My oldest brother has been living with ulcerative colitis for years now. It’s one of those chronic medical conditions that can usually be well managed with a healthy lifestyle, eating right, and medications. But during a routine exam, inoperable polyps were discovered. Surgery was conducted last week to remove all or part of his colon, depending upon what the surgeons found when they went in. They discovered that it looked like they could just remove a part of his colon, conduct a biopsy on the part they removed, and leave the rest alone.

Yesterday, the lab results came back. Unfortunately he was confronted with the diagnosis nobody ever wants to hear from a doctor, and no doctor ever wants to give — cancer. The polyps were cancerous and he will need to start chemotherapy treatment immediately. He will also likely lose the remainder of his colon.

It’s amazing and sickeningly sad how quickly you can go from living a normal life — getting up, going to work, not feeling the least bit sick or unhealthy — to having to go into the hospital for surgery, recovery, and then finding out you have cancer to boot, and you’ll be out of your life and work for months to come. For all of the billions of dollars spent on cancer research, it’s no longer a death sentence it was 30 or 40 years ago. And yet, it is still a prevalent disease that can cause anybody’s life — anybody’s life — to come to a screeching halt.

Please keep my brother in your thoughts and prayers as he battles this disease in the upcoming weeks.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Jan 2007
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.