March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.
Not exactly influencer content. Not aesthetic. No one is building a brand around colonoscopies.
But it is the month dedicated to a test that quietly saves lives, even though most of us would rather reorganize our entire calendar than schedule it.
So let’s talk about it.
We are all very good at postponing health tests. Not because we are irresponsible, but because we are busy, productive, functioning humans. If nothing feels urgent, it slides. There is always a deal to negotiate, a meeting to attend, a trip to plan, a family obligation to handle. We tell ourselves we will take care of it after this quarter, after summer, after things slow down. And we continue delaying.
And let’s face it, colonoscopies come with an extra layer of resistance. The prep is brutal. No one looks forward to voluntarily spending a day on a toilet.
Here is what matters in my case. I did not postpone mine.
I had my first colonoscopy and was told to come back in ten years, so I was on schedule and doing exactly what I was supposed to do. But I was not feeling one hundred percent. There was nothing dramatic and nothing digestive, I just did not feel fully like myself, and that was enough for my primary doctor to recommend repeating it two years earlier than planned.
It felt unnecessary at the time because I was fully functioning, working, leading, living my life, and cancer was nowhere on my radar.
That colonoscopy found cancer.
Not a scare. Not a precaution. Cancer.
If my doctor had not pushed, I would have waited the full ten years. If I had ignored that subtle sense that something was off, I would have stayed on the original timeline. There is a very real chance I would not be here writing this today.
Because it was caught when it was, I had surgery, I recovered, I am here, and the test I almost questioned ended up saving my life.
We tend to think serious diagnoses announce themselves loudly. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they do not. Colorectal cancer can be silent for a long time. A colonoscopy is not only about finding cancer. It is about preventing it and taking action before it becomes something you cannot undo.
We are disciplined in our businesses. We analyze risk, we plan long term, yet we tend to prioritize everything except our health.
I am not sharing this for drama. I am sharing it because a routine test caught something that could have taken me out. I am here because I did it. If this pushes you to book your colonoscopy instead of postponing it, that is enough.
Here’s the story if you want to know more about it: The Quiet Strength behind The Smile: What Cancer Taught Me
(image created with AI and the help of a Miamism human – funny how it totally distorted miami in the background)