be proud to sport the Check 6 patch!
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
Thanks for sharing your stories gents. It really brings awareness to the issue at hand. Prevention starts with getting checked!
 
Reading these items, got me to thinking, my appointment is for 4/11, however I called my Doctor today to see if I could get it moved up, not being an alarmist, I think, but being prudent This thread did that, thanks Gents. Hopefully i can get it moved up
 
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