For a few years my father would pass blood on the toilet.  He thought it was hemmorhoids.  He went for a heart checkup, and was anemic, so they put him in the hospital for tests.  It turns out he has Familial Polyposis, a rare form of colon Cancer.  It is genetic and only strikes one in 10,000 people. Instead of having a few tumors, you end up with literaly hundreds or thousands inside your colon or intestine. The Doc. said the life expectancy of someone with this disease is 44.  My Dad is 66. A record braker for sure! They had to remove his whole colon and now he has one of those colostomy bags.

My siblings and I all had to have colonoscopies to check for the disease, as the docs said we had about a 50% chance of having it.  One of my brothers has it (36 yrs old), but my other brother won't get checked (40 yrs. old)  The one that won't get checked had about 9 polyps removed from his colon while in the Army in 86.  He probably has it. They cut 3 polyps out of me but said I didn't show signs of having it.  I am 32.

Since they couldn't find it in me, they said my 2 children would not be at any greater risk than other people.  Otherwise, they also would have a 50% chance of getting it.

If you think you are having some strange symptoms, or have a history of Cancer in your family, get checked!!!


Balming

There's very little emphasis on mens health. Nobody's signing up for the prostate cancer run.....or mens colon cancer walk-a-thon.

Though this topic isn't as much "fun" as a lot of others, I appreciate the sentiment. We die younger than women for a reason, and lack of attention to what kills us, either by ourselves or the media is one of the reasons.

Stay healthy and strong fellas.

OK...listen up all you dudes.  I'm past the big five-oh now.  I've had both those tests and I'm here to tell all of you to go get them done if you are getting up there in years.  Listen to Doc Frige, he speak with straight tongue.

My family has a history of colon problems including pre-cancerous polyps.  I had the colonoscopy a couple of years ago.  The results were negative.  The docs have been testing me for prostate cancer for years now.  It's called a PSA test...and it's painless.  They just draw a vial of your blood and your out of there.  In my case...no probs.

Based on what the sawbones said about everybody over fifty having a colonoscopy, I convinced the missus to have it...and guess what?  Yup...she had a few, large precancerous polyps, which the doc painlessly removed on the spot.  Had she waited...it might have been real dangerous for her.

Go DO it.  The life you save may just be your own.

PSA, "Prostatic Specific Antigen". This is a very good test. Another basic test would be a Hemoccult for "hidden blood" in the stool (blood that you cannot see); requires providing a stool sample. This test is used more frequently than the PSA but is not as "specific" as the PSA name indicates. A positive result on either test suggests the need for a Colonoscopy. I recommend Colonoscopies over Sigmoidoscopies as the latter covers only the lower portion of the bowel.

Basic signs to watch for: Obvious rectal bleeding, painful passing of stool, persistant lower abdominal pain (pain that lasts more than a week), black stools, mucousy stools (mucous), change in bowel habits/movements (frequency/amount), persistant diarrhea, persistant constipation, and of course a personal or family history of polyps or colon cancer.

I'm an account manager at a hospital and have had to become very familiar with symptoms, diseases, diagnosis & treatments. I've seen patients as young as 17 require Colonoscopies. There's really no excuse not to have one. Normally they take only 15 minutes.

It's not all gloom and doom! Polyps are not a death sentence. Most polyps are actually benign! Get it done.

Whiskey

It can be hard to detect, sometimes even symptons aren't noticible!

Buddy of mines wife became a MD (of course when she became a MD, she divorced him), but he just learned that she passed away at 42 from colon cancer. Even being a MD, she didn't recognize the symptons [:(]

I will.  My dad is 65 and was diagnosed (PSA test, followed by X-ray) with prostate cancer.  His prostate was too enlarged for the radioactive bead treatment, so he had radiation beam therapy.  It apparently worked, and the side effects aren't too bad.  It would have been better, though, if he'd caught it earlier.

The guy that owns the company I work for had a colonoscopy.  He's 60.  They removed about 2' of his lower intestine, but NOT to the point where he'd require a colostomy bag.  It laid him up for a couple of weeks.  Dr.'s said that if it had gone undiagnosed another year, he'd have died.

I'm 40 now.  Guess what?  I'm going to see a Dr. before I turn 41.  I haven't done a lot of things I'd very much like to do, yet.

 On a related note, I take Celebrex every day for Degenerative Disk Disease and arthritis, and they have been using Celebrex to slow the growths in some Cancer patients!  Lucky me.

 But, I have to have my liver checked periodically to check for damage from the Celebrex, and during the last test they said "Your liver is OK but you have high chloesterol and high triglycerides!"

DOH!   I'm 32 years old, 5'7" tall and weigh 140lbs.  Can't win, eh?


Balming

Been there, done that, still living with it.

I was 18 when they diagnosed me with colon problems (Hemangeoma). They said that I wouldn't live past 21 if I didn't have it taken care of. At the time of discovery, there wasn't much that they could do. Every surgen was leary of going in for fear of massive blood loss.

So what did I do? Partied like there was no tomorrow! Made peace with myself, and accepted what was going to happen.

When I turned 21 things went down hill. Always tired, anemic as hell, could barely get up for more than 6-8 hours a day.

Went broke, got on state run health care. Assigned to a surgen who basiclly said "Let's have some fun and see what we can do! I have never done anything like this, but I am willing to try." I figured "Why not! Nothing to loose!"

12 hours on the table, woke up with a huge scar on my belly, screaming for pain killers. Laid up in the hospital for 3 months recovering. Temporary loop ileostomy. Spent the next year in and out for complications and finally the removal of ileostomy bag. Now colon doesn't work normally.

Still here at 34, wondering what to do. Odd how one accepts the end, but went it doesn't come, you feel ripped off. But here I am, getting through life.

Yearly checkups till the day I die, from now on. Flex sigmoidoscopies and colonoscopies aren't as bad as people make them out to be. Just sound horrible.

But back to blood in stools. If it lasts for more than a week... GET IN FOR A CHECK UP! Many people get small tears in colon or sphinter from to solid of stool, but they heal. If it lasts longer than a week, you have possible issues.

Colon cancer is the unpublished killer. Sneeks up on people.

Thanks for the info Guzzler.

I hope you outlive us all.

Balming

I lost a freind to colon cancer a few months ago.  We hadn't talked in several years so I don't know anything about his lifestyle, but when I knew him he was Mr. Fitness.

He was only 31.

Good advice.

Good luck.

To help prevent normal colon issues, I take a bulk fiber capsule. Two of them twice a day. Keeps the colon "clearer", lessens buildup, which contributes to polyps, tumors etc.

It's called Super Cleanse. I think Nature's way makes it.  It helps us old guys get "moving" and couldn't hurt in our battle to survive until the SHTF

If you're interested in preventative maintenance against cancer go to

[url]www.mercola.com[/url]

and type in cancer in Dr. Mercola's site search engine.

One article you'll find is that "Broccoli Sprouts Fight Cancer". We're talking sprouts now: not the full grown vegetable.

According to his posting of a Rick Weiss,

"Subsequent studies found that sulforaphane could prevent the development of breast and colon cancer, as well as  other tumors, in mice. Then Talalay's team found that the key protective compound in broccoli (a chemical called glucoraphanin, which the body turns into sulforaphane) is at least 20 times more concentrated in three-day-old broccoli sprouts than it is in broccoli."

[url]www.mercola.com/1997/sep/21/broccoli_sprouts.htm[/url]

You can grow your own sprouts or buy them.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.