The stories of Michele Ponciano and Susan Anderson really bring into reality the severity of colon cancer and how easy it is to miss until it’s too late. Ponciano said, “”I knew something was wrong. I did have some rectal bleeding. But I thought, well, I have four kids.” Anderson said, “”I thought it was probably hemorrhoids. I had a 2 year old and thought it was from giving birth or something.” They had the same excuse for a classic sign of colon cancer – rectal bleeding.

 

For Ponciano, it was colon cancer. For Anderson, it was colorectal cancer. Both illnesses essentially the same, some other symptoms include: a change in bowel habits, persistent abdominal discomfort, a feeling that the bowel doesn’t empty, weakness or fatigue, and unexplained weight loss.

 

Ponciano explains what she needed next, “They cut out of third and a half of my colon, sewed the two parts together and put it all back in.” Ponciano was fortunate that her surgeons were able to get in there early enough when the cancer was all contained at stage 1. She knows that at age 47, if she had waited till 50, she might not be here to talk about it: “If I’d have waited ’til 50, I know it would have been too late. It would have been way too late.”

 

For Anderson, she needed chemotherapy and radiation to zap her colorectal cancer. She was only 36 when she got her diagnosis, a whole 14 years below the recommended screening age for colon cancer. She says, “If I had waited ’til 50, I wouldn’t have been able to. I would have been dead.”

 

The recommended age to begin regular, preventative screening for colon/rectum cancer is 50, but it can only help to educate yourself with the help of your doctor on the early warning signs.