The holidays are a time of joy and challenges, often both stemming from one source: family. No one loves you quite like your family, but no one pushes your buttons quite like them either! Why not take advantage of the extra time you’ll be spending with them this holiday season and take the opportunity to raise awareness for colon cancer?
Our Patient Support staff had a little holiday fun and came up with nine ways to subtly (or not so subtly) sneak colon cancer screening and education into your family or work gathering. Caution: results may vary.
- A FIT or FOBT test makes a great stocking stuffer – or a sneaky surprise for your white elephant gift exchange!
- If your family seems a little sleepy after the big meal, remind them that a colonoscopy is the best nap they’ll ever have.
- As you sit down to watch some of your favorite holiday classics, casually ask, “Do you think Rudolph’s glowing nose was a side effect of chemo?”
- If your goal is to be THAT aunt or uncle (you know the one we’re talking about), here’s one for the dinner table: “What do this turkey and I have in common? [pause] No rectum!”
- Even though Hanukah might be over, remind your family that a colonoscopy prep is only one crazy day and night – not eight!
- When that awkward silence gets to be too stifling, ease the tension with this ice breaker: “Did you know A Charlie Brown Christmas creator Charles Schultz had colon cancer?”
- If the mood is right and the candles have died down, tell your special someone that couples that prep together, stay together! Start the New Year off right and schedule a romantic double date at your GI.
- When it’s time for dessert, try out this fun fact: “While not technically a fruit, the beta carotene in pumpkin pie can help prevent certain cancers.”
- As you bump elbows with the person sitting next to you as you both reach for the mashed potatoes, inform that a diet rich in gravy and reindeer meat (and other red meat) may be bad for your colon.
Give your family the gift of knowledge and empowerment this holiday season – no gift receipt needed!