When folks ask “Why are you doing this charity drive?”, my 48 year old friend Mark is a huge answer to that question. In the fall of 2023, he was in great shape, and with his wife Diana, helping to get their daughter back to college, and their son ready for his sophomore year of high school. Work as a police officer in Ohio was going well, and it was time for the annual physical exam. No symptoms or hints of any health problem. However, the blood test showed a couple of anomalies. Diana “encouraged” Mark to have a colonoscopy…repeatedly and insistently. He obeyed that advice, had the procedure, and his doctor reported, “Good thing you came to see me now”. A huge polyp was removed along with a section of his colon, and some involvement with Mark’s lymph nodes was found. No ostomy bag was needed, he is recovering nicely from the surgery, but is now undergoing 12 rounds of chemotherapy on alternating weeks. That sequence of events went fast, and is so far successful.
Diana, a busy nurse and mother, beat breast cancer over ten years ago, after undergoing surgery, chemo and radiation treatments. There couldn’t have been a more qualified person to stand by Mark through his diagnosis and treatment. As Mark says: “If Diana hadn’t kept bugging me to get the colonoscopy, this whole thing could have turned out a lot worse!” Mark believed colonoscopies weren’t recommended until a guy hit 50 years of age, but agreed to go early at 48…Whew, he did the right thing!
Since Mark’s diagnosis and treatment, he has talked most of the other officers in his department into having their own colonoscopy. His experience demonstrates what some doctors say about this disease: “The main symptom of colon cancer is NO SYMPTOMS”. This cancer does not respect age, race, gender or recommended timelines. EARLY testing and diagnosis are the key to successful treatment and successful recovery.
Here’s a happy-ending coincidence: Mark wants to drive Diana the length of Route 66 upon his retirement from police work in a few years. We’re (c3on66) going to scout the good spots for him in May!
