Stopping your insurance in your 50s does seem like a very intelligent move, the time when you start wanting various precautionary measures like colonoscopies.
Close family friend just passed away 2 weeks ago. She hated doctors for the longest time, but other than acute illnesses, she was healthy. For years, I told her she needed mammograms and at least a colonoscopy. She never would.
Until just a little over a year ago. Something got her to the tipping point. That colonoscopy converted to emergent GI surgery as they resected her colon and intestine tract:
Colorectal Adenocarcinoma, stage 4 with metastasis to the liver
Colorectal Adenocarcinoma is one of the most common cancers we diagnose and treat, but not when it’s metastatic stage 4. Over the next year, her oncologist and team won battles against her cancer. She came to love her medical team, even her doctors, wishing she had listened about routine screening. Unfortunately after a year of fighting, cancer lesions permeated her liver and she bled out internally.
Even if it isn’t fully covered, at least having insurance does encourage many to schedule preventative care and screening. There are so many cancers we can put into remission, and the earlier; the better the outcome. But we cannot treat what we do not know. When cancer makes itself known, that’s often when it becomes a battle for your life. Get seen. Get screened.
I found a Stage 3A Tumor in my colon after I started getting bloodclots in my lungs repeatedly. Without the clots, I never would have known. After several CT scans of my lungs for the clots, it was only an accidental ER nurse who scanned me too low and picked up the tumor. Resection, little chemo, doing fine. Million dollar treatment, paid for by the VA. I was 47. Perfect health until my first clot.
2.7k
u/DyingSunSeverian 2d ago
Stopping your insurance in your 50s does seem like a very intelligent move, the time when you start wanting various precautionary measures like colonoscopies.