At this time of anxiety over COVID-19, it's easy to forget the more day-to-day health concerns.
People with long-term conditions - or on monitoring programmes - are being impacted by the time and resource being diverted into tackling the virus... as I posted before (viewtopic.php?f=18&t=88760&p=251452#p251452) Nurse-Specialists are being diverted and Doctors retrained. So it is doubly important to ensure that you take any opportunity offered to ensure you're OK.
At the beginning of the month I saw my GP and we discussed the fact that my post-op cancer monitoring had hit a "gap" period. I now have no further testing, bloods, CT-scans or Colonoscopies, on the books until April 2021 (probably just as well.....) and I explained my concern that as my own tumour had grown from nothing on one screening, to Stage 2 on the next, 2 years later, I was a bit concerned at a 15-month gap in monitoring (my last test was in November).
Lo and behold.... a few days later I got a letter from my surgeon, saying "Congratulations!", my recent(?) tests has shown no recurrence and I don't need to do anything until called for my next test. I thought this was probably not a coincidence, but spurred by my talk with the GP. That was before I realised that all departments are "clearing the decks" to prepare for Virus cross-training.
So, it was lucky that I got my "next" bowel cancer screening kit it January. This is a far simpler process, requiring only a single swab and completed in a few ticks. I rang to ask if it was still appropriate for me - and was told it was. I sent off the sample - and have now received confirmation that tests were negative.... so a little confidence booster.
If you receive a kit, don't bin it - it could save your life...... it saved mine!
Don't put It Off!!!
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