Prepared for Your At-Dwelling Colon Most cancers Take a look at? 6 Issues to Keep away from

Sending your poop in a field by the mail. It feels like a child’s prank. However doing all your at-home colon most cancers check is ‘adulting’ on steroids. Sure, nobody desires to do it. My children have been grossed out after I defined what the field was for. However here is why it is a must-do: It is doubtlessly a very simple strategy to save your life. 

Final yr, I did the FIT check. I took a really small pattern of my poop. And mailed it to a lab for testing. This yr, I graduated to the Cologuard® at-home colon most cancers check. The pattern I despatched was a lot bigger.

I didn’t know what to anticipate. Would it not be sophisticated? Simple to observe? Here is the decision. It was straightforward peasy. Nothing just like the stress of attempting to observe Ikea furnishings directions. And undoubtedly simpler than following at-home COVID check directions.

Here is what I realized on what, and what NOT, to do. You solely get one Cologuard field. And getting correct outcomes may imply you catch most cancers in time to deal with it.

My Shocking Cologuard Expertise

My expertise with the Cologuard at-home stool check was fairly easy. I used to be pleasantly shocked. I did not have a single second the place I used to be not sure what to do subsequent.

First, the day after my supplier ordered it for me, I bought textual content messages telling me that my check package was on its manner. I felt reassured to know the prescription went by.

The field arrived. And all the pieces — the outside labels, the instructions inside, the labels on all of the items — have been all clear and comprehensible. The entire thing was, as my dad used to say, idiot-proof.

I bought the check outcomes again only a few days after I put the field within the mail. I want all the pieces I did was this fast, straightforward, and hassle-free. Now for the nitty-gritty half.

6 Issues to Keep away from Throughout an At-Dwelling Colon Most cancers Take a look at

Nonetheless, there have been issues I want I might recognized earlier than I opened up that field. Perhaps what I realized shall be apparent to others. However I am not essentially the most virtually minded particular person. So here is my recommendation.

With the following tips, plus the already glorious Cologuard expertise, you are positive to have a profitable at-home colon most cancers check.

#1: Do not put the package’s items on a floor that is not within the toilet. 

Not pondering, I used our tiny toilet. It does not have a lot counter house in any respect. So I had the check package laid out on the eating room desk. I wished to unfold all the pieces out to get it proper.

This labored positive, at first. However then I discovered myself scurrying between toilet and eating room like a squirrel transferring nuts.

#2 Do not use a unclean rest room.

Fortunately, I had a really shiny and contemporary rest room at my disposal. However you need to increase the bathroom seat to set within the assortment holder.

A gross one would have ruined my focus.

#3 Do not enable your canine to take part.

Perhaps ‘take part’ is an exaggeration. However I KNOW I am not the one canine proprietor who finds her canine associates cramming themselves into the toilet each time she visits — particularly these COVID-quarantine puppies, with you each minute of daily.

However I am telling you. I used to be actually intent on accumulating a clear, fur-free specimen. Having my canine at my toes was not useful. I ought to have put him in his crate.

#4 Do not take too lengthy to get the pattern again.

This one is tremendous vital. And consider me, the check package had loads of reminders about this.

The great factor is, you could have a couple of months to do the check. The not-nice factor is, should you’re a procrastinator, you would possibly put it off. And neglect the deadline. Then miss the deadline. You will have to begin another time, together with your physician.

#5 Do not do the check should you’re in your interval.

That is maybe the one piece of knowledge I did not get till I might already opened the field and began the sampling course of. So, head’s up: When you’re bleeding in any respect, wait till you are not. For an at-home colon most cancers check, your pattern must be as pure as potential.

#5 Do not ignore the directions.

Like I mentioned, the instructions are straightforward to learn. The font is huge. The instruction booklet is colourful. And the to-do steps are straightforward to observe.

However do not get cocky and skim the information. This isn’t an intuitive factor you may vaguely guess at and meet the mark. Learn all of the phrases on the entire thing — each within the field and on the exterior transport labels.

I virtually tousled after I began to skip a web page. I wrongly thought the subsequent motion was apparent.

#6 Do not NOT do it!

There is not any cause NOT to get an at-home colon most cancers check. This complete journey was:

• Quick
• Free
• Simple
• Probably life-saving

That is proper: As of this writing, most insurances cowl each a stool-based check and a follow-up colonoscopy.

And significantly, after I went to drop off the field on the UPS retailer, the particular person behind the counter did not bat an eye fixed. She simply informed me to set it down and that was it. No must pay or monitor the factor, all of that’s already on the field. It took 2 seconds.

These checks really work. And in the event that they discover one thing in your poop, they provide you with a warning instantly to go get a colonoscopy. Throughout that process (not fairly as enjoyable as Cologuard, I admit), in case your physician finds a polyp, or little bump, in your colon, they’ll take them out proper then and there. That polyp may flip into most cancers. However now it is gone. You do not have to fret.

Talking of alerts: I bought a textual content message, in addition to a notice in MyChart, that my check package had arrived. A pair days later, the messages gave me the all-clear. Whew!

If I can do it, anybody can.