Emily

Unknown

Emily, I think that totally sucks!!!!! You should spit great balls of fire (as Sponge would say) do I hear Jerry Lee Lewis somewhere in there. How many more younger folks will have to be affected by this awful, awful disease before the medical community and INSURANCE COMPANIES finally wise up? Look at baby girl Andrea...and there are plenty more of her out there. I work with a lady whose daughters main goal is to reach her 21st birthday. Diagnosed stage 4 at 19!!!! Break my heart and just makes me sick.

Monika, who will never stop preaching on this subject....NEVER!!! Emily, hugs to you :-)

2bhealed

STAGE 4 AT 19??!!!!

What is happening?? Was there any family history??

My sister was sick for a long time bouncing around from doctor to doctor. She was accused of being annorexic (so not true) b/c they just could not find the cause so they would just treat the symptoms. Finally it was Mayo who did the proper tests but by then it was too late.

You'd think that we would have known better and gone for the colonoscopies but we were misled into thinking her cancer was rare and there for just a fluke of nature. We were SO wrong. What I found out after my own dx was that the LOCATION was rare (small intestine). Mine was sigmoid colon. If they had just once called it colon cancer we may have understood what we were dealing with after her dx. But the minute I started having her same symptoms I was in the doc's office and she was the first one to suggest a colonoscopy----the FIRST one in NINE(!!!) years! And this was after having seen two surgeons about my hinder problems.

What this underscores for me is key:

WE ARE OUR OWN ADVOCATES!

We truly have to watch out for ourselves in this racket. If I learned anything it is this fact.

peace, emily who loves the hugs .....right back at ya monika! :-)

StacyGleaso

Monika & Emily...

You are SO right! Doesn't it make you wonder what is going on with diets, lifestyles, whatever to make this occur at such a young age? What was once thought to be an "over 50" kinda problem is affecting people of every age. We all need to be more proactive in shaking up the medical industry to make them wake up to this highly curable form of cancer. It's truly ridiculous!

Ok...I am slowly climbing off my soapbox as I realize I am preaching to the choir!

Take care,

Stacy

kerry

StacyGleaso said:

Monika & Emily...

You are SO right! Doesn't it make you wonder what is going on with diets, lifestyles, whatever to make this occur at such a young age? What was once thought to be an "over 50" kinda problem is affecting people of every age. We all need to be more proactive in shaking up the medical industry to make them wake up to this highly curable form of cancer. It's truly ridiculous!

Ok...I am slowly climbing off my soapbox as I realize I am preaching to the choir!

Take care,

Stacy

Monika, Emily, Stacy,

You are right, we are our own advocates right now. I am battling my daughters' doctors to recommend colonoscopies for them. They are 23 and 25. The docs say they don't need them until they are 40+. (mainly because the insurance companies won't pay) BS is what it is. I don't know what they are thinking when a year of chemo and all the other treatments is far more expensive then a colonoscopy!

Remember, March is National Colon Cancer month here in the US. I am racing in the Susan G. Komen race here in San Antonio next weekend with several of my friends many of whom are breast cancer survivors - but know that in addition to wearing the breast cancer pins, we are all also wearing "colon cancer" pins. They can be bought at your local ACS office. By my own advocacy I have sent approx. 15 friends to the doc.

Take care.

Kerry

spongebob

RIGHT ON! Let's go to DC and preach to Congress! (I can get us good parking).

BTW, monika, can I get some of that hug action? I'm sure Bert won't mind a small platonic hug!

(there I go again, using the network as my own private dating service - I am sooo busted.)

- Sponge