How to protect yourself from colon cancer

Let's Say Hello

[00:00:46.220] – Allan
hey, Raz. How are things going?

[00:00:48.630] – Rachel
Good. How are you today, Allan?

[00:00:50.960] – Allan
I'm home. We got home yesterday is a lot of travel, a lot of 4700 miles driving two different countries. We were all over the whole East Side of the country. And so it was just a lot. I'm exhausted. I'm tired, and I started my training today for my tough Mudder. So right at this point, I'm like, I need a nap and I just need a nap. And so, yeah, it's good to be home. This is home now. I really I felt that way. I was in the United States, and I was like, you know, Bocas is my home.

[00:01:30.510] – Allan
And getting back here, I was like, yeah, this is where I want to be sleeping in my own bed, that kind of thing. So it's just good to be back. And now I can get back into a rhythm, back into what I like to do, focus on me, focus on my wife and my dogs and just living our lives and doing the things we do here, back in the gym, working out, no excuses. Just go, go, go. But at the same time, just having that comfort of knowing.

[00:01:59.760] – Allan
Okay, my bed is literally just one third of a mile that way. So.

[00:02:07.000] – Rachel
That's good. Glad you had the chance to visit all your family. I'm sure it was very rewarding to be on vacation and visiting with everyone. But, yeah, there's certainly nothing like the first night back at home in your own bed.

[00:02:19.670] – Allan
So If haven't answered your email or your Facebook questions or messages. I apologize, but the traveling really made it a lot more difficult for me to keep up with things. And so I fell behind a lot of things. And it taught me a lot about how I am not the same guy I was ten years ago when I could go, go, go, go, go and then get up and go. I need more downtime. I need more recovery. So that's one of the things here that I learned on this trip.

[00:02:51.560] – Allan
So future trips won't be quite as ambitious.

[00:02:54.940] – Rachel
Oh, wow. Yeah. Good thing to learn. That's for sure.

[00:02:58.220] – Allan
Well, how are things up there in Michigan?

[00:03:00.330] – Rachel
Great. I am such a good mood today. Mike and I had a much shorter vacation over the weekend. We had another runcation. We took our camper up north, a little part of Northwestern Michigan, and we ran a half marathon in the Sleeping Bear Dunes campground area. And we just had a fun time. The weather was perfect for running. The Hills were horrible. We survived, and we just had a wonderful time over the weekend. And again, just like you, it's nice to be home.

[00:03:32.980] – Allan
Good.

[00:03:33.970] – Rachel
Yeah.

Episode

[00:03:34.750] – Allan
All right. So today we're going to talk about getting your colonoscopy. There are two things that happen. As you get close to 50. You're 50 is you get your AARP invitation in the mail. I think I was 47 when I got mine, and then you're supposed to get your colonoscopy. There's kind of write a passage to your golden years, if you will, or you're happy years or whatever we want to call it. If you got into this, you've just turned 50 and you have family history up with cancer with particularly colorectal cancer.

[00:04:17.870] – Allan
And so for you, this was a day one. Get it done. Don't worry about it. Don't even think about it. It's not like I'm gonna put this off for a little while because I think I'm low risk. You just like, Nope. 50 get it done. Almost on your birthday. And your birthday wasn't .

[00:04:34.490] – Allan
And then you actually were doing some reading and found that now they're trying to move the date. If you have history, they're trying to move that screening date to age of 45.

[00:04:44.730] – Rachel
Right. You know, it's interesting. I go in every year for an annual physical. And I have done this for many years. And on my 49th annual physical, 49th year, they said I had to wait until I was 50 to have the colonoscopy. And it used to be age 55. And so when I got my annual physical shortly after my 50th birthday, I just was past July, they said, time to sign up. And I said, sure. And they said, by the way, the age has moved down to 45.

[00:05:14.200] – Rachel
And I thought, wow, that's really interesting that they're moving the age down in these increment brackets. But once I did a little research, I figured out why and what the American Cancer Society has found that even though the number of colorectal cancer diagnosis has gone down in a certain age group, it actually has increased for the 55 and younger age group, and it's increased only by 1% year after year. But I think that's part of the reason why they moved it down to 50 go to 45 right now.

[00:05:47.000] – Rachel
But even though that's the case, I still needed to check with my insurance to make sure they would pay for it, or at least know what it would cost me if I had to pay anything extra out of pocket. So it's definitely something you need to talk to your doctor about and also your insurance company.

[00:06:01.400] – Allan
Yeah. Now we're talking about colorectal cancer. There's a reason we're doing the screening, and I think we all know the C word. We get scared of it because it happened so much. It's one of the top leading causes of death, particularly in the United States. Right behind, I think heart disease and diabetes is right in that circle of the top three that you're probably going to deal with at some point. And unlike heart disease, which a lot of people will have an episode and then it'll be treatable and they'll treat it for decades.

[00:06:37.830] – Allan
In some cases, cancer has your number shortly after you realize that you have it over almost 60,000 people per year die of colorectal cancer.

[00:06:50.810] – Rachel
Yeah. According to the American Cancer Society, again, they were estimating in 2021. There would be 104,270 new cases of colon cancer and 45,230 new cases of rectal cancer in the United States. And right now, there are more than 1.5 million survivors of Colorectal cancer in the United States. And like I mentioned, the reason why the death rate has gone down for that is because of screening because of things like the colonoscopies. But as well as the new advances and different types of stool testing that can also catch it early, so early detection.

[00:07:36.400] – Allan
And that's the point. The earlier we detect it, the easier the treatment is, the more successful the treatment is. If we're catching it late, and you mentioned earlier when we were doing our pre talk, is it's one of the kind of cancers that you might notice a little bit of issues with your bowel, you might notice a little bit of issues with the fact that you can't seem to empty your bladder. There are other reasons, guys, for that prostate, which again, another screening you might want to go take a look at.

[00:08:03.850] – Allan
But if you're noticing some changes and that's one of the things in talking to different doctors, much of self diagnosis or at least being aware of a problem is being aware of self, of being aware of how things are working now and then not just saying, oh, that's a part of getting older. It can also be a symptom of something else. So the screening, they're giving you some preset dates and that's for the insurance to pay. I did a little bit of research because I thought I'm traveling in the United States.

[00:08:31.510] – Allan
I won't have time in my schedule to stop and do the three day purge and roll, which we're going to talk about in a minute here. I didn't have time for that. I get one here, and I haven't priced one here because it actually would be relevant to you guys anyway. So I thought, what if I was going to go ahead and do the sample version? You'll see the advertisements of the little box that arrives at your house and you put a little poo in a little container and send it back to them.

[00:08:58.830] – Allan
I did some pricing on that to look it up and they go ahead and say, okay, $30. And if you file with your insurance and then we'll deal with that billing stuff later. The $30 is just an administrative charge for the company that's facilitating getting the testing. But then I said, okay, if I'm going to just pay cash, they do give $100 discount. But it's still about $700 to get this test done, which is not cheap. But again, it's cheaper than the colonoscopy. So if your insurance company isn't going to cover it or you're going to end up paying out of pocket because you have a higher deductible insurance policy.

[00:09:36.060] – Allan
I did a little bit of research in what I was seeing were numbers right about the $3100. It can be a little more than that, a little less than that. Obviously, if you've got biopsies and other things that need to happen at the end, which we'll also talk about later, I guess the cost could go up for you, because again, now you have a medical thing you're treating versus just doing a standard routine screening. So, yeah, we're looking at about $1,100 if you wanted to pay cash for this or $3100, if you have a higher deductible, that's probably about what's going to come out if you're paying like an eight or 20 kind of thing, and you're looking at the 20% of that.

[00:10:13.560] – Allan
So still some money. And you got to think about that with your health care as we get older. We got a budget for the screenings. We got a budget for those things because we've been young and foolish thinking we're going to live forever. And maybe someone who's almost never hits your deductible well, over the age of 50, you're going to find more years that you hit it. And over 60 more years that you hit it, then you don't. So just be recognizing that as you're getting older, having the finances to focus on taking care of yourself and getting these pre things down like a screening, not putting it off because $700, that's a car payment as like, just do it.

[00:10:55.560] – Allan
You pay $1200 for a phone. Just do it right.

[00:11:02.120] – Rachel
It would be a great thing to add to your monthly budget just to keep a little nest egg of money for these types of screenings, because I can guarantee you that this little cost for screening is going to be a whole lot less than what it will cost for different surgeries. Or if you get cancer than the radiation of chemotherapy that often comes with it definitely blow up and be a lot more expensive. So screening here, add that to your budget is definitely well worth the investment.

[00:11:31.980] – Allan
And this is the location where you're past the digestion of food. But at the very time, if you're having difficulties here is going to work all the way up your digestive track, and it's just going to affect other parts of your life that you don't really want to mess with. So get the screening done. So you're getting the results you need and you're getting the healthy and you're getting the treatment early, which is the key to surviving this. If you do have something, let's keep moving forward.

[00:12:01.130] – Allan
You've signed up. It's like signing up for a race, but they don't give you a number. They just show up in comfortable clothes, but there's a pre process because the proctologist doesn't want to just go in there.

[00:12:18.040] – Rachel
Yeah, yeah. The average person can have up to about 14 or 16oz of stool in the colon at any given time. And so the whole purpose of this prep is to clean it all out. And what was interesting was that my prep, which could be different than anybody else's, and it probably will be if you've had a colonoscopy. I imagine it'll be different than what you've gone through. It just varies from doctor to doctor, and it took a little bit longer to prep for this. Then I would have it expected about a week out from the surgery.

[00:12:50.110] – Rachel
The first thing I had to do was cut all my medications and vitamins, even which I was kind of surprised by that. I didn't ask any questions. I can go a week without taking vitamin E and fish oil and whatnot? It's not that big a deal, but certain vitamins, like iron keeps you constipated or can cause constipation. So those in different prescription medications had to be cut. I'm sure that there are a few medications that if you need to take them, they would let you take them.

[00:13:20.400] – Rachel
But again, that is something you need to discuss with your doctor. Seven days out, I had to quit all my vitamins. I don't take any prescriptions, and then five days out, they want you to go on a low fiber diet already, so they want you to tone down the fiber that you have in your daily diet.

[00:13:38.630] – Allan
They're talking keto.

[00:13:41.320] – Rachel
Yes. Which is easy for me because, yes, I am keto. I don't have bread, I don't have pastas or rice or a ton of fiber. I do eat vegetables, so that's definitely a good fiber and a half. But yeah, I don't have a high fiber diet to begin with. So that was an easy cut for me as well. So then where it gets really interesting is then the day before that you start the prep, you need to be on a liquid diet. So a clear liquid diet at that because you can't have anything that's blue or red or purple, because that could die some parts of your colon and make it think that there could be blood in your stool when it's not or in your colon.

[00:14:26.480] – Rachel
So I had to drink some chicken broth, some beef broth. I had a clear electrolyte drink water. I was allowed to have black coffee, no dairy, because that's also a constipating item. So a liquid diet, lots of water the day before I started the actual solution part. And that wasn't difficult either. Again, being keto, I think that gave me an advantage because I didn't really feel a lot of hunger. I'm still drinking a ton of liquids. My stomach was very full. I was getting nutrients in the broth and in the electrolyte drink.

[00:15:05.110] – Rachel
So I was totally fine with that. That wasn't a problem. So not too difficult so far.

[00:15:11.170] – Allan
Yeah. So you got to give up your red wine for a few days, you gotta give up your red wine, you got to give up your heavy foods and regular foods. And then I think for me I would probably just fast. I don't know that I would feel like I needed the broth unless it was just to have some kind of flavor. And so if I were to do it, I would say, okay, I'll do some one, maybe a little bit of bone broth here and there. But for the most part, I just say, okay, water and electrolytes and coffee, probably some coffee. For two days

[00:15:50.100] – Allan
I can fast, and I might be a little hungry, but that's fine because I would look at it because I know what the next stage of this grand journey is. And I would just say, the less that has to come out, the less trouble I've got. So it's like if you do that right, then that's going to make this next phase easier.

[00:16:11.450] – Rachel
Yeah. Now this is the hardest part of the whole procedure. That is the most uncomfortable part, but that painful. And this part can also vary from doctor to doctor. So my test was going to be at 10:30 the following morning. So that's important to note, because you have to drink the prep solution in two sections of it and two occasions before the test. So for me, this is where it got oddly specific, but remembering that my test was at 10:30 the next day. So the night before, the day before the exam was my liquid diet.

[00:16:52.400] – Rachel
And at 05:00 in the evening, I had to take a set of laxatives that was prescribed by the doctor and the laxatives just like to get everything flushing out of your intestines. There's not a whole ton of stuff in my intestine to begin with. I'm not sure how effective the laxatives were really working for me anyway, but I took the laxatives as prescribed by my doctor at 05:00. But then at 06:00 is when I had to start drinking this prescription solution. It's a gallon mix, which is sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate and potassium chloride.

[00:17:29.840] – Rachel
Now, if you think of that, basically, it's salt water.

[00:17:36.290] – Allan
It's electrolytes. It's salt water. But it's electrolytes too. So like I was saying, if you start flushing out a lot of fluids to keep your electrolytes up and literally, that's going to actually pull fluid into your muscles, into your body and into your blood. And that's why something they'll tell you if you have high blood pressure, you might not want to eat a lot of salt because that will raise your blood volume, which would raise blood pressure. So depending on your circumstances, they might give you a slightly different cocktail there, but it's generally electrolytes.

[00:18:07.570] – Allan
They're going to make sure that you don't crash from sodium or potassium deal. You're going to have enough electrolytes to be good with the flush. That's about to happen.

[00:18:19.970] – Rachel
So I needed to start drinking this at 6:00 the night before my exam, and I was only going to drink half a gallon at this time. And so at the rate you drink it, it's supposed to be 8oz every 15 minutes until that half gallon is gone. So over the course between six and eight at night, I was drinking about 8oz of this drink every 15 minutes. And really, it wasn't terrible until it was terrible. So 8oz of water every 15 minutes or a half a gallon over the course of 2 hours really doesn't sound horrible.

[00:18:57.780] – Rachel
But for me, I got a really small stomach and at the end of that half gallon, I was stuffed. I was stuffed like I just ate two Thanksgiving dinners in a row. I was so full, I didn't think there was any room for me to keep drinking it. And the other challenging part of it is that you're drinking ocean water, you're drinking salt water and it tastes terrible. And so one of the tricks, one of my friends suggested was to take a hard candy, a piece of a hard candy like a lemon drop or a Mint or Jolly Rancher or something like that.

[00:19:30.670] – Rachel
Put it under your tongue. Drink the solution with a straw. So you're not getting a whole mouth flavor of salt water and drink it as quickly as you can through the straw, which worked really well until it didn't. But for this first half gallon, I got it done. I was stuffed to the gills. And because I started at six, it took me to eight and I was full. But then at the end of the half gallon at 09:00 and then again at 10:00, I was to date two gas tablets to prevent the gas from developing in my stomach.

[00:20:05.350] – Rachel
I never felt gas. Maybe it was the gas tablet. I don't know, but that was my first day of prep up till 10:00 at night, and I was stuffed and exhausted.

[00:20:17.530] – Allan
One of the funniest things have you ever played football, particularly on the offensive line, is when the quarterback goes behind the center and the center has gas. It's hilarious for us offensive Line man, it's not so much fun for the quarterback, so I imagine it wouldn't be so much fun for the proctologist.

[00:20:34.920] – Rachel
probably not.

[00:20:35.880] – Allan
Probably the reason why you're taking the gas pill.

[00:20:38.670] – Rachel
Probably. I never felt it. But I did what the doctor said to do, and I finished it off. So sadly, this is where it gets more uncomfortable. None of this is painful, it just is getting uncomfortable. So the next day at 4:30 in the morning, I had to wake up and start drinking the second half of that half gallon of prescription solution. It was early in the morning. It tasted terrible. It was not a black cup of coffee that I had rather have had in the morning, but I started drinking it and at this point the lemon drop candies were losing their effectiveness, and the salty water was even saltier.

[00:21:18.870] – Rachel
Probably because I didn't shake it up well enough or something, and it just got to me. And sadly, I threw up the last second to last 8oz of the solution and I wasn't even able to guzzle down the last 8oz of solution. So I got a little bit down in the morning, but I couldn't finish at all. And so then you're not allowed to drink anything but 3 hours before the procedure, you can't drink anything you're done. So again, that was the uncomfortable part of it, but not painful.

[00:21:49.780] – Allan
Okay, well, I would probably take a nap because doing this thing all the way until 10:00 at night and then being up at four to start all over again, I'm like, no, no, you don't understand my sleep. My sleep is the most important thing and my health journey right now, and I won 8 hours. And so I would probably would have asked that question when I was reading it. I would have given them a call and said, Look, I don't see 8 hours of sleep in here and we're doing this for my health.

[00:22:20.340] – Allan
So how do I adjust this to get my 8 hours in? Granted, I have never tried to drink that much salt water before, but I could just tell you from a water perspective, I can easily drink a half gallon of water in 2 hours. That wouldn't have a problem with that at all.

[00:22:41.220] – Rachel
That's good.

[00:22:42.540] – Allan
So yeah, for me it'd be like, okay, I'll start at 06:00. I'll finish at eight. I'm going to go to sleep. I'll be up at four. That'll probably be up about eight times to pee anyway, then I'll wake up around four and I'll drink that a half gallon over the next 2 hours. And then, yeah, go ahead and take another nap, because what am I going to do for 3 hours? We can't drink or eat anything. I'll sleep. Okay. So now you've done all this. Probably didn't sleep very well.

[00:23:11.230] – Rachel
And here's where it gets interesting. Is that what the solution does is that it's moving through your colon. You're not really absorbing the liquid in the water that you're drinking. It's actually flushing out all of your colon. It's like you're hosing down your entire colon with this liquid solution. So after about the first half gallon or so it started to kick in and I was spending a lot of time in the bathroom partially because of the completely liquid diet. My bladder was working over time. But then when you drink this prescription solution, your colon is working overtime.

[00:23:47.130] – Rachel
So I spent a good part of my evening in the bathroom, and I did get a couple hours of sleep, but it wasn't rested sleep because I was getting up to go to the bathroom. Still, I guess looking back in hindsight, I think I might decide to pull in all nighter in this case and just sit with the book in the bathroom and just let the prescription do its job because it wasn't great sleep. And I probably got up about once every hour or so to flush out my colon.

[00:24:18.050] – Rachel
And then the next morning at 4:30, that's when it really started to kick in, and it didn't even take as long as the time period to get from my stomach to my colon and out. It was just go, go, go. And in fact, I wasn't sure how I was going to make it from my house to the hospital the next morning without needing to have a bathroom stop at the gas station or something. So that's the whole purpose of the solution is literally to hose out your colon.

[00:24:45.720] – Rachel
And I'm not kidding about the hosing out part.

[00:24:48.180] – Allan
Yeah, I can understand the all nighter thing. I'm glad you said book, because the whole taking your phone to the Ioo. Like a lot of public bathrooms when you're traveling. And so I'd walk in and people be in their stall talking on the phone. Oh, no. I hear them with a click, click, click, click. I'm like.

[00:25:09.510] – Allan
No, no.

[00:25:11.150] – Rachel
Yeah, that's a private time right there. Oh, goodness.

[00:25:16.920] – Allan
Okay. So we're on our way to the hospital. This is kind of one of those Logan's run thing because just like when you're in labor and just like, let's get to get there quickly because we don't know, I'm going to make it.

[00:25:28.200] – Rachel
That's right. Yes, I had my daughter drove me today. You have to have your driver because you're going to be sedated and you can't drive afterwards. So you need to have a driver. My daughter got me to the hospital. We got checked in. And even though I had drank all this electrolyte and as well as the prescription solution, I was very dehydrated, and they had a hard time finding a vein that would stay open for the IV. That got me it's couple of times until they got a good one.

[00:25:58.140] – Rachel
So that was kind of interesting. So I got checked in at 9:30. The procedure was at 10:30. I had my IV going. They got another bag of electrolytes to keep me going and got into the procedure room. And they said, You're about to take a nap and we'll be done in about half an hour. And I'm telling you, I had the best nap of my entire life. I was counting down to ten and I might have got to seven and I was out like a light.

[00:26:30.570] – Rachel
so I had a great nap and got back to my room and woke up and they got me a cup of coffee. And by the time I finished my coffee, I was fully awake. The sedation had worn off, and I got the good news that they did not find any polyps. And that's what they're looking for in the colonoscopy is if there's any polyps anywhere in my colon or rectum, and that's where they would take any out. If they had found any, they would take out the polyps.

[00:26:58.050] – Rachel
And they would do a biopsy to see what they were.

[00:27:01.480] – Allan
And that's where the detection goes on a standard one, which fortunately you had they didn't find anything notable. They all clean. All go. Now it's just a function of you getting yourself back in order and then getting yourself home and all that. So I think one of the things you talked about in your notes was wear comfortable clothes.

[00:27:23.370] – Rachel
Yes.

[00:27:24.800] – Allan
Throughout the whole thing. Just sweat clothes. If it's too hot, then just wear something loose and easy to wear a mumu. I don't care, but just comfortable clothes, something that makes your life easier. Rest when you can rest. But then if they were to have found something, now you're into this new stage. So they've gone in there. They pulled the polyps and they're going to do some biopsies. They'll be able to give you some information. And this is when you start triaging with your doctor, you form a medical team, if you will.

[00:27:58.040] – Allan
And you've got to take a leadership role, even though they're the expert, you have to take a leadership role in how you're going to address this from the perspective of your health.

[00:28:09.680] – Rachel
Yeah. And also, just like, what every cancer out there, what would happen to you will just depend on what they find. So a couple of polyps here and there, they could take them out. And that could be the end of it. Or if it was a tumor like my uncle had had, that might require a different type of attention. There could be surgical procedures involved if they decide they want to take out pieces of your colon. Totally possible. And then there's a cocktail of radiation and chemotherapy that could be given, and it all just depends on the exact type of cancer you have and the extent at which they find it.

[00:28:52.720] – Allan
One of the things about cancer, though, that I want to kind of put out there is that there are the different types. Some move very, very quickly. The metastasize really, really quickly, and you don't have a lot of time that you have time, others metastasize much slower or won't metastasize at all. So knowing a lot more about the type of cancer you have and what's going on gives you kind of a timeline for the decisions that you need to make. One doctor's decision or opinion won't necessarily be another doctor's opinion.

[00:29:25.650] – Allan
And you might love your doctor to death. But this is a point for you to realize you're the CEO, someone has brought you some information. But before you go in and start doing anything drastic, you might want to get another doctor's opinion in there. And we've talked about this over and over again. Some doctors are going to be a little bit more surgery prone. Some are just going to say, why don't we do a little bit of this chemo drug and see if it gets smaller?

[00:29:53.740] – Allan
Some of them may, I don't know. They may recommend some dietary changes and things like that because it's just not at that point where they feel like you need have to do something right now. They've removed the polyps. And so at that point, they're gone and the other was a problem. But it's obviously not anywhere else. So let's wait a year and do another one and see what we've got happening here to make that decision. Cancer is one of those things where it can flare up, but it's just your body hasn't had a chance to kill it yet.

[00:30:26.340] – Allan
And so there's just different things out there. I've had doctors. We've talked about prostate cancer. We've talked about other cancers, and the reality of it is the doctors over the years have learned a lot, but each doctor has their own little bias for whether they want to do a surgery where they want to do another treatment, what they've seen work. But you have an opportunity. Rather, it's something that you need to do quickly, or if it's something you have some time to do. You have time.

[00:30:52.240] – Allan
Either way, it's not an e jerk. Just let's go do what this doctor says. Do a little bit of reading, talk to us, get a second opinion, maybe even a third opinion, and just figure out what the most appropriate decision is for you. Some of these surgeries are not something that you're just going to get the surgery and you're good. There's surgery, there's chemo, there's all kinds of stuff, radiation. And you talked about your uncle. They went on for years. He went on for over a decade of different treatment protocols to try to do something.

[00:31:24.030] – Allan
And so just recognizing that this can be a long journey or it could be a short one. And some of the folks that I've talked about, particularly prostate cancer, those decisions that you're making have other adverse effects to your body. So a surgery in your colon? Well, it's not where you're getting your nutrients from. It's a part of the channel and chain that's making that all happen and things and changes you do in one part of it can adversely affect the way your whole digestive tract works.

[00:31:52.710] – Allan
And that's your second brain. So I'm not going to say this is complicated as brain surgery, but the ramifications of some problems there, it can be detrimental.

[00:32:05.610] – Rachel
Right. Definitely get second and third opinions for sure. When your car breaks down, you can take it to a mechanic. But if you have a hot Rod or Lamborghini, you go to a Lamborghini dealership to get it fixed. So similarly, you want to choose your oncologist. Don't go to any guy who is the local oncologist at the hospital. You find the person that specializes in colorectal cancel or whatever other kinds of cancers that you're going to be dealing with. You go to the specialist and you get that second opinion and you find out what is the best treatment for you based on your existing medical conditions and the exact type of cancer that you have.

[00:32:44.560] – Rachel
But the good news is that the death rate for colorectal cancer has dropped because of screening like the colonoscopy and with stool tests, and you could definitely have a good chance of survival. Your survival rates increase with early detection. So when it's your age like it is for mine at 50 or for any of those 45 year olds out there, don't be afraid of being uncomfortable by taking a stool test or being uncomfortable for the couple of days of the liquid diet that I had to do a colorectal test.

[00:33:19.740] – Rachel
Get that peace of mind by doing the screening that you should have at that age bracket and early detection 100% gives you the best survival rates.

[00:33:29.320] – Allan
And I know I would have done it. I don't know if you did it. Did you weigh yourself before you started the process and after the process?

[00:33:37.220] – Rachel
Yes, I did. And I was one tiny pound difference from day to day.

[00:33:43.870] – Allan
And then you start eating again. And you're full of it again.

[00:33:48.500] – Rachel
Exactly. Yeah. Like I said at the beginning, 12 to 16oz of stool, and it was legit, right? Yeah. So it was not a difficult test. It was not painful, a little bit uncomfortable, but right now, I don't have to go back for another colonoscopy for ten years unless something else goes sideways. So I'm very happy with the knowledge that my colon looks squeaky clean.

[00:34:14.970] – Allan
You hose it off of the fire hose.

[00:34:17.420] – Rachel
I sure did.

[00:34:18.610] – Allan
All right. Well, Rachel, anything else you want to talk about before we call it a week?

[00:34:25.060] – Speaker 2
No. Just go get screened, please.

[00:34:27.760] – Allan
Yes, please. All right. Well, we'll talk to you next week.

[00:34:30.590] – Rachel
Take care.

[00:34:31.160] – Allan
You too.

[00:34:32.000] – Rachel
Thanks.

Patreons

The following listeners have sponsored this show by pledging on our Patreon Page:

– Anne Lynch	– Eric More	– Leigh Tanner
– Deb Scarlett	– John Dachauer	– Margaret Bakalian
– Debbie Ralston	– John Somsky	– Melissa Ball
– Eliza Lamb	– Judy Murphy	– Tim Alexander

Thank you!

Another episode you may enjoy

Dr. Jason Fung on the mystery behind cancer

Less...