DENVER — I got a text from David Levine, our 9NEWS Creative Director, the night of the regional Emmy Awards last year here in Denver.
He’d just won an Emmy, but I had to go to the stage to accept it on his behalf. His text explained to me his sudden, unexpected absence. It was simple, to-the-point, and a brutal punch to the gut.
“I had a routine colonoscopy on Monday and they found cancer,” he wrote.
“Surgery Monday to remove it and 6 week recovery,” he added.
When he did, eventually, return to work, I – ever the reporter – had a bunch of questions for him.
His message was simple. The cancer was bad. Stage 3b. It had gone into his lymph nodes. Had he waited any longer to get his colonoscopy, something he did as soon as he turned 45, the cancer in his body might have become largely untreatable.
“The colonoscopy likely saved my life,” he said.
Little did I know that about six months later, that conversation might have very well saved my life as well.
Here’s the part where I get to tell you something that I’m not exactly proud of. Last year, I turned 50. Yeah. 50. I keep thinking of my preteen self that would have considered that age to be ancient. How did this happen? How did I get to be 50? In many ways, I still feel like the goofball kid who couldn’t catch a fly ball in grade school to save my life.
Sorry, tangent.
Anyway, in May 2021, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommended a lowering of the age to start getting screened for colorectal cancer. Before then, it was 50. After, it became 45.
That’s why David got his colonoscopy when he turned 45. It’s also why I waited, as I was in that weird limbo stage for colonoscopies.
Last year, after talking to David and taking my wife to get her first colonoscopy, I decided to get my first shortly after my 50th birthday.
My wife’s experience was motivating. It was short and easy and doctors found nothing of concern.
David’s experience was motivating as well. He recommended it on a deeply personal level, as he was still undergoing chemotherapy at the time.
Here’s the thing. I didn’t have any symptoms, and fully expected my experience to be much like my wife’s.
And then, shortly after the sedative wore off, the doctor who performed the colonoscopy told me something I’ll never forget.
“You’re one lucky human being,” he said.
During the screening, he found a number of small polyps and one really big one. Big enough, he said, that it was well on its way to becoming cancerous.
Had I waited a year, he said, I might very well have had cancer too.
I don’t say that to diminish David’s fight and story. He’s been a true fighter in all of this. Braver than I think I could ever be.
He’s doing much better now. The last scan found nothing of concern. The treatment, so far, has worked.
But clearly, as both of our doctors have told us, there is a need for a deeper national conversation on the subject of colonoscopies.
Despite what you might have heard, they’re not bad at all.
The prep beforehand is a bit of a process, but even that – as David likes to say – is a heck of a lot better than dealing with actual cancer.
And research is telling doctors there is a need for earlier screening. One in 10 people diagnosed with colorectal cancer is under the age of 50. And incidence of this type of cancer is increasing.
There’s a need for more of us to get screened. I got lucky. The doctor who found the polyp also removed it.
I will have to get checked every three years moving forward, but as I’ve already seen… colonoscopies ain’t that big of a deal.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Health