empathy
10-05-2006, 01:57 AM
Makes most forms of colon cancer a readily treatable disease.
If you're over 50 (over 40 with a family history), run, don't walk, to your doctor's office, to book a colonscopy. This is one form of cancer that you would much rather hear about sooner, than later.
The colonscopy process is not that bad (I had my first one a couple of years ago). Any suspicious bits can be snipped off during the exam, which is usually an end to the matter right there.
My Mom had colon cancer, and needed a hemicolectomy in her late seventies, but for the decade earlier had been suffering a 'mysterious' anemia, which undoubtedly had been the cancer bleeding out (as the anemia disappeared after her surgery). She was 'lucky' in that even at such a late stage, surgical intervention caught all of the cancer (by removing a fair chunk of her large intestine, and got very lucky in not needing an external 'pouch'). Her advanced years, no doubt caused the cancer to proceed much slower than is the usual case.
empathy
If you're over 50 (over 40 with a family history), run, don't walk, to your doctor's office, to book a colonscopy. This is one form of cancer that you would much rather hear about sooner, than later.
The colonscopy process is not that bad (I had my first one a couple of years ago). Any suspicious bits can be snipped off during the exam, which is usually an end to the matter right there.
My Mom had colon cancer, and needed a hemicolectomy in her late seventies, but for the decade earlier had been suffering a 'mysterious' anemia, which undoubtedly had been the cancer bleeding out (as the anemia disappeared after her surgery). She was 'lucky' in that even at such a late stage, surgical intervention caught all of the cancer (by removing a fair chunk of her large intestine, and got very lucky in not needing an external 'pouch'). Her advanced years, no doubt caused the cancer to proceed much slower than is the usual case.
empathy