Julie’s Blog

Cancer

February 28, 2008 on 6:15 am | In Uncategorized |

I called a friend the other day. She had just returned home from a funeral and shared that it was for a young man who had died of Colon Cancer. He was my son’s age.

On November 8th, 1999 my husband took me to the ER. I was admitted to the hospital and 2 days later had surgery. I had colon cancer. The day after Christmas was the first day of 6 months of not so nice chemotherapy. I went for my last chemo treatment on July 3rd, the day before Independence Day appropriately enough and my husband gave me a trophy; it said simply Cancer 0 - Angels 1. Yes, they won the battle for me.

I went for my annual scan yesterday and still have check ups every 3-6 months, but I am an 8 year survivor and appreciate that each new day is a gift. My heart breaks however for those who, for some reason, didn’t win the battle. As women we know to be pro-active against breast cancer, and men are aware of the risks of prostate cancer. But when it comes to warnings about colon cancer, I have seen very little except for the year when Katie Couric’s husband died. For me it definitely came out of the blue. I don’t smoke, I have a relatively healthy lifestyle and my diet isn’t too bad, though I must admit that I enjoy a good meal of fish’n chips whenever I can. And, to top it all, there is no history of cancer in my family. To say that the diagnosis came as a shock, is an understatement to say the least.

Colon cancer occurs in men and women of all ages. It is one of the nastier ones, to put it mildly, but when caught in the early stages, it is very curable. Looking back, I definitely had signs that something wasn’t quite right for 3-4 months previously, but the symptons were easily brushed aside. Everyone has stomach cramps right……

You may wonder why I’m writing about this. In fact I’m wondering myself, since very few people outside my family and close friends were aware of what was going on in my life during that year, the year 2000. Hey what a way to start the new millenium!! I continued to host “More than Memories” (as it was known back then) and viewers wondered why I went from long hair to very short hair, which was a wig I wore for the show. That was actually the fun part - I never had a bad hair day!

So, why talk about it now?
Because a young man who was the same age as my son had colon cancer and died.
Because there are symptons that are too often ignored because no body wants to talk about “things like that”.
Because it grows very quickly.
Because when caught in the early stages it is one of the most curable of cancers.
Because if I share my story, maybe someone will think twice about avoiding a check up.

I was lucky. You, or someone you know and love, might not be. Please take care of yourselves.

Yours truly, Julie