I’ve just joined the cancer fraternity

Cancer. Off and on throughout my career I have written many stories about people fighting cancer.

About 20 years ago I subjected myself to a flexible sigmoidoscopy and several other cancer screenings for a series of columns I wrote about the importance of getting screened for cancer, especially those above 50 years of age. I’ve participated in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and was even a team captain once.

Cancer, however, was always something that affected someone else. Until now. On Jan. 27, I got the call that I had been dreading from my dermatologist. Two of the three spots on my face that were biopsied a week earlier came back as basal cell skin cancer, and the third was pre-cancerous.

Fortunately, I am fairly well versed in the basics of some cancers, and I know that basal cell is minor and easily treated with out-patient surgery. This is more of an annoyance than a problem – unless I let it go untreated because eventually it will become a problem.

Still, it is a little unnerving when you are told you have cancer. From now on, whenever I fill out medical forms, that’s one box I will have to check. It’s like I’ve just joined a kind of medical fraternity. I’m now one of those that I’ve written about so many times over the last three decades.

In the world of cancers, this one is so mild that it hardly seems to qualify as a cancer. It’s not like getting leukemia or cancers of the lung, brain, or breast. I won’t have to go through radiation treatments or take chemotherapy. There will be no (unnatural) hair loss. I’ll lose a day of work and will have to wear a Band-Aid on my face, but that’s the worst of it. If I have to have a cancer, this is the one to get.

In recent years I’ve watched as a few relatives and friends battled various cancers. Some have won and some haven’t. Some are in the trenches for the long haul. Cancer is an ugly, nasty beast and it doesn’t play fair. Detected early, almost all cancers can be conquered. Some are slow growing and not urgent. Other are aggressive and claim their victims within weeks or months.

The key to fighting cancer is early detection. This can’t be emphasized enough. From unusual spots on your skin, to lumps in a breast, or blood in your stool, all are signs of possible cancer and should be checked immediately.

Last year I had my 10-year colonoscopy. The doctor cut out a couple of pre-cancerous polyps and now I must go back for my next colonoscopy in five years. While that’s not very fun or convenient, it is much better than the alternative.

Everyone should get a colonoscopy after they turn 50. I had my first one earlier than that out of an abundance of caution by my doctor. I’m glad he suggested it, because if I had waited until I was 50, I would still be a few more years away from my second one and those polyps may have spread and become cancerous.

Women, those of you 40 and older know what you need to do. From what I’m told, mammograms are very uncomfortable, but then so is treatment for advanced breast cancer.

As I get older I become more aware that eventually all of us will die. How we pass from this life is something none of us can control naturally. We don’t have to let cancer be our executioner, at least not in most cases. You just have to be your own best advocate and listen to what your body tells you. You can never be too busy to get something checked out. If you are, you may find yourself with no more time on your hands.

I guess what I’m trying to say in all this rambling is that cancer affects everyone in some way. Be vigilant and get regular checkups. Watch for warning signs in yourself and others. Don’t procrastinate if you suspect something. The life you save may be your own.

(Joe Southern is the managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and East Bernard Express and can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.)