Did you know that there is a special sub-specialty of colon cancer which affects people under the age of 50? Neither did we, until our brother was diagnosed with colon cancer last year, at the age of 46. It was a huge shock, with no known cases of colon cancer in our immediate family. So, while he had successful treatment with surgery and 6 months of chemotherapy, Sara and I made mental notes to have colonoscopies ourselves and figured it was just a blip in our family health history.

Last December, Sara prudently did have a colonoscopy. A few polyps were found and removed, which is very common, and the doctor pronounced everything as “fine”. About 6 months later though Sara started having digestive issues, nausea, unexplained weight loss, etc. As these symptoms can cover a wide variety of medical concerns, she suffered with these issues for several months until having another colonoscopy on September 30. Upon recovery from the anesthesia, the doctor informed Sara that not only did she have colorectal cancer located in the rectum (about 70% of colorectal cancers are located in the colon and 30% in the rectum ), a CT scan showed “something” on her liver.

Long story short, Sara has an appointment scheduled on October 12 with an oncologist, where she will receive more information about plans for a PET scan, chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. She has really appreciated all of the outreach and assistance from her family, friends, and colleagues (shout-out to Black Diamond Elementary school!).

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