Bowel cancer screening

[Shemadee]

Got the results from mine today and all ok. Now got to get OH back on track. He did first test and then didn't bother the next year and has been dropped from the system. His dad had bowel cancer (and survived) so he really ought to take up the test. Watch this space ......

Do you take advantage of screening tests or would you prefer not to know? I was surprised at an NWR meeting when a doctor who was speaking felt the tests caused too much concern for healthy people!

[Enfys]

Sent mine off today, fingers crossed all is ok . I do usually take advantage of any tests offered but have to admit to not doing the previous test, just chickened out!

[aggie]

Two friends did the test and both had bad results , both had chemo and surgery and radiotherapy , one has died the other is quite well , it is important

[Nana]

Sent mine off a while ago & came back fine. My sister has an aversion to the test tho. I made her laugh as I said think back to how many nappies she'd changed. Her reply...'I know, but it's different when its your own'. We were in fits.

Glad you had a good result Shem & good luck Enfys.

[Plantaholic]

Haven't been offered this test, I suppose I am too old

[Daisy]

Plant - I've just checked and it for people between the ages of 60 and 74. Which seems a very silly arbitrary cut-off point!

Shem - glad to hear you got an 'all clear', and Enfys, I hope you do too.

It's not the nicest or most straightforward of tests to do and time right, but much, much better than the possible alternative! So, yes, I do them every time and have talked OH into doing his, too.

[Oma]

Brian did his and came back fine im not old enough yet

[ZIZI]

I got mine yesterday,I must admit I haven't looked at it properly but maybe I will now .......

[Gemini]

I didn't do mine (although encouraged OH to do hers the previous month!) This was over a year ago. I still have the test kit, so not sure if I can just do it now??

[Bizzy Lizzy]

I had a colonoscopy a couple of years ago (the second in five years) because there is a high incidence of bowel cancer in my family. When I spoke to the really excellent Consultant afterwards he said that the routine testing does have its problems. If say someone has gums that bleed from time to time then some of that blood may show up on the stool sample giving a false positive. Also the occult blood associated with this disease doesn't always show in the sample sent. However, having said all this I think that any test that can catch this disease early has to be worthwhile. Luckily I don't have to do it this time around as I had the colonoscopy but I expect my time will come.

[Gemini]

Yes BL, all this test does is show blood in the stool. This could be a sign of cancer, but of course it could have many other causes. These will be ruled out by further testing if blood is detected in the sample.
The fact that a test comes back clear is a good sign though.

[Enfys]

Just had my results back, all ok.

Phew, another tick on the list of jobs to be done

[Gemini]

Great news Enfys

[Daisy]

Just had my results back, all ok.

Phew, another tick on the list of jobs to be done

Pleased to hear that, Enfys. On to the next job on your list now!

[Gemini]

They sent me a new test kit a while ago, so finally at 62 I did, it and the results came back clear.