Taking a dive into colon cancer
March is Colorectal Awareness Month, so it’s time to take a deep dive, pardon the pun, into this deadly form of cancer.
In fact, it is the third most common cancer worldwide and a leading cause of cancer deaths, albeit, largely preventable through early detection, with screenings recommended for adults starting at age 45.
The good news is, there is a way to help prevent it.
The bad news is, not enough people choose to screen for it.
By the time the serious symptoms show up, it’s too late for some people.
To help underscore that point, just last month, actor James Ven Der Beek, known for his run on Dawson’s Creek, died at the relatively young age of 48, following a three- year battle with the disease that wasn’t discovered until it was already rated Stage 3.
By the way, to cut to the chase, the intent of this story is to convince adults 45 and over to get a colonoscopy if they haven’t already done so. It’s often those with the thickest of heads, or those who take machismo to the next level, who are most prone to that sort of pig- headed thinking, and more guys than women seem to think in this caveman fashion.
Big surprise.
I should know. I was once one of those people, waiting until the age of 67 before I had my first colonoscopy. Stupid beyond belief, but there you go.
Please get it checked
Some people say: “ I just don’t believe in doctors. I have to be real sick to go see one.”
Sure, but by the time someone is “ real sick,” it may be too late.
That was certainly the case with Covid, sad to say, and it’s certainly true of many serious diseases, like colorectal cancer.
Over the years, my regular physician mentioned getting a colonoscopy more than once, but I always found a reason to shy away from the subject.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. See you in another six months.
At long last, though, she was able to convince me to at least collect a small sample of waste, bring it into the lab, and they would check it for blood.
As long as I don’t have to drink that stuff and sit on the john for six hours, we’re good, I told her.
I wasn’t worried or concerned until the test came back positive.
What?
Macho no more, I got in for a colonoscopy as soon as I could. Thank you, Dr. Carlos Cardenas and DHR.
Not sure why I avoided one for so long. Just the thought of having to go through it all, I guess.
Having some tube inserted, with a camera, no less. But the pros of getting one so far outweigh the cons, it’s not even close.
No hyperbole — It can be the difference, for some, between life and death.
I still had the stupid belief that if I felt okay, I was fine. Or at least with the serious stuff that mattered. Then two years ago, my long-tenured weekly pool-playing buddy went from fine to dead within a span of only approximately five weeks, and he was gone.
Cancer around the hip area that wouldn’t, didn’t, show up in the semi-annual blood tests he took. When the pain finally hit, though, hard, and his hip area crumbled, it was time to say, adios, I love you, brother, because hospice care was where he was headed.
Our pool-playing days gone in a flash. A great guy, RIP.
Colonoscopies are Easy
Granted, the stuff you have to drink the night before a colonoscopy isn’t great, and neither is having to sit in the bathroom on and off for hours, but when you get word from the gastroenterologist the following day, after the colonoscopy, that everything is fine, no evidence of cancer, everything else pales in comparison to the good news.
A Silent Killer
According to the American Cancer Society, colon cancer is an abnormal growth of cells in the colon or rectum that can invade nearby tissues or spread to other organs.
Normally, colon cancer starts as a polyp (small growth) that gets larger over time. While not all polyps are cancerous, some do turn into the C-word, which is why getting screened is so important. And if a polyp shows up during the colonoscopy, the gastroenterologist will remove it and send it off for a biopsy.
Every race, gender and ethnicity are at risk for colon cancer. Luckily, it’s treatable in about 90 percent of people when caught early.
I know this sounds dry, but these are the facts: According to Cancer. org, Colorectal cancer screening is recommended for everyone beginning at age 45.
If it runs in your family, the recommended age for getting your first colonoscopy drops, depending on several factors that you need to discuss with your physician.
The good news is, most insurance companies, and Medicare, will pay for it, knowing that, as Ben Franklin so succinctly put it approximately 250 years ago — an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.