My father as well as two of his sisters have had bouts with colon cancer. I started getting the testing when I was 35 and have kept it up. My brother who is 2 years younger than me has known that he should be doing the same for 10 years now.
A month ago he started having pain in his side and after alot of testing and "finally" a colonoscopy, it was discovered that he had cancer last week. He went through surgery Tuesday to remove the tumor as well as his appendix,part of his colon, 2 limpnodes (?)and a good size piece of his paraneum. He now has to start chemotherapy and soon, radiation treatments. Sitting in the waiting room tuesday with most of my family, his wife stands up and says "its his own fault for not having the testing done on a regular basis, cause cancer is nothing to mess around with". She says this as she heads outside to smoke her 40th cigarette of the day!
Until I went to visit him I didn't realize how many people I knew were actually in the hospital with all different types of cancer. Mostly colon and pancreatic (?) but I'm certain that if I asked them whether or not they had been keeping up with preventative testing most would say, "why when I have felt just fine"?
Cancer is some serious stuff, so don't drag your feet when it comes to checkups!! No one is invincible!!!!