When Should You Get a Colonoscopy?

Over the past couple decades, colon cancer has really become quite a problem with more and more Americans. This could possibly be due to the baby boomer generation getting into the prime age group for this disease, or it could possibly be a dietary problem that has been an ever increasing issue for quite some time. Let's face it, Americans have horrible eating habits as a whole. I know because I was one of them.

At the ripe old age of 22 I began having terrible stomach cramps and a recurring issue of diarrhea and constipation. After a few weeks I began to become worried that I may have something more serious going on with me, so naturally I signed online and typed in my symptoms into the search box and lo and behold the symptoms I was having were the same as colon cancer!

I immediately set up an appointment with my physician and had all the preliminary tests done to make sure it wasn't some bug or underlying condition that could be cured with a pill. Once all tests were exhausted there was only one more thing to do before he could give me a diagnosis, that was to give me a colonoscopy.

Needless to say I was terrified. I was only 22 years old and just couldn't imagine having cancer at such a young age. I was debilitated by my fears and really couldn't focus on anything else until I knew for sure I was cancer free.

The point I'm getting at here is that the symptoms for colon cancer are the same for other non life threatening diseases such as IBS. My Doctor told me that irritable bowel syndrome is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning it was only diagnosed after everything else had been tested, including the colonoscopy.

Luckily, I was cancer free, but for every one person that's given an IBS diagnosis, there is 1 other that's given a cancer one in its place. If you have symptoms, get tested, it shouldn't be an option.

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