Damn, that’s a scary word, isn’t it?
These are statistics that today became very important to me:
Colon cancer survival rates*
Stage Survival Rate
I 93%There are over 130,000 cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed in the United States each year, and over 50,000 deaths. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths. In almost all cases, however, this disease is entirely treatable if caught early by colonoscopy.
Of the tissue that was removed in my surgery last week, some of it was squamous cells, pre-cancerous. Only a microscopic bit was positive for cancer. But. Now, I get “surveillance”. I’ll have to get checkups and screenings.
And I’m grateful, oh yeah. Very grateful that I have insurance and good doctors. Very grateful that someone was watching out for me to catch this in time. Grateful that I drink green tea.
I thought I would have to worry about diverticulitis or colitis, not this. But this – this is, life-changing.
And I’m grateful to have the chance to do something about it.
Get those colonoscopies done, people. It might save your life. It has mine.
7 Responses
Scary stuff. Thanks for the warning.
Yes, thank you. Very glad this turned out so well. Could be better I know but the alternative…
(My husband had one done this year and after reading your post I am now seriously thinking about getting a colonoscopy soon. I have been in a “Oh, yes, I get it done sometime in the next year or two” mode since my husband had his colonoscopy.)
donna, your attitude is remarkable. actually the colonoscopy procedure was the worst in preparation, very mellow drifting on the drug in the event itself. hell, it’s only a day in a life, so… sending you more vibrant wishes to match the sculpture pictured the other day. yours, naomi
agreed; your attitude is remarkable. my brother passed of a rare cancer to the small intestines.
Thank you all, I appreciate your thoughts. After watching my parents go through their illnesses and pass away, and my brother-in-law battle leukemia, and my brother handle having a Down’s Syndrome daughter who passed away a couple years ago, I really have had some shining examples of how to handle adversity. I feel really fortunate that this was caught early enough to make such a huge difference.
Any cancer is a terrible thing to have to fight, but this one is insiduous and quite deadly, since it sneaks up on people. I really haven’t had any symptoms of anything other than being tired much of the time. I had the colonoscopy done because of diarrhea, but that turned out to be from a yeast infection. Other than family history of diverticulitis and colitis, I didn’t really have any real reaon to get a colonoscopy. Probably why this is such a deadly killer, since if caught early it’s really easy to treat surgically.
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