By Steve Strichart, Associate Publisher
By now some of you may have learned that I spent a week at Memorial Hospital having colon surgery. As many of us do, I put off having a colonoscopy until I was 59 years old. That’s about 8 or 9 years longer than I should have. Don’t ask me why I waited, and there are many of you reading this that have waited reasons that we won’t waste time on here. Only know that none of them are valid reasons not to have one.
I finally went for my colonoscopy, and a polyp was found in my cecum. It was too large to remove at that time (small polyps can be removed at the time of the colonoscopy), but multiple biopsies were taken. The biopsy reported a benign, but high-risk polyp. The recommendation was surgery to remove it as soon as possible.
On July 11, I went into Memorial Hospital for surgery. My doctor first tried to remove just the polyp. While I was in the operating room, the polyp was sent to the lab for a preliminary biopsy. The result was that it contained some “suspicious” looking cells. With that news, my doctor did what is called a right hemicolectomy. In other words, the right portion of my colon where it attaches to the small intestine was removed. I was fortunate that the surgery was completly laparoscopic, which was less invasive. Along with the portion of my colon, they removed my appendix, so I won’t ever have to worry about that. They also removed 13 lymph nodes for testing. I spent 5 days in Memorial Hospital and finally came home to bed rest for another five days.
On Monday, July 23rd, I returned to see my doctor. He walked into the room with a big smile on his face, and the first words out of his mouth were, “I have great news for you” . It turns out that the polyp, which was now being called a tumor, was sent for a full pathology report. Although cancer was found, the report stated that all of the cancerous cells were encapsulated inside of the tumor. The lymph nodes all tested negative and all of the cancer was removed. I don’t have to go through any chemo or radiation treatments. I got lucky! I will go for a colonoscopy each year until I am told different, but I can live with that.
The moral of my story? That should be obvious… anyone reading this and is over 50 years old should go have a colonoscopy. If there is anything wrong, catch it before it becomes a life-threatening problem. Don’t wait like I did and have to go through surgery when the small stuff can be taken care of in the doctor’s office. It’s a whole lot less painful and worrisome for family members.
