About 1/3 of you are saying , "What's he talking about?" A 1/3 are saying, "Oh yes ! That's an awful test." And 1/3 of you are saying, "I just don't care!"
Well, you know that I'm going to tell you about this test since I don't have to do it any more.
Occult blood is blood in your stools that can only be seen by using a microscope. What's so awfully important about blood in your stools? It could be a sign of cancer in the colon. The sooner cancer is diagnosed , the better chances you have to survive the cancer.
Now I've done the occult blood test for about 40 years. I hate it and I'm going to tell you why in a minute. I have had annual check ups since my mid forties. For every annual check up I've been given the occult blood test.
Okay, here we go. Samples of the stool (feces) must be taken for the lab to have a look at. Okay with that? You can quit any time as there are more details. So you must some how or other catch the stool before it hits the water as that is a no no. You can let your imagination run wild on this one. Usually a sheet of plastic is put across the toilet bowl. You have a kit. Yes, a nice little kit. You have a nice little stick that you use to take a small sample of the stool and smear it on a little square in the kit. You take three samples . Oh yes you have to carefully date them and give the precise time. You must do this procedure three days in a row so you have nine little smears in the kit. Now you can rush down to the lab with your precious little samples.
I hope you understand why I hated this test.
The other day when I had my annual check up, just before I was leaving, my Doc said, "We don't have to do occult blood tests anymore." I didn't ask why? I guess he thought I would worry about it and so he informed me that I didn't have to do the test. I think there was a smirk on his face.
Now I'll bet 1/3 of you have had to endure this test! I don't know if they've completely stopped using the test or if it's just my Doc who's not using it.
....and somebody wants to know why I don't have freakin photos on this post?
