I’m not one for engaging with the news as a rule, I find that it brings my mood down, so I try to avoid it, unless of course it is desperately important or relevant.
Today was one of those, where it was important and it was relevant. I saw a post on my Facebook feed titled “Bowel cancer prediction test for IBD patients 90% accurate”, this immediately peaked my interest. For reference IBD stands for Inflammatory Bowel Disease; It’s an umbrella term for Ulcerative Colitis and Chrons, both of which are autoimmune conditions that cause your immune system to attack your bowel cells and cause inflammation, amongst other things. There have been a number of quite significant steps forward with IBD research in the past twelve months. I remember last year seeing an article about the fact that scientists had discovered a “Major cause of Inflammatory Bowel Disease”. Things like this make me so happy, not for me directly anymore, after all I now don’t have the equipment left to be at the mercy of IBD or Bowel Cancer, thankfully! But it makes me happy for those that come next on that awful journey, potentially even my own children.
After all a family history is currently the largest known risk factor to developing IBD yourself. Having IBD in turn increases your risk of Bowel Cancer rearing it’s nasty head too, and Bowel Cancer diagnosis in an immediate family member (parent or sibling) especially before the age of fifty additionally adds to that risk. I remember a nurse saying to me that I had chosen quite a drastic solution to my problem, but as soon as we got talking about my IBD diagnosis and my Dad’s history too, she almost immediately said “ah that all makes sense now”.
Why in my situation, would I want to put myself through surgery that gave my bowel a chance to heal, so that I could have more surgery later on to get it reversed. Only then to maybe have my IBD return, or not even go in the first place, or even develop Bowel Cancer. No Thank you, that option was never going to be for me. I was never going to want my surgery reversed, and wasn’t in awe of the idea of having it all done separately either. I just wanted it all done and over with. I can however see why people choose to go for separate surgeries, or reversible ones too, and there are many reasons why this would be the most sensible choice, just not for me. My Ulcerative Colitis was at it’s worst in my lower bowel and rectum, so having temporary reversible surgery would have meant keeping my rectum in. Therefore the likelihood in my situation, would have been that I would still be living (in the most part) with the symptoms I was experiencing beforehand. It would not have solved my urgency for needing the toilet. Even though the faeces would have been redirected, that isn’t the only thing that passes from your bottom when you have IBD, so the surgery would have done nothing to help that, and also my levels of fatigue would likely have been similar, and for me those were the most debilitating symptoms.
Anyway, back to today’s news – “Bowel cancer prediction test for IBD patients 90% accurate”. Wow, just wow! Here is a link to the full article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c87d4e2v8l0o?fbclid=IwY2xjawIIQqxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHQSkBi-Ctvct6Q0UNa9zYz2bfXiOi-WrSLl2-TCEuxjGoRzN6_yKjkqxnQ_aem_IKMiXpr5OldeoGpLIsIQZQ
But the highlight is –
“UK research found DNA changes in those pre-cancerous cells, when analysed by an algorithm, were more than 90% accurate in predicting who would develop bowel cancer over the next five years”.
Isn’t this just amazing, imagine the number of people that will be saved the hell of a Bowel Cancer journey because of this. They think they can develop it into a simple blood test too, imagine that!
If you are interested in reading more about the research into causes of IBD I mentioned earlier, then here is a link to that:
Likewise if you would like to have a look at the risks and causes of bowel cancer, you might find this link helpful:
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/bowel-cancer/risks-causes
My ileostomy and me 
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