Re: Oh No! Bowel Screening...

I just received mine too, this is only the third one I have received, the last one was a couple of years ago but the one before that was when I turned 65.

Reading the brochure that came with it it doesn't look as if the roll out for everyone between 50 and 75 will be complete for a couple more years.

Re: Oh No! Bowel Screening...

I had bowel cancer for the first time when I was thirty, with two small children. This was treated successfully by surgery. I remained cancer free then until December 2015 (2 weeks before Christmas). I underwent surgery/chemotherapy in January 2016 and am still here to tell the tale.

My daughter and son are both screened every five years via colonoscopy. Having the bowel screening kit is far less unpleasant than the prep and actual colonoscopy so anyone who does not take up the opportunity of the simple test is foolish in the extreme.

Believe me, an ileostomy is no fun, but for me, better than the alternative.

Re: Oh No! Bowel Screening...

Well said, Dolly.

Glad you are now doing well, too.

Re: Oh No! Bowel Screening...

I agree. I'd dread having a colonstomy or ileostomy and those possibilities are persuasive reasons for performing the bowel check.

Re: Oh No! Bowel Screening...

keep getting reminders and kits through the post and a damn nuisance. Very little instruction other than shoving something up or around your backside for some obscure person to examine what is sent back. What if samples get mixed up? yes it could happen, and think of the outcome. Someone clear thinking they may die in the near future and others who fall ill and don't know why.

best place is to throw post like that in the bin.

Re: Oh No! Bowel Screening...

Well do so then.

I'm sure that other sensible people on here will join me in hoping that you don't develop a bowel cancer that proves too far advanced to do anything about by the time it is diagnosed.

If it is of any help, I can assure you that the kits are simplicity itself to use, and are no more distasteful than the simple act of wiping your bum.

Re: Oh No! Bowel Screening...

I agree JBR. When I was diagnosed with bowel cancer eighteen months ago I had absolutely no idea. I had no symptoms whatsoever, I had just gone for a routine (for me and my children) colonoscopy. The doctor had the camera up my rear end, I was watching on screen, when he said "Well there is definitely bowel cancer there". Not the most tactful way to tell a patient imo. I was poleaxed. I had surgery within two weeks, and then was booked for thirty weekly chemo sessions. Unfortunately those made me too ill to continue, so I called a halt to them.

Re: Oh No! Bowel Screening...

I agree JBR.
Really how silly some people are!

Realspeed, you don't shove anything up your backside!!!!

Just follow the instructions...
All you do is scrape a little bit of poo with the spatula provided and smear it onto the kit provided, seal it and send it off.
Nothing could be simpler and it might save your life.

Still, up to you...

Re: Oh No! Bowel Screening...

Sorry realspeed but having bowel cancer go undetected is far more of a damn nuisance.

If you seriously think wiping a little crap onto a card and sealing it into the kit supplied then popping it in the post is a damned nuisance, consider the alternatives.

Either a late discovery of cancer followed by untimely death at worst, or an operation and a bag hanging from your lower stomach that will deposit that same shite into a bag that you have to dispose of regularly with the attendant hygiene considerations for how ever many years you have left.

Re: Oh No! Bowel Screening...

I have done four or more of these tests and had to do two re-tests!
I am only glad that the test is provided as my dad and his brother had bowel cancer.
I think, l was about 53 when the first kit arrived. It came back unclear and I cried every day until l got the all clear.

I had eaten black pudding which gave the unclear result.