Fit and FOBT have significant amounts of false negative reporting especially in right sided, i.e. The cecum area of the colon. Also sigmoidoscopy can not find proximal polyps either. The reason countries use these methods is that they are cost effective but not as effective in preventing and finding tumours. My DH had a negative FIT two weeks before his colonoscopy that found his cancer. The cost benefit out ways the health benefit in many societies but my DH and many with right sided proximal cancers die because of the use of only FIT, FOBT and sigmoidoscopy. In source poor areas the 3 false negative FIT out of 1000, i.e. the amount of cancers that go undiagnosed until in advanced stages, outweigh the benefits of using colposcopy. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4143449/#!po=8.33333

Mine was 3 days of restrictions, with the final day being the severe one, just liquids (excluding anything red). I had water and chicken broth. I'd bought apple juice but that stuff was too sweet to drink more than a little. And when it was time to drink that nasty laxative, I didn't add the fake sweetener they provided on the side... why make the taste any worse than it already was? The early restrictions were things like no seeds (tomato, raspberry, that sort of thing). Four years ago so I don't remember the rest. Although I probably never will shake the memory of the night on the throne...

"Cattle car waits "   How odd.  A Canadian friend and I were visiting Sydney a while back. My friend became ill on a Friday night. I was able to get on line and book an appointment with her at a local clinic near our hotel for the following morning. No line up at all.  And I don't know Sydney particularly well.And it was a busy family clinic in the center of the city. There are clinics which only "bulk bill" (ie charge Medicare rates) and there are clinics which charge higher fees(except to people who are on government pensions or disability).  Medicare pays the base fee and the individual pays the "gap."   Many people, with or without insurance, are quite happy to pay the gap fee and get quick service. The gap fee runs around $30 - $60 for a GP visit depending on the length of the visit. Bulk billing, walk in clinics in major cities may well have line ups (I daresay there are similar lineups in inner city New York or Philadelphia), but the clinics I've used, in 3 states and 4 cities, operate  by appointment, even the ones that do bulk bill.    This notion of cattle car service is about as accurate as the notion that every American has full insurance coverage and immediate access to top flight health care.  And in fact, in the studies I've cited in the past, while countries like Australia and Canada do have waiting lists for public health care, access in general is still better than in the US. I am about done with Elmer and his"Australian friends". I didn't intend this to become another personal debate coloured by inaccuracy and animus. I raised the subject of the bowel screening program as an example of what I think is an effective public health measure that extends screening for colorectal cancer to a broader range of people.  Nothing more. I don't dispute that colonoscopies are the gold standard, but they are simply not accessible to everyone for a whole lot of reasons. Not here, not in the US. Bowel screening is much more accessible and picks up a significant number of cases, often early enough for treatment.  Never forget that the pursuit of excellence is often the enemy of the good.  That adage applies here.

badgergal, so sorry to hear about the tragic death of your son. My only guess about his colonoscopies is that he already had the cancer 8 months before and they simply did not see or find it, which is very scary. My mother and grandmother both died of colon cancer. I had my first colonoscopy at 52, which is 23 years ago (today they would have required one in my 40s), and they found several small polyps, which they removed and told me to come back in 5 years, which I did. After that one, they told me to come back every 3 years, but I am now back on the 5 year schedule. I believe I had my last one in 2023, and the doctor told me that I would only need one more in 5 years, and after that, I would be too old to bother. My PCP told me that that was wrong and that I should continue every five years because he thought I would live to be 90. As for red meat - not eating it will not in any way protect you from getting colon cancer, and so don't fool yourself. My brother Kevin did not eat red meat, and so he thought he could put off getting a colonoscopy because the doctor he was seeing said he could wait until he was 60. I told him that he needed to change doctors, which he finally did at 53, and his new doctor told him to get a colonoscopy immediately. However, it was too late, and he already had colon cancer, which required surgery, and he now has an ostomy bag. I had been pestering Kevin ever since he turned 50 to get a colonoscopy, but he refused to listen to me. For most people, they are an effective way to save their lives.