I work in healthcare quality, and I always go in for my annual physicals. In January 2020, I asked my primary care physician about a colonoscopy. She informed me that because my cousin was not a first-degree relative, like a parent or sibling, I was likely not at risk and that my insurance company probably wouldn’t pay for it.

I went back in August because I thought I may have contracted COVID, and asked about doing my annual blood work. I’d been working out, eating really healthy and living a healthy lifestyle, but the blood work showed I was slightly anemic. After a second round of blood work showed the same thing, my doctor recommended an at-home occult test. Those results finally led to a referral for a colonoscopy.

When I went for the colonoscopy consultation in September, the gastroenterologist told me my numbers were so close to normal that he didn’t expect to find anything. But after the procedure, I woke up to him telling me he found and removed a 15 mm polyp. He didn’t think it was cancerous. However, the standard procedure was to send it to the lab. Two days later he called and told me I had colon cancer.

Can you imagine hearing those words after what my family had just experienced? It turned my world upside down. We’d researched MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, Texas, before, but due to the pandemic and my cousin’s rapid decline, he was not able to get there for treatment.

I immediately reached out to MD Anderson and scheduled a consultation in October. There, the doctor informed me the best course of action would be a colectomy. This shocked me because I had no symptoms. I thought, “I feel great, and now they’re telling me they have to remove a portion of my colon?!” After discussing it with my wife, we decided to do the surgery. They removed a portion of my colon and 20-plus surrounding lymph nodes. Luckily, the cancer had not spread and all lymph nodes were clear. That was the best-case scenario.

Al Thomas

Writing since February 2022 · 1 story contributed