Cologuard Positive

veritas49 said:

Cologuard

I thought I would share an experience I just had today and hope it might help a reader. I'm almost 68 years old. I have been remiss with colonoscopies having only one when I was 52  I was told no polyps and to return in five years  I foolishly did not  I recently saw the ad on tv for Cologuard and asked my GP about it  She wrote a script for it  I asked how long it took and she said two weeks and "pray it's not positive " I sent it in and started getting anxious almost immediately  Two week later she called and in a very serious tone said " I'm afraid it's positive " I freaked and told my wife who is a loving caring person  I fortunately know a surgeon through a club I belong to and see him from time to time on the links  I have heard great things about him  I called, explained what happened  how nervous I was  He kindly opened his office the next day early to meet with my wife and I. I had the GP send the Cologuard report to him. He calmed me down and mentioned false positives and said he needs to do a colonoscopy. You know these things can often take weeks to schedule but as a friend he did it two days later   - one day for prep  - and then the test today I could not sleep last night and was very depressed 

By 11 AM today it was complete.  When I woke up he told me I had one polyp , not to worry and all else looked clean. So it will go out for biopsy but he was very confident I would be fine   While I was recovering he met my wife in the waiting room and showed her pictures of my clean colon and she gave him huge hug.   

For what it is worth I thought I would share.   If I had to do all over again I would not have waited so long for the colonoscopy and I would skip the cologuard. He wants me to go once a year now and I'm fine with that. Good luck to all of you dealing with the same or similar issues. 

Cheer,

Veritasguy 

 

It is really helpful to hear about the false positives so maybe others with positive results can take heart from your story.  Also, learn that its not a good idea to skip the five or ten year colonoscopies. 

May you never have to visit this forum again. 

TRU

I was told 4 days ago my cologuard was positive. I have had no symptoms of anything. Nothing. Three months ago i was worried about my pancreous because my father died from pancreatic cancer, so my doc did a big blood test. She tested the folling. Cbc with differential, CMP (chem14), Lipid panel and ABD pain periumbilic. All tests came back normal. My stool has been normal. That is until she told me about the positve, i have hardly slept or pooped because i'm so stressed out. I have an appt tomorrow to meet the Doc that's going to do the colonoscopy. But i just don't understand. One of those blood test is for abnormal red blood cell count and it was NORMAL. So now i'm thinking either the blood test or the cologuard is wrong. My wife is really upset at the doc for the way she told me. Anyone know anything about the blood test i took?? 

Trubrit said:

Tests

The only blood test I know that indicates CRC is the CEA test, and that is not always reliable.  I know the CBC and CMP are done for general health, especially liver, but maybe there is something in there also, that I have not heard about. 

How old are you?  It will be wise to go ahead with the colonoscopy (espeically if you are over 50).  

We have had several folks pop here to the forum with positive Cologuard and followed up with colonoscopies with were clear, and we are hoping that you get to join their ranks. 

I am sorry for the stress this is causing you. I could tell you not to worry, but that would be ridiculous. I can tell you to TRY not to worry. Hows that! 

If you didn't want to go with the colonoscopy, you could try another Doctor for a second opinion. 

Good luck!  

I hope you pop back to tell us all is well and we can wish you a long and healthy life.  In the meantime, we are here to answer any questions or just give you support. 

Tru

Hi. I'm 59 yrs old.The waiting for the colonoscopy is what's getting to me and with everything going on. In a span of three days my stool went from light brown to dark brown to black today. From what i have read the most likely cause of that is a bleeding ulcer. But i drink a lot of tea and drank dandelion root tea the past couple of days. That may also be a cause of the dark stool, dandelion root tea helps clean out the liver. At least that's what i'm hoping. I'm so stressed out that i have no idea if i'm even contiplating all of this right.Thanks for the reply.

GadgetOne said:

Fish oil

Okay, well if anyone has read my post they know what's going on. My latest revelation. Three months ago my doc told me to start taking fish oil for my cholesterol. Never had another thought about it, until now. One of the bad side effects of fish oil is bleeding in the stomach and black stool. So tomorrow i'm going in to find out if that's what is going on. If it is i'm going to be really mad that the doc didn't warn me about the side effects of fish oil. They also have me taking niacin for cholesterol and a uncommon side effect of niacin is black stool. So this should be interesting. I'll follow up when i know more.

I did not know about this side effect either, and have just purchased some expensive Norwegian Cod Liver Oil. 

I certainly hope you get to the bottom (no pun intended) of this, soon. Please keep us informed. 

Tru

veritas49 said:

Cologuard

I thought I would share an experience I just had today and hope it might help a reader. I'm almost 68 years old. I have been remiss with colonoscopies having only one when I was 52  I was told no polyps and to return in five years  I foolishly did not  I recently saw the ad on tv for Cologuard and asked my GP about it  She wrote a script for it  I asked how long it took and she said two weeks and "pray it's not positive " I sent it in and started getting anxious almost immediately  Two week later she called and in a very serious tone said " I'm afraid it's positive " I freaked and told my wife who is a loving caring person  I fortunately know a surgeon through a club I belong to and see him from time to time on the links  I have heard great things about him  I called, explained what happened  how nervous I was  He kindly opened his office the next day early to meet with my wife and I. I had the GP send the Cologuard report to him. He calmed me down and mentioned false positives and said he needs to do a colonoscopy. You know these things can often take weeks to schedule but as a friend he did it two days later   - one day for prep  - and then the test today I could not sleep last night and was very depressed 

By 11 AM today it was complete.  When I woke up he told me I had one polyp , not to worry and all else looked clean. So it will go out for biopsy but he was very confident I would be fine   While I was recovering he met my wife in the waiting room and showed her pictures of my clean colon and she gave him huge hug.   

For what it is worth I thought I would share.   If I had to do all over again I would not have waited so long for the colonoscopy and I would skip the cologuard. He wants me to go once a year now and I'm fine with that. Good luck to all of you dealing with the same or similar issues. 

Cheer,

Veritasguy 

 

Thank you for posting that.  It helped relieve some of my anxiety.

takingcontrol58 said:

Cologuard Test

BL,

I am a 2 year survivor of Stage 3 metastatic uterine cancer. 
I take the Cologuard test each year because uterine cancer is related to colon cancer,
and I had a 5cm metastatic tumor on my outer rectum.

The Cologuard test is more accurate than the fecal blood test. It tests for a tumor
marker called vimentin. Vimentin was found in my uterine tumor according to my
pathology report and I was initially diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer.

I would ask you doctor to find out if they found blood or vimentin in your specimen,
since the report results just say positive or negative.

If you look at the book they send with the test, it indicataes a positive result means that
they detected abnornal DNA (vimentin) and/or blood that could be caused by precancer or
cancer in the colon.

This test is a good test to use to tell you if you need to get a colonoscopy.
It would probably be a good idea to get one.  

Perhaps you should repeat the Cologuard test while you are waiting
for your colonoscopy appointment. Perhaps you also might test your blood
for CA19-9 (used for colon, liver and pancreatic cancer). I get many blood tests as I
would like a warning before I jump into more invasive testing.

Best of luck.

Takingcontrol58

 

 

Perhaps I am more skeptical than you, sorry so late to the thread, hope people read all comments...  you said If you look at the book they send with the test, it indicates a positive result means that they detected abnornal DNA (vimentin) and/or blood that could be caused by precancer or cancer in the colon.

IF this is true, why would the people at Exact Science/Cologuard refuse to tell you that?  They claim to look at several (maybe 13?) different "biomarkers"... so ??? and, if this is a true indicator of cancer, why 13% (they admit to this number, probably much higher) false positives?  You say "could be" caused... so... could also NOT be caused?

Not trying to be difficult, I am just angry that Cologuard refuses to disclose complete and specitic test results... IF they have them, IF their tests are legit... no reason to withhold this essential info that we paid BIG bucks for... and I find this VERY suspicious!!

BL53931 said:

Followup

My doctor called yesterday. Turns out I misunderstood about the one polyp being partly removed, they were not able to extract any of it. I am being referred to a colorectal secialst and they will want to go in AGAIN and get that one out. My doctor did again say he does not believe it is precancerous, this would be just a precaution. This means I will need to go trough the whole pre-op again.   

My thinkng is I should do this but not for awhile. Perhaps in a  couple of months, this is just too much to go through all over again so soon. Any thoughts? 

Polyps are not dangerous in and of tehmselves... and BTW, bad news... even if they cut out the polyps, bringing in more risk to you via bleeding, infection, etc... the polyps will usually grow back before your next colonoscopy!