Health Update 7-11-25… and a word of encouragement

Just a quick journal entry to update my dear readers on the outcome of my surgery at Franciscan Health in Mooresville last week. Very happy to report that my colon tumor is GONE, with little or no post-surgery discomfort at all. Much of my relative ease of recovery is no doubt attributable to the fact that it was all done laparoscopically, and therefore minimally invasive.

I’ll go into my own experiences more later, but today I’d like to speak to my reader directly, addressing the fact that virtually ALL of my current battle with Stage 4 Colon Cancer could have been easily avoided had I only

1. not waited until I was approaching 70 to have my first colonoscopy, and
2. upon learning that I had a small Stage 1 tumor in my sigmoid colon, immediately have it removed.

It is now recommended by the American Cancer Society that routine colonoscopies begin around 45 years of age. As to why people so often put off the procedure is due to a multitude of factors, including fear of the procedure, impatience with the prep, and/or distrust of the results (or of the medical industry in general, which was certainly true in my case).

Now, if one wants to lookup potential negative effects of colonoscopies there are plenty of horror stories to be found, from punctured intestines to sepsis from improperly sterilized medical instruments. But assuming you chose a competent and conscientious medical team, such extremes would seem highly unlikely.

A colonoscopy, especially if you’re properly sedated, is effortless. You simply wake up afterwards, none the worse for wear — no pain, no lingering discomfort.

But I kept putting it off. When I finally had one a couple years ago, I was informed that the doctor had snipped off a couple of polyps (quite normal at almost any age), but that a small cancerous tumor was forming.

Not exactly what one wants to hear. I was advised to undergo a bowel resection, where the tumor is cut out entirely, and the two ends sutured back together.

I mentioned above having an intrinsic distrust of the medical establishment at the time. I can’t really explain, much less justify, my reticence to have the resection inasmuch as I had had (at the same hospital, Columbus Regional) a very successful outcome from my quintuple bypass only a couple years prior… and yet I refused to budge. I stubbornly decided I knew better and immediately searched for alternatives to surgery, eventually adopting a metabolic approach that included “starving” the cancer of carbs and sugar via a keto (eventually a full-on carnivore) diet.

I’ll be honest and confess the utter lapse in judgement in my decision. The very idea of having a section of my bowel snipped out of my body and the things reconnected freaked me out, simply put. Had I only known then what I know now.

I won’t get overly pedantic here, but will simply urge anyone finding themselves resistant to getting a colonoscopy (for whatever reason), or undergoing surgical resection of the bowel to remove a tumor, to swallow your fears and simply get on with it early whilst ye may.

What could have been virtually an out-patient procedure, a couple days out of my life, has turned into a year-long battle that isn’t over yet! It is the wise person who learns from the mistakes of others. Do yourself and your family and friends a favor and be smarter than I was!  Get checked, and if so advised, nip things in the bud early so you can avoid what my reticence and stubbornness made, for me, inevitable.

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