I'm 41 now, and had to have my colon removed 9 years ago due to the number of polyps they found (hundreds if not thousands) during an early scope what I only had because my doctor wanted to check everything for peace of mine when it came to having blood in my stool. My surgeon put it very bluntly, that without surgery, it's not if I ever got cancer, it was when. My son has the same genetic condition I have, and my other sons will be getting checked when they are 12-13 years old as well.

Every time I hear about someone getting colon cancer or dying from colon cancer early, I have a bit of survivor's guilt surface. I consider it no small miracle that I found out for me and my kids before I got cancer and died.