Because I neither requested nor received permission from my brother to tell this story, I shall refrain from identifying him by name or divulge which brother this is about.
My brother’s life may have been saved by a simple, routine medical procedure that anyone over the age of 50 have, no strike that, MUST have, a colonoscopy. There I said it. Nasty thing that it is, this one medical test is one of the most hated and intentionally avoided of all medical tests people avoid. And it saves lives. Case in point, my brother.
My much, much, much, much, much, much older brother is over…70. That’s all I’ll say for now. And, when he told me several weeks ago he was not feeling all that well and experiencing some unusual symptoms that involved his lower bowel, I asked him when he last had a colonoscopy. His response? “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
Now my brother is not undereducated, stupid or poor. He does not live in rural America and can read. He is a professional who has spent his entire life being informed about many things, including managing his health. Up until recently, he has done an outstanding job.
While my brother has had a few bouts with some minor issues over the years, nothing thus far has been life threatening. And when I got that wimpy response I did not just go away into the night and allow him to get “off the hook”. I insisted he get the test done, and, the sooner the better.
Where are we now? He had the colonoscopy and afterward learned he had a 3 centimeter cyst in his lower bowel that, while pathology from the test indicated was not necessarily cancerous, tests also showed some other “abnormal cells” in the area. It needed to be removed, surgically.
My brother moved swiftly to get the procedure out of the way, before he had too much time to think about it. That was the right thing to do. The complex laparoscopic procedure required two surgeons and several hours on the operating table followed by being in the hospital for almost a full week. During his recovery at the hospital and now at home, he is finding out that surgery, on any level, is neither fun nor easy in terms of full recuperation.
BUT, here’s the kicker to this story. This past week, my brother went back to see the surgeon for routine follow up. It was during that meeting he learned something that set him back off his chair. The final pathology came back and the fact is, he has…or had…cancer. Stage II cancer.
Here is the good news. All of the lymph nodes which were removed during surgery have been reviewed by pathologists and found to be cancer free. So, what is the bottom line? My brother had cancer before he knew it. His colonoscopy showed there was something not quite right and he elected to have a cyst removed – in a procedure that required surgery. That has not only extended his life but may have saved it.
Had he elected to avoid the colonoscopy in the next couple of years, he would have developed symptoms consistent with State III or Stage IV cancer and it would have been, too late. Period. The end would have been devastating for him and his entire family.
He is now consulting with an oncologist to determine if he should do anything further this year before getting another colonoscopy next year. Chemotherapy would have been ordered in the old days but the fact part of his colon was removed, the part that had cancer, and the fact all of the lymph nodes which were removed were “clear” may allow him to skip that treatment. Because he was proactive and acted quickly, he may now be able to resume normal life for a person who up until now has never come this close to a complete health involved disaster.
My message is simple. Tests are available to men and women to make sure all our body parts are functioning correctly. I have previously stated my mother died because of lung cancer. I have previously stated my wife’s mother is battling cancer. I have previously stated I have been doing on-going battles with skin cancer. Now my brother has had a very close call with colon cancer.
I attended a wake recently and reminded a friend with me in the room funerals are for the living. The dead are not really aware we are there (sorry to step on toes here).
If you love your family, get tested.
