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Children Monitoring

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2022 2:38 pm
by saltygirl
My daughter is heading for 1st colonoscopy and endoscopy at the Stanford hospital. Hope they will do a good job. She is a college student. My genetic testing didn’t show any known genes. But I think that doesn’t mean anything. I know both my kids should have regular colonoscopy / 5 years schedule.

Re: Children Monitoring

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:47 am
by aquarian_asian
Best wishes for the tests. It is good to have them tested.
Cheers

Re: Children Monitoring

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 9:36 am
by claudine
That's a really good thing to do; my daughter has digestion issues and given her dad's history (Crohn's disease and now rectal cancer) I think she should get a colonoscopy/meet with a GE doc sooner than later. I hope your daughter's tests come back clear!

Re: Children Monitoring

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2022 6:24 am
by aquarian_asian
i haven't done any tests for my children (daughter & son); my pathology says no defect in MMR, also i am on a queue for gentic test in August 2022.

Thanks

Re: Children Monitoring

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:19 pm
by saltygirl
Thank you. Both my kids will start with regular colonoscopy early 20s

Re: Children Monitoring

Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 8:40 pm
by Sunnycd
I have been wondering about when my kids, who are 18 and 20 y.o., should start having colonoscopies. There was no history of colon cancer in my family, and testing showed it wasn’t genetic. I read in this forum that it would be a good idea for them to get a life insurance prior to getting colonoscopies, since depending on diagnosis, they could be uninsurable down the road…

Re: Children Monitoring

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 1:23 am
by Rock_Robster
Sunnycd wrote:I have been wondering about when my kids, who are 18 and 20 y.o., should start having colonoscopies. There was no history of colon cancer in my family, and testing showed it wasn’t genetic. I read in this forum that it would be a good idea for them to get a life insurance prior to getting colonoscopies, since depending on diagnosis, they could be uninsurable down the road…

Both great questions. My view would be ‘as early as possible’, ie as early as you can find a good GI that’s willing to do them. The main thing then will be to make sure they keep them up regularly - if there’s no polyps found (and no know genetic link with your CRC) then you should discuss this with a good GI, but I would have thought 3 yearly is probably reasonable (they may prefer 5 however, though this feels a little long for me). The risks of a scope in an otherwise healthy person are very low (all complications rate is less than 0.3%), compared to the downside of missing something early. You may also have a battle with health insurance, depending on where you’re based.

I totally agree re life insurance. I’m so grateful I already had life and income protection insurance before I was diagnosed stage IV at 36 years old. I would like to get more now but of course that isn’t really an option, except through our pension programs (Australia) where they can’t exclude pre-existing conditions (but can enforce a waiting period). Life/IP insurance is generally cheaper the earlier you get it, so in my mind it makes sense to get it as soon as they start working (or if affordability is an issue, then perhaps as soon as they have a family or mortgage).

Re: Children Monitoring

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 5:04 pm
by roadrunner
This kinda stopped me in my tracks. I have 18- and 16-year-old kids, and I hadn’t considered this. My father died of colon cancer at 64, and of course there’s me. As with Sunnycd, there’s no other evidence of any genetic component )I was told there’s about “a 10% chance”). I hadn’t wanted to start them on colonoscopies (my eldest gets to make that call anyway) so soon simply because it seems too dark for their phase of life. Is there evidence of anything other than a very remote risk in this stage of life without evidence of a heritable component (e.g., Lynch Syndrome)? Are there recommendations to start this early?

Re: Children Monitoring

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 7:34 pm
by saltygirl
Honestly I doubt in your case there is no genetic link. Your father and now you. Likely the link hasn’t been discovered. That’s my personal observation. I have no genetic link known. But already had melanoma and very close to cervical cancer in my 20s. I think there is a genetic link in my family. But it is unknown. My mom and her sister both had breast cancer. Nobody that I know of had colon cancer. My daughter is planing on led school. She is fully educated about my situation. At almost 21 she will have her 1st colonoscopy / endoscopy. Will repeat every 5 years depending the findings. The same my son.

Re: Children Monitoring

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 7:37 pm
by saltygirl
My genetic counselor told me it was believed 95% of cancers are sporadic. The more genes are discovered the number is going down. So who knows eventually what % will be.

Re: Children Monitoring

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 8:49 pm
by roadrunner
I’ve had this thought. And my uncle (father’s brother) had CRC too. Used to tell myself that was likely from the inch of heavy metal soot my grandmother used to sweep off their porch every morning from the steel mill across the street. But I got hit quicker than my father. So yeah.

I already had a discussion with my wife. This thread was a good shake up in this regard.

Re: Children Monitoring

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2022 7:58 am
by saltygirl
Generally the Dr say your child should start with colonoscopy 15 years before the age you were diagnosed. I hope for our children there will be other tools than just colonoscopy. I am hoping that eventually they will just have annual blood test to confirm no solid tumors are active etc.