Can coworker Julie Luck is going
through that right now while
she is fighting colon cancer.
She posted to Facebook earlier today
saying my smile doesn't mean I feel fine.
A positive attitude does not
trivialize my battle or diagnosis.
My tears don't mean I'm giving up
the cancer journey is a winding
uphill battle with many challenges.
I have not shared.
I'd rather focus on the winds and
there are several because of your
prayers and your encouragement.
Well, the American Cancer Society
says Kolo rectal cancer is the
third most common cancer diagnosed.
In the US with over 100,000 people
expected to be diagnosed just this year,
we have Doctor Vito Serraglio
with Lebauer gastroenterology.
He's here with us for today's two.
Your well being,
I'm going to call you Doctor C So
I don't mangle that any longer.
What I want people to focus on
is what you're trying to tell us
when it comes to fact or fiction
when it comes to colon cancer.
So First off, let's kind of do this one.
It's kind of a simple one.
Colorectal cancer is one of the most
preventable and treatable cancers.
True or false?
That one is true, as you alluded to,
it's one of the more common
cancers in the United States.
But it is one of the more preventable
and treatable cancers as well,
and that's in large part due
to a screening colonoscopy.
Colonoscopy not only allows for
the detection of colon cancer,
but we want to detect it while
it's in its earlier stages.
That's when it's more likely to be treatable.
Additionally, since most colon
cancers arise from colon polyps,
colonoscopy allows us to find those
polyps and remove them at that same time,
which then again reduces
the risk of progression to.
Colon cancer, so yes,
that was true.
OK, so let's go on to the next one again.
True or false, young adults are
not at risk for colon cancer.
That was unfortunately false.
So interestingly, colon cancer rates
have actually fallen in recent years
in the age 50 and up population,
and that's likely in large
part due to again screening,
colonoscopy and access to screening studies,
but unfortunately there's been a trend
in recent years of increasing colon
cancer in those younger than age 50,
so much so that the American Cancer
Society modified its guidelines to start
routine colon cancer screening for the.
Average risk individual at age 45.
Now that's where the average risk
for those who have increased risk
like personal or family history
of colon cancer or polyps that
age could actually be even lower.
OK, and so 45 now is the bottom
OK and that is definitely
what Julie has been saying.
Hey, as long as soon as you're 45
go get that screening for sure.
All right this next one,
true or false if you're not
experiencing any symptoms,
you don't need to be
screened for colon cancer.
That that one is also false. The truth,
truth of it is if you have a colon,
you're at risk of colon cancer. Again,
it's one of the more common cancers, right?
So it'll affect one in 20 Americans.
That's that's a big number.
And again, since colon cancer
is not always symptomatic,
particularly in those early stages,
when we want to find it and make treatment
more successful, awaiting symptoms,
it you know it's it's not good
'cause waiting for symptomatic.
Colon cancer is again when
it's maybe at a later stage,
which could make treatment a
little bit more difficult.
Yeah, it's amazing how long our
bodies will mask that something
is going wrong for sure.
Alright, so this next one is
all about the colonoscopy,
which is the screening process.
Colonoscopies are uncomfortable.
That's false, so we administer a
light sedation for the procedure.
So the procedure itself
is is pretty painless.
The vast majority of patients
don't recall the procedure at all.
It's a relatively quick procedure
discharged home the same day.
OK, alright discharged the
same day and you don't even
know what has happened, right?
So we're going to continue to talk
with Doctor Vito. Sorry a lot.
Sir Iglau Neo and I'm going to get it
for you so that we have doctor see here.
He's going to be answering
your questions for you
when we come back.
Oh OK Mike Jack 123. I got you,
don't worry. Don't worry.
No, what happened? Oh is that today.
I'll check it out. I'm I'm sure
I know exactly where it is.
I'm watching it now. It looks pretty bad.
Roof inspector trailer Yikes.
Not good.
Doctor Vito Cirigliano with Lebauer
Gastro Enterology is back answering our
questions when it comes to colon cancer.
Alright one of the things that people
talk about all the time are all those
commercials that we see about stool
testing versus the colonoscopy.
So is it the same? Is it different?
Yeah, that's a great question because
there's definitely been increasing
awareness about the commercially
available products of stool testing.
Specifically, there's a lot of
commercials about Cologuard and and these
noninvasive tests have really come a
long way of increasing the sensitivity
for picking up on colon cancers.
And also sometimes colon polyps that
Cologuard that will detect colon cancer in
92% of patients and advanced polyps in 42%.
Which unfortunately means that Mrs.
Colon cancer in 8% or it misses
those large polyps of 58%,
and you converse that with colonoscopy.
That will pick up on those large
polyps greater than 95% of the time,
but we also can find them
in remove those polyps,
which again reduces those risks
of progression to colon cancer.
Another another worry or concern
I get from patients is well gosh,
they get a positive one of those stool tests.
And now there's a lot of worry that
goes along with that while they
wait to get their colonoscopy done.
And there could be these false
positives in in 12% or so of patients,
meaning it was positive and there wasn't
anything there to have caused alarm.
But certainly it caused a lot of worry.
Yeah, whereas the colonoscopy is
kind of 1 and done because they get
to see everything and take Ken can
take care of some of those polyps
instead of you having to wait.
For another procedure at another time,
OK, alright, so let's just get to it.
We hear the prep is terrible.
We hear the horror stories.
So how can you make that better for us? Yeah,
you can't get around it, right?
There's the prep is absolutely the
most dreaded part of colonoscopy.
With that said though,
the the days of drinking the the
large gallons of prep are gone.
Thankfully we now have low volume
preps which are just, you know,
they can be as little as 6 ounces of prep,
which then you drink with us.
A bunch of your own fluids,
whether that's Gatorade,
Pedialyte, water, whatever.
The case may be,
we can now flavor preps at home.
You can add some flavoring to it,
so it's not as as terrible,
and there's actually even some
tablet preparation formulas now.
So yes, that is still the most dreaded part,
but it is absolutely come along way.
Thank goodness we do like to hear
that it's come a long way, alright,
and we can ask for those smaller.
Yes, absolutely yes yes.
Alright so colonoscopies.
Some folks are worried that
they can be dangerous.
Can you explain where they're
getting that idea and what we
should be thinking of? Yeah,
I mean, you know colonoscopy
is is a procedure and and every
procedure carries risks to it.
The biggest that we think
about is perforation.
That's putting a small
hole in the colon wall,
but thankfully it's it's actually quite rare.
It's well under one in 1000 patients.
If that would happen with bleeding
abnormal bleeding is also another
complication that we think about,
but again, it's it's equally rare.
Well, under 100,000,
that's even when we are removing polyps,
so overall we consider colonoscopy.
To be quite safe,
and for that reason we consider the gold
standard for colon cancer screening,
right?
It's a very effective but
also safe and available tool.
Alright,
so we've gone through a bunch
of like true and false things.
What do you think the final
take away message that you
want folks to hear about this?
Yeah, I really appreciate you allowing
me this time to talk about this.
'cause it is.
It's a really important topic.
Colon cancer again is unfortunately
very common in the United States,
but it is preventable and it is
treatable when we find it early.
And colonoscopy allows us to to find
these colon cancers early or find
these pulps before they have a chance
to to morph into colon cancer and
remove them and and thereby reduce the
risk of progression to colon cancer.
But patients are still worried
about colonoscopy and I get.
That up, and I would encourage
a couple of things.
One would be scheduling an
appointment with to talk about
these these options for screening,
'cause at the end of the day,
the best screening study is just
simply the one that gets done.
So again,
if you're concerned about colon cancer,
or certainly if you're concerned
that you're having symptoms
that might suggest colon cancer,
then I absolutely urge you to schedule
an appointment and talk about this.
It is a very important topic,
and are there are just a few
symptoms that you can pass along
so that people would know I didn't
even know that that was a symptom.
Yeah, so blood in the stool is one
that certainly highly concerning to
patients when they see it and and
certainly want to get that evaluated.
Change in stool where it would be
like thin or ribbon like stools.
Domino pain that tends to persist or
any of these symptoms were talking
about that just aren't going away.
Some of the other big ones we talked
about our unexplained weight loss
or maybe even night sweats again,
would be reason to say, hey,
let's go in and get an appointment and
talk about your options of screening.
This is one of those ones where
you don't want to put it off.
I know in the last two years we've
been putting off lots of preventative
things and so this is definitely
one that we want you to do.
This is one that Julie Luck wants
you to do as well for sure.
Alright, let's take a look.
If you have missed any of this
this all this information is going
to be in the two your well-being
section so that you can go back
and listen for these questions
and also get resources as well.
Alright, we look at the forecast.
You know everything the last couple
of days has been cool weather and
windy weather and still that's
not quite changing just yet.
It is still windy.
We have wind gusting right now up to 30 mph
and that's been the case for four days.
It's also a little on the cooler
side and nowhere in the upper 50s.
close to 60 in some areas.
ICU, Siler City down to Troy as well,
but it doesn't feel that warm.
It's partly because we have the wind
but also we have very very low humidity.
And that really kind of cuts through
a little bit more with the dry air lot
of heat in the middle of the country.
And these are the contrasts we deal
with in March, cold against warm.
And that's what breeds really
stronger weather systems.
So over the next two days we have to
watch very carefully what's going
on to our West. Here's the idea.
Clouds increase tomorrow.
We're cool.
Not windy, but it is still a cool day.
Here comes the warmth and you'll
see some of this on Wednesday.
The real warmth will arrive on Thursday,
but on the flip side,
here are your storms.
That's a nasty line of severe
weather moving into the Deep South,
and even though we're four days away,
we're already in this risk zone for
severe thunderstorm potential and
maybe even an isolated tornado.
I know we just went through this last week,
but it's something we're going
to have to get used to.
Spring is storm season,
and this week it looks like
Thursday is the day where we'll
have to watch it pretty carefully.
It's early yet,
but here's an idea on timing
that's around 8:00 in the morning.
Scattered showers there,
probably the worst of the weather
on Thursday would be in the middle.
Of the day,
and then it improves a little bit.
By the evening we'll have updates
on that throughout the week.
Just kind of
keep that in the back of your mind.
As of now, looks like a nice weekend.
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story. Move over Oscars. Hollywood
could not write a better storyline
than this Duke in North Carolina.