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My prayers are up for Mr. Swindell, who’s soon to pass on at the young age of 55. If possible I hope PDJT can arrange for him to attend the rally PDJT is soon to have in NC.
Being 76 and, I hope and pray, a survivor of colon cancer, I’m writing this post to give all of you my experience and advice.
I was diagnosed with type II diabetes in 1993 and have been going to my doctor about once every three months for follow-ups that include a series of blood tests that, among other things, check my hemoglobin level. I had a colonoscopy in 2012 that did not show any malignancy and was scheduled for another about five years later. In 2013 I’d had a peculiar, alarming event with a difficult bowel movement but didn’t think much about it (BIG mistake) since no apparent real troubles followed. Then, in March of 2015, I had one of my routine follow-ups and my doctor informed me I had a low hemoglobin level, a condition indicating I could have bleeding somewhere in my digestive tract. That was immediately followed by an occult blood stool test that turned out positive, a colonoscopy showing cancer in my ascending colon, and surgical removal of the ascending colon at the end of April, 2015.
Fortunately, the cancer was only stage II with no involvement of my lymph nodes and I didn’t require chemotherapy. Since then I’ve had two colonoscopies, the most recent in March of this year, and the disease has not recurred. I’ll be at the magic 5 year point come April of next year.
The astounding, ironic thing about my whole experience is that I could well be in Mr. Swindell’s situation but for being a type II diabetic and having had that hemoglobin test in March of 2015. The morals of the story are: 1) if you have any unique and alarming bowel disturbance, even once and especially if it involves bleeding, have your doctor check it out, 2) have regular colonoscopies, starting at least at age 50 and 3) fight with your heart and soul to keep any lunatic from imposing socialized medicine. After all, there’s no way I’d have received the prompt, effective, and hugely skilled treatment I got if we’d had fully socialized medicine.