As the month of November is approaching, I begin to think of all the things I am thankful for. One of the things I am thankful for is the gift of life that each one of us is blessed with and also how quickly and easily our lives can be taken away from us. It will be eleven years on November 28th that my Grandma Carol passed away due to colorectal cancer, also known as colon cancer, at the age of fifty-nine years old. This was a very hard point in my life for me to try and overcome and try to realize that she was better now that her body wasn’t suffering anymore. This is the main reason why I have chosen to try and persuade women to get screened for colon cancer between the ages of thirty-five and sixty.
As I am approaching the “old” age of twenty, I am beginning to see how important it is to take care of your health and see why doctors are constantly telling my mother to get a colonoscopy. I always thought she needed to get one because my grandma had cancer and there always might be that slight, one in a million chance she could have it too, but as I have done a little bit of research and seen how at risk my mom is, it scares me. I don’t want my mother to be taken away from me at such a young age. My grandma wasn’t able to ever see her three youngest grandchildren or meet all of the new spouses and great-grandchildren she has now because of this horrific disease. I have seen my mom go through so many things in her life where that twinkle just isn’t in her eye because her mom isn’t right by her side. Even though my family has very strong religious views that there is life after death, it is still hard sometimes to be playing in the state championship game and know that she could have been sitting right next to my family cheering for me if she would have gone in and gotten a colonoscopy sooner.
I do know that cancer survivors are hard to come by, but I do feel that if women will get this colonoscopy at a younger age, doctors may be able to prolong their life a little bit or catch it soon enough that they can live their life to the fullest. I have tried to explain this to my mom and she always explains how expensive and how painful it will be. I know it may be painful, but if it might give you a few more years to cuddle those new grandbabies of yours, see your daughter in her wedding dress, or see your son marry the woman of his dreams, the thirty minutes and couple of days pain is a small price to pay for all of the good times that you will gain in the few extra years of life it could potentially grant you.
Getting a colonoscopy seems almost priceless to me just so that I will know if there is even the slightest chance of me getting colon cancer. Spending Thanksgiving in the cafeteria of the hospital at nine years old with my whole family minus my grandma and my father was the hardest thing I ever had to endure. My dad insisted he stay with my grandma who wasn’t even his mother just so the rest of my grandma’s family could try and enjoy this great holiday. There are many trials that life gives us, but I don’t want to lose my mom to the same thing that my grandma had just because she is too stubborn and won’t go and get screened. I am sure that none of you want to miss out on the prime years of your life watching your grandchildren because you made the mistake of not going and getting a screening so doctors can help you sooner, rather than later. A colonoscopy won’t just affect your life, but those that you love and those that are closest to you. It will even affect the people you have just said hi to in your life. Don’t wait until you are so sick that you are on your deathbed, like my grandma to wait and see if you really have colon cancer. Start now, learn the symptoms, and research it into more depth. See if anybody in your family has ever had colon cancer specifically and, if so, take a stand and go get a colonoscopy. Just to be on the safe side, I would go and get screened, even if there weren’t any traces in my family. Do it earlier, rather then later when you might have more of it in your body.
