Interview 10

Age at interview: 63

Brief Outline:

Invited to be screened for bowel cancer in 2005 when aged 62. The result of the Faecal Occult Blood (FOB) test was normal.

Background:

A white English woman, an assistant school supervisor, married with 4 children.

More about me...

In about 2001 she had bowel problems, so had a colonoscopy, and was diagnosed with diverticulitis and irritable bowel syndrome, which she now manages by taking care of what she eats. In 2005, when she was aged 62, she was invited to be screened for bowel caner. The result of the Faecal Occult Blood (FOB) test was normal.
 

She got some rubber gloves from the chemist before doing the test.

Well first of all go and get some rubber gloves from the chemist. I suppose everybody has their own way of dealing with it but I just really did what the information told you to do. I just got some toilet paper and caught some and took the spatula and took a sample. And I can't remember, I think you put it on a little thing, I can't remember, and then seal.

The little card?

A little card and then you seal it don't you, gosh I can't remember it. And that was it. And it really and truthfully was as quick as saying ABC.

She was lightly sedated and asked questions during the colonoscopy but afterwards could not remember what had happened.

Well [laughs] I, I've got to be honest, I can't, although I was awake, they gave you some very slight sedation and apparently from the consultant I was asking him lots of questions when I was looking at the TV camera, camera screen, and but I can't remember [laughs], it was one of those twilight zones I suppose. So I really and truthfully cannot say what it was like because 

You don't remember.

I don't remember, no. And when I was taken, taken back to the room the consultant came in but I was asleep so I didn't speak to him. Then when I saw him the following week he said, 'Can you remember?' And I said, 'Oh I was asleep,' and he says, 'No you were asking me a lot of questions.' So I truthfully can't remember.