A Bennet man is sharing his journey with colorectal cancer and the importance of preventative screenings. March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.
46 year old Warren Fick is overall healthy and had no symptoms of colorectal cancer or a family history with the disease. He says because of this he put off scheduling his routine health screenings, including a colonoscopy, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fick’s wife is a nurse practitioner and encouraged him to resume his preventative health screenings now that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were low. Last October, Fick underwent a routine colonoscopy. During the procedure, Dr. Matthew Hrnicek, a gastroenterologist at Bryan Health, found and removed a 3.5-centimeter polyp. Later that week, lab results confirmed it was cancerous.
Three weeks later a surgeon removed nine inches of Fick’s colon and his cancer. Fick is back to leading his normal lifestyle and says he feels fortunate that his cancer was detected early. Doctors told him that if he would’ve waited to get his colonoscopy even one more year, the cancer would have likely spread and his prognosis would have been much different.
Fick is now sharing his experience to encourage other healthy and asymptomatic individuals to get preventative screenings. Colorectal cancer is one of the most treatable forms of cancer when discovered early. Regular screenings, beginning at age 45, are key to prevention or early discovery. Colonoscopies, along with other at-home tests, can help prevent up to 80% of all colon cancer deaths.
(Photo: Bryan Health )