BoroPhil

Two reasons for posting this (pretty obvious title I know)

Firstly, my 36yo sister has recently found out she has it - but I'm not looking for sympathy or anything - the prognosis is pretty good and she's extremely upbeat about it.

The second reason was on Wednesday. Was playing at a local poker night where most people are pretty regular. One guy stands out a bit as he's a lot older than the rest. It had occured to me in the past that he might be ill as he's looks unhealthily thin.

Anyway, I went into the toilets the other night and they totally stank. Obvious someone was having a crap, and before I left he came out, started telling me how he has bowel cancer, how it caught him short sometimes, how embarassed he was, begging me not to tell anyone else.

I tried to put him at ease, but what the heck can you say? He asked me if he was totally cleaned up (ie, his trousers) and tbh, he wasnt. He left pretty qucikly (and the chair he had been sat on wasn't exactly smelling of roses).

Felt so sorry for the guy - hope he's back next week. Awful disease.

But as I understand it, still pretty curable as long as you catch it early.

Matt Jones

I'd hate that

orion318

Yeah its curable if caught early.

International recomendations are that everyone over 50 does a total colonoscopy every 10 years (there are alternative screening methods that involve more exams and different time ranges)

First things to look out for is blood on the stool, also not assuming it's from Hemmoroids specially in older people. even if it is hemmoroids they should do a colonoscopy since that blood can "hide" other origins.

Unfortunatley some people have only small scale bleeding that doesn't become aparent, and the cancer is only found because of anemia.

BTW if your 36y old sister has it it is very likely that i can be geneticly linked (she's too young), she'll probably have to be screened for certain inherited diseases and your family/yourself too.

Raid

My Grandad had it. Caught relatively early, and he had some bag attached to his stomach which would be crapped into basically.

Jearm84

my uncle died of it (stay with me), only knew him just over a year before he found out he had it-at the time there was a report in NZ (my auntie had just gone over there) about Green Lipped Mussel extract being withdrawn from sale there as they'd found it had links with treating cancer-but over here it was still in boots etc.

so figuring he had nothing to lose (4-6 months the latter if he had chemo) he though sod it i'll either have 6 months then die or it'll work

so he tried it and amazingly he got better, it came back a little while later-he took it again and it went away but, sadly the third time it just came back and that was it, it was far too aggressive that time but he got 2 years longer with no treatments and saw his 1st grandkid be born and spent about 18 months with her.

its still available too- i saw it the other day in Hollands & Barrats he other day

the one & only side effect is you smell of fish as it is released through you simmilar to garlic- but if you live whats smelling like fish for a bit?

not saying this is a cure & ignore treatment just that my uncle went from a ward off his head on morphine to himself in just under 2 months and got 2 more years, without draining medical procedures and spent his last time on earth having fun-went to Vegas,NZ did everything he wanted as he got early retirement at 44 iirc because of it

also (unrelated) but his funeral is possibly one of the most surreal ive been to or ever am likely to go to- as he was carried in the music playing was the OS Star Trek Theme- any idea how hard it is not to laugh at that but it pretty much summed him up & it was literally a party not a wake afterwards right till the end when the curtain went down i expected him to pop up and say it was a joke

BoroPhil

my god, id love the star trek music at my funeral

my gf's uncle had it on and off for years, finally died a couple of years back, kept coming back and back and eventually got him.


my sis has just gone to america for 2 weeks, they've agreed to postpone the treatment til she gets back as 2 weeks wont make much difference :thup:

saying that, i think if it was me id want it as soon as poss

Jearm84

sorry that was 2 more years between the 1st cancer and the second and around 2 between the second and the third

probably around 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 years in total

BoroPhil

and yeah, i think id be able to cope with smelling a bit of fish if it meant life

Jearm84

yeah i was walking in and i thought
"nah, cant be just sounds like it" then the bumm bah bumm bahbah bah bah bumm baba (crap at that ) came in and i looked round me and i was the only one smiling

sebsy

Stoma bag for what it's worth.

Bowel and indeed any type of cancer is shitty. I see it alot in my job