skaylife said:
MsGizmo said:
First off, I'm fine. There, that's out of the way. Stage 2 colon cancer was the diagnosis. For this kind of cancer, the survival rate sits at 91%.
Second point: nothing about my cancer ties back to GLP1 use or any other peptide. Judging by how big the tumor was, it had been growing in a cancerous state for a minimum of 5 years, possibly longer. That predates even my awareness of ozempic/wegovy by a wide margin. If anything, it's far more plausible that the GLP1 slowed things down. And I don't want to hear anyone trying to pin this on vaccines or similar nonsense. My tumor would have begun as a precancerous polyp roughly 15-20 years back.
Routine testing my doctor ordered ended up saving my life. He wanted a colonguard test, so I went through with it. That test is deeply embarrassing: you basically shit in a box and mail it somewhere to be analyzed. If your doctor asks you to do it, just do it. A positive result led to a recommendation for a colonoscopy, which is another embarrassing procedure people should get if it's what they need. At that point (May 13th) I was told there was a tumor and that its size made cancer likely. A week later that became official. Then came a rapid series of appointments and tests, culminating in surgery on June 10th to remove the tumor plus a small piece of my colon. The pathology from what they took out got posted sometime today, and I read it a few hours ago. Now that my family and I have had a little celebration, I'm ready to discuss it here.
Next, something some people won't like because it brushes against politics, but I don't care. It's information that matters. The whole ordeal, colongaurd test through surgery, ran me about $1700 out of pocket, all because I have the cheapest of the cheap insurance from the ACA marketplace. That bargain plan covered over $200,000 in surgical costs. My single biggest bill is the CT scan, a little under $800, and the remaining costs are co-pays for various doctor visits. The colonoscopy and the surgery themselves cost me nothing at all. I want to formally apologize for past complaints about high insurance co-pays on the drug plan. Even then I FULLY accepted that the drug co-pays were high because of my own insurance choice, yet I still grumbled publicly. I take it all back. Every whisper of it. Thank god for my cheap insurance.
Whelp. That's how my month has gone. Right now I'm just nursing stitches from the 7 stab wounds a robot gave me and one large slice from where I was partially eviscerated. I expect a full recovery soon.
Great news on your results, and I hope your recovery goes quickly.
Where I live in Belgium, anyone aged 50 or over gets a sample tube delivered straight to their mailbox, at no cost, so they can be screened for intestinal cancer as a precaution. I mailed mine in too, and 2 weeks later a doctor got in touch. They had spotted some inflammation, so a colonoscopie was scheduled to figure out what was causing it.
Just thinking about that kind of test is awkward, sure. In reality, though, with sedation you don't feel a thing or even realize it took place. In the end they located a polyp and took it out. On top of that, they discovered a piece of bamboe stick lodged in my intestine wall, which is what had triggered the inflammation. The polyp was checked and no cancer risico showed up. Their advice was to be more careful when BBQing
.
I was lucky and had no problems. Still, even just being called in for a colonoscopie, getting through it and then waiting on the results is frightening enough.
My late husband dealt with the same thing, and sadly he didn't do the careful checking you did.
