One smokescreen after another getting colon cancer test
Better access to fecal occult blood tests is needed to increase chances of early detection
I can walk into any corner store and buy a carton of cancer-causing cigarettes without a hassle, interrogation, embarrassment or difficulty, yet any attempt to obtain a provincial government sanctioned life-saving ColonCancerCheck has been elusive. It doesn’t make sense. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me back up. As a woman in my 60s, I received a letter from the ColonCancerCheck program about three months ago. Presumably, I was on their mailing list because I’d had a colon cancer check, the FOBT (fecal occult blood test) done previously. The letter indicated that I was again due to be tested and urged me to see my family doctor.
For a number of reasons, I don’t have a family doctor, so I went to a walk-in clinic, showed that doctor my letter, and was told that a colonoscopy is more accurate than the FOBT.
He made a referral to a specialist. After waiting the required weeks for an appointment, the specialist looked at my butt, said a colonoscopy wasn’t necessary, and that I should get the FOBT test.
However, the specialist didn’t have any kits and said he had no idea where I could get one.
Returning home from this appointment, there was another letter in the mail, addressed to me, from the Colon-CancerCheck program stating that they’d noticed I hadn’t yet sent in a test kit, basically telling me to get on with it.
So I went on the internet and soon discovered that kits were available at local pharmacies or through public health. I phoned three pharmacies, each time having to explain what an FOBT kit was. The bewildered pharmacy assistants all told me they had no idea what the kit looked like, or even was. But — aha! — they all knew they didn’t have one. It was thoroughly frustrating. So I called the next source on the internet list: public health.
To my complete surprise, public health gave an identical response.
I got back online and discovered that Telehealth Ontario, a telephone health service that purports to offer health advice and information from a registered nurse, would provide the free kit. I phoned and was told by a young man that I had to take a “qualifying test” before he would send me out a kit.
“Why,” I asked, “do I have to pass a qualifying test when the government sent me out a letter instructing me to do this? It seems fair to conclude that the government already knows I ‘qualify.’ ”
He repeated that I had to do the test, about10 minutes’ worth of questions, and wouldn’t give me the test unless I gave him my full name and phone number. Whatever happened to privacy of medical information? Would I be required to tell this young man the number of bowel movements I have each day, I wondered?
Feeling more uncomfortable than I would have felt in the corner shop buying smokes, I ended the call. I was thoroughly irritated. Smoking your brains out has to be easier than this, I thought.
However, I continued to take ColonCancerCheck’s letter seriously, and got back online, this time to email Service Ontario and beg for help in obtaining a kit. Service Ontario is an initiative to provide an “easy, cost-effective way to access government services,” according to its website. A customer service representative emailed a reply: If I was between 50 and 74 years of age, I could get a free kit from either my local pharmacist or Telehealth Ontario. Déjà vu. I called my pharmacy and spoke to the pharmacist this time. She informed me that they hadn’t carried the kits for about eight years. She suggested I call a local laboratory, which I did. After waiting on hold for what seemed like an eternity, was told that I needed a requisition from a doctor before they would give me a kit.
So, back to Telehealth. A young girl on the phone pleasantly told me that I just had to answer a few questions to let her know if I “qualified” for the kit. It was easy. There was nothing to it. Come on. Feeling mortified, I began to answer her questions, but soon failed to see how my name, full date of birth and phone number, could possibly have anything to do with “qualifying” for a kit. I was frustrated and embarrassed, and told her I couldn’t continue. I hung up.
I remain, to this day, without a kit and knowing that colon cancer has a good treatment outcome if caught early, but not if it isn’t. Waves of fear creep over me because I know the importance of getting this test, yet the test seems elusive to me and people seem hell-bent on not simply mailing me a kit.
Why will they not just mail me a kit? Or, why can’t I walk into any corner store and find a colon cancer FOBT kit next to the cigarettes, and pick one up as easily and conveniently as smokers can purchase a carton of smokes? Dorothy Pedersen is a freelance writer and a registered psychotherapist.