Andrew Salciunas speaks with Dr. Richard Schaller, Colorectal Surgeon at Virtua Health.
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00:00hello everybody andrew salchunas here from 97.5 the fanatic another great time to talk about our
00:06health i love doing these every single month i get to talk to a different member of the virtual
00:11health team and i learned so much a lot of stuff that's personal to me personal to you and things
00:16that we just need to spread awareness about and this one's very important all these are important
00:20but today especially very important because i get to talk to dr richard schaller the colorectal
00:25surgeon at virtua health and look there's been a lot in the news recently about colon cancer and
00:31unfortunately sometimes it has to be hollywood for us to really take notice of this but chadwick
00:36bozeman he passed away from it in 2020 and of course there's been a lot to it a lot of people
00:41great in hollywood have tried spreading awareness from it like ryan reynolds and rob mckelhanie they
00:46actually did a live screening for people to watch they posted online they went through the entire
00:52colonoscopy screening process uh so people could see exactly what was going on so i'm really excited
00:57to talk to dr shalladay doctor how are you today i'm very good thank you thanks for having me on
01:01oh it's a pleasure i love doing these uh you know i've i've learned top to bottom all over my body
01:07about you know a lot of stuff when it comes to our health and and especially trying to get ahead of
01:11things before we get the bad news so absolutely you joining us and i'm glad we'll get to talk about
01:16this so one of the things i want to start with is symptoms are there any signs are there any
01:21symptoms that we can know about uh especially before we go to the doctor's office we might
01:26unfortunately we do that we wait to see oh i'm starting to feel something wrong with me let me go
01:31get this checked out what kind of signs what kind of symptoms of colon cancer should we be aware of
01:36sure well first of all sometimes the most common symptom is no symptom at all we find this just
01:41through routine screening that's why screening is very important uh that being said symptoms that can
01:46develop are rectal bleeding that's obvious if you see blood in the toilet after going to the
01:51bathroom not fun to talk about or bring up but important to know about doctors should ask about
01:56that um if there's a change in your bowel pattern you know what's normal for you is not
02:00necessarily normal for me or anybody else but if your bowel pattern changes out of the ordinary
02:06if your stools are different sizes namely the caliber are they normally you know of a decent
02:11size but now they're pencil thin that's a problem are you able to empty your colon do you feel
02:16like you're getting everything out when you go to the bathroom uh unexplained weight loss
02:21without trying to lose weight are you losing weight um if you had a blood test and your blood count is
02:26lower you're anemic that can be a sign that you have a slow leak of some slow bleeding happening on
02:32the inside so those are some subtle signs and symptoms that people may have that can be very
02:37common and mistaken for other things but are uh should not be ignored see you said something important
02:43at the very beginning you said a uh there's sometimes no symptoms at all and and b not fun to talk about
02:50when you talked about you know the the blood in the toilet right and you're right it isn't fun to talk
02:55about but i gotta ask you because we might not know the symptoms ourselves should everyone get a
03:01colonoscopy uh short answer yes now there's a lot of caveats there but everybody should be offered a
03:08screening test at the very least uh colonoscopy is our gold standard best available screening test
03:14that allows us to look inside the colon and see a problem that's present or prevent the problem from
03:20ever happening okay okay so other screening other screening tests exist i'm sorry to step on you there
03:27but other screening tests exists but uh most patients and most people are candidates for colonoscopy
03:33so if someone needs surgery let's say they go through the screening process and we find out
03:39that there is some tough news and that we're gonna have to do with this if someone needs surgery what
03:43are some of the benefits of having this done robotically because i know look virtual health
03:48continues to be at the forefront of all kinds of changes in in how we do medicine how we do surgeries
03:55like this so what what kind of added benefit is there sure absolutely any minimally invasive approach
04:01the surgery be it robotically or laparoscopically has proven benefits scientifically proven benefits
04:07um the number one the incisions are smaller so there's less pain it's less disfiguring less scarring
04:14uh benefits that aren't immediately obvious our patients require less narcotic pain medication less pain
04:20medication in the hospital so your intestines start working faster which means you get out of the hospital
04:25faster uh less chance for wound complications uh infections and hernias um those are the benefits
04:33of any minimally invasive approach robotics certainly being the latest tool in our armamentarium
04:38um and is a very uh well tested and proven way to have surgery done safely for colon cancers
04:45now dr schaller knows it i know it you know it if you're watching this right now this isn't a fun
04:51conversation to have but it is an important one and we really hope that you got something from
04:55listening to this today and watching this because it is something that you need to get checked out
04:59and if you want more information on everything that we discussed today including that robotic surgery
05:04and the capabilities that virtua has or if you want to schedule a colonoscopy right now you can call
05:09888-VIRTUA-3 that's 888-VIRTUA-3 or go online at virtua.org slash colon dr schaller i appreciate it thank you
05:18so much this is something that we all need to talk about something that we all need to learn more
05:23about i appreciate you taking the time and doing this today you're very welcome please talk about
05:27it no one should die of embarrassment okay uh not talking about it is not a good idea so bring it up
05:34with your primary care doctor uh colonoscopy can be done as a fast track no office billing
05:39necessary just get plugged in for your colonoscopy get screened tell a friend tell your family
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