Be There for Them

Do you ever pay attention to the billboards on your commute?  Some are useless.  I pass one everyday that shows what song is currently playing on a local country music station.  Some are meant to invoke curiosity.  There is one on my commute put up by the Wyoming state tourism bureau.  It has a couple of buffalo and Old Faithful spouting in the background.  There are local college billboards, local business billboards, and radio station billboards.  None of them really distract me, I glance at them and zip pass them.  There is one, however, that always catches my eye.  In huge words on the top of the billboard is 'Be there for her.' and it shows an adult male with his young daughter.  Below the people is the words 'get a colonoscopy'.

My family, on my dad's side, has a history of colon cancer.  As I got older, the subject within our family became more prevalent.  Mainly because my paternal grandfather died at an early age of cancer.  As with any disease, it all comes down to genetics and is passed down from generation to generation.  It's not something to be proud of, obviously.  I don't remember hearing 'and guess what kids?!  When you grow up, you're prone to cancer!  It's all part of your heritage!'

When I was living down in Kansas, I told my doctor about my family history with colon cancer, and I was in my mid-20s at the time, and he said not to worry about it until I was in my 40s.  Because that is right around the age when men without a family history should start to get tested.  I looked at him and thought 'Seriously?  Have you seen this family history?'  Shortly thereafter, we moved to Minnesota and my new doctor looked at my family history and I told him that my dad's doctor said all of his kids should get a colonoscopy by age 30 to get a baseline.  He agreed.  Simple as that.  It helped that his family also has a history of colon cancer.  He understood. 

So, two years ago, shortly after my 30th birthday, after much berating from my mom, I got a colonoscopy.  I say berating in a loving manner because it seemed like the day after I turned 30, she was telling me I had to get one.  I knew, I just had to plan it out with work and all that fun stuff.  I took a few days off of work.  It came back clean.  I did not have any polyps and I was cleared of having another one for five years.  That's how easy it was.  It put my mind, my wife's mind, my family's mind all at ease.  

Here is a link from the American Cancer Society with some facts about colon cancer.  Some scary facts are that 50,000 plus people are expected to die from colon cancer in 2014.  Roughly 130,000 people are expected to be diagnosed with colon cancer in 2014.  This disease is very preventative and treatable if you take the time to deal with it.  Just like any other disease, you have to be aware of your family history.  You have to be aware of your heritage.  You have to be willing to deal with it.  It's an uncomfortable topic, but if you have a family history of colon cancer (or any cancer/disease), get tested.  Get over your fear of having a scope inside of you for a short period of time.  It's better to have that than cancerous polyps in your body.  Am I right?  Of course I am.    

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