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Boy, this letter brings up some bad memories.
Four years ago, my father, previously healthy as a horse, was diagnosed with advanced rectal cancer. Thankfully, he is now cancer free, albeit with the constant reminder of a permanent colostomy.
I can't help feeling that if he'd known that his own mother had died of this disease, instead of "women's cancer" as the rest of his family so delicately put it, and that many members of his family had polyps, he may have gone for a colonoscopy at 40, instead of when he started feeling sick.
The fact that his family would rather have it known that his mother died of a gynecological disease rather than colon cancer shows just how stigmatized this problem was in the past.
Know your family's health history. If older members of your family seem deliberately fuzzy about why grandma died, press harder. It may save your life.
