You know, a little over a year ago,
our own Julie Luck was
diagnosed with colon cancer.
This is a snapshot of that
time of the announcement.
Well, from the diagnosis,
Julie had surgery, but the cancer
spread soon to her lymph nodes.
So doctors then diagnosed her
with stage 3A colon cancer and she
began rounds of chemo infusions.
Now, thankfully,
this was not the end of her story.
This right here was a great day.
Julie rang the bell.
She is cancer free but the
journey of course is not over.
She must remain diligent with testing
and follow up appointments and scans.
The diagnosis was a wake up call
and Julie has been very upfront.
She says she is not wasting her cancer,
she is using her voice to educate
others on early detection.
Well tonight she's going to be
sharing the stories of women in the
triad that were impacted by cancer.
Screenings here's a piece of that
story that airs in full tonight at 11.
Why we are soaring voice.
Ohh
we a grounding realization.
I think I'd be fighting stage
four if they found it now.
Elizabeth Pacheco Rose is a
recent colon cancer survivor.
The voice professor at Wake Forest University
was diagnosed last year when she was 46.
The mother of three never expected the
news when she got a routine colonoscopy.
They were going to find anything.
I thought it was going to be minor.
Not cancer.
She was declared cancer free after surgery.
No need for chemotherapy or radiation
to treat her stage two cancer.
I know how lucky I am.
When caught early,
the colon cancer survival
rate is at least 90%.
That's why doctors stressed the
importance of preventative screenings
starting at 45 to find and remove
abnormal tissue known as polyps.
Things
like breast cancer,
and in this case colon cancer,
are actually preventable because we
can do a test before it progresses.
To a cancer and be on top of the game.
So their stories,
her message and the importance of
screening tonight at 11:00 o'clock.
Now while we have your attention on this
subject, we have Doctor David Hiller,
a colon and rectal surgeon with
Novant Health, here with us.
And he's going to be here
answering your questions.
You can text your questions.
This is how you get your question to him,
336-379-5775. All right, so let's
just start off with the basics.
When do you get checked for colon cancer?
Absolutely. So the basics is
colon cancer screening starts at
age 45 from most of us and that
typically means with a colonoscopy,
you're all probably used to 50.
We've been saying that for decades.
And a couple years ago,
the guidelines changed America and
we're saying 45 because we're seeing
polyps and cancers at younger ages.
Now. Some people,
family history or certain specific
medical conditions that you or level
may have might change that time
frame for you to be an earlier time.
But for all comers without any previous
history or major family history, 45,
OK. And so, you know, in Julia's case,
she has no family history,
no warning signs. And so, you know,
then everybody's thought is alright.
Well, how common is that?
It's becoming more common.
And and that's why we moved that
down because a lot of times you
don't have the warning signs.
And for colon cancer,
it's now the number 2 cancer in America
if you combine men and women together.
And maybe 15% of these are hereditary.
So most of them are not going
to be a genetic connection.
It's going to be something
that you didn't expect.
And that's why the screening is so important.
All right. So the screening is
a colonoscopy, which can sound
really like scary and intimidating.
So we're going to kind of break it down.
How do you prepare for a colonoscopy?
So you will meet with someone who does
a colonoscopy, gastroenterologist,
colorectal surgeon, whomever that may be.
And so they're going to evaluate
you and talk about it ahead of time.
So you'll have met the person,
talk about the safety, the process.
They'll be that familiarity.
You're not just showing up
blind to do a procedure.
And then what they'll do is they will
give you instructions to clean out
your bowels that day before surgery.
And there's a couple different
ways that can be done.
And all these offices have different ones,
and some patients have different needs
that might alternate between them.
That's the same end result where
you'll be given some medications,
you'll drink a bunch of stuff,
varying levels, when we say a bunch,
and it'll clean everything out and
then you'll show up the next day.
Sometimes that clean out proceeds
to the to the Day of Procedure.
There's what's called split preps.
But again,
you'll get those instructions,
you'll be cleaned out.
And then when you show up,
you will proceed on to the procedure
where they'll put an IV in your arm,
they'll check you in,
and then you'll meet with the people
who are going to sedate you and the
gastroenterologist or surgeon who
will do the scope they'll sedate.
You do the procedure, you wake up.
You don't even know what happen.
OK, so that's kind of what you
can expect during the exam.
Like you're gonna go in and you're
not gonna be awake during the exam,
they're gonna put you to sleep.
Correct. You're heavily sedated.
Sometimes you are fully put to sleep but
you will have no idea what's going on.
You won't feel anything.
You won't know anything.
I I personally had one they
they put me in the room.
They said count back from 100.
I remember counting the 97.
Next thing I knew I was awake in
the recovery room would get being
given my report told everything
was was OK and and you know
being sent out with my wife.
So it's I couldn't tell you one thing
that happened from 97 to waking
up. OK, alright.
And so we're going to talk about like
the early signs and that kind of thing,
but I still also want to get a
little bit more on the exam.
How quickly after you have the exam
do you find out what's in your body?
You will get a report then and
there they will be able to say,
here's what we saw.
OK, you may or may not recall much of it.
So someone, whoever, you know,
we usually ask who's with you,
who are we talking to?
Because we will tell you what happened.
But you might still be in a fog.
So we want someone else
available to be able to,
to remind you maybe a couple hours later.
And then there's a written report as well.
You'll see pictures,
you'll see what was done.
All that will be labeled.
The only thing you won't
have right then and there is
the results of any biopsies,
actually takes anywhere from
one to three days to come back.
Gotcha. Alright,
we're gonna take a quick break.
We're gonna be taking your
questions when we come back.