Vicki knows, through personal and family experience, the importance of regular screening
and early detection of colorectal cancer. Hear her story.
Title: Getting screened
“When I was first diagnosed my thought was, ‘Now there’s a family history,’ and
I was concerned about my children and I wanted to know what the recommendations
were for them. I was told that they needed to begin screening ten years before the
age I was at diagnosis. And I was told at that time that also any siblings needed
to be screened also.
I approached my sister and told her that she needed to be screened, and she told
me she was fine. That she had no symptoms. And of course, my reply at my time was,
‘Well, I had no symptoms either until I was at Stage III. You need to be screened.’
And she said, ‘Well, I’m just fine. Don’t worry about me.’
Two years after my diagnosis I received a call that my sister was in the hospital
with unexplained vomiting, and that they had done a CAT scan that was inconclusive
because of fluid. And I knew then, I thought this is cancer and it’s bad.
She had a colonoscopy and there was a mass, and she had follow-up surgery, and the
cancer was inoperable. And within 75 days, I had lost my sister to this disease,
and it was very hard. I am an advocate and I encourage things for colon cancer,
and it’s not for myself, because I’m just one of many that has survived this disease,
but I tell her story because she can’t. And if she were here, she would say “the
test is nothing, you need to be screened.”