BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[reece]](/editions/1998/11/04/reece_130x188.jpg)
Lois Reece of Forest Park is undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer.
(Yoni Pozner photo)
| ZOOM |
|
Nina Jacoby is thrilled.
The disease she's survived 36 years is finally getting the attention it deserves.
Unfortunately, it took the diagnosis in September of New York Yankees outfielder Darryl Strawberry's colon cancer to bring colorectal cancer into the open. That came on the heels of Baltimore Orioles and former Reds outfielder Eric Davis' 1997 bout with the same disease and the Jan. 24 death of Jay Monahan, 42, husband of NBC Today show anchorwoman Katie Couric.
Mrs. Jacoby, 68, of Springfield Township, hopes the newfound attention will do for colorectal cancer what pink ribbons have done for breast cancer, though she realizes it's different.
Colorectal cancer is embarrassing and taboo. It involves a part of the body people don't talk about easily in private, let alone in public. It's also the third-most common cancer and the third-leading cause of cancer deaths among U.S. men and women.
"People just don't like to discuss toilet habits," says Mrs. Jacoby, a retired Cincinnati Bell market administrator who was treated for colorectal cancer in 1962.
"I think it's the same way prostate cancer had been for years -- something no one talked about openly. But two to three years ago, prostate cancer started to come out of the closet. We need to do the same thing for colon cancer."
Colorectal cancer survivors and doctors hope that ongoing publicity of high-profile colon cancer patients will help Americans tune into the widespread problem -- and tune into their bodies so they can spot signs and symptoms early.
Today, three Tristate colon cancer survivors share their stories:
Lois Reece
She thought it would go away and it did.
But then the blood in her bowel movements came back, and Lois Reece of Forest Park finally went to her doctor last November for tests.
|
COLORECTAL CANCER
|
Colorectal cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer and cancer death in the United States, trailing prostate and lung cancer in men, lung and breast cancer in women.
About 6,100 Ohioans, 2,200 Kentuckians and 3,000 Hoosiers will be diagnosed with colon - rectal cancer in 1998, according to the American Cancer Society.
In 1998, about 131,600 Americans will get colorectal cancer (about 95,600 colon cancers and 36,000 rectal cancers); 56,000 will die from it.
Colon cancer is more common in women than men, rectal cancer is more common in men than women.
Among women over 75, colon cancer kills more women than breast cancer.
For more information about colon - rectal cancer, contact: American Cancer Society, (800) 227-2345 or http://www.cancer.org. Digestive Health Initiative Information line, sponsored by the American Digestive Health Foundation, (800) 668-5237 or visit its online chat room at http://www.gastro.org/adhf.html.
Greater Cincinnati chapter of the United Ostomy Association, 881-2547.
National Cancer Institute, (800) 422-6237 or http://www.nci.nih.gov.
|
"I just couldn't believe it," she says of the eventual diagnosis of colorectal cancer -- tumors in the colon and rectum.
Several months of radiation and chemotherapy treatments helped shrink the tumors, and Mrs. Reece had surgery in March to remove part of the colon and rectum.
Sometimes she can't believe she's had cancer, that she's a cancer survivor and that her life now involves a colostomy -- a pouch worn outside the body to collect bowel wastes.
"The more I talk about it, the better it gets," says the 56-year-old billing clerk for the Health Alliance. "But when I first had my surgery, I wouldn't even look at my body, and I still don't let my husband see my body without clothes on."
She's still undergoing chemotherapy and dealing with its effects, mostly a lack of energy. But she urges people to have rectal exams at least once a year and to cope with cancer with a positive attitude.
"I just force myself to keep going, because I try not to give in to (the cancer). It's still hard for me to accept. I don't want to go any place and I feel self-conscious," she says, "but I'm trying to get over that now."
"Some days I just hate living like this . . . but I'm alive, and that means a lot."
Bob Leming
Spend a few minutes with Bob Leming, and he's sure to divulge his well-known "secret":
He's a long-term survivor of colorectal cancer.
Since 1962, this former trial attorney from Milford has led support group meetings and walked into strangers' hospital rooms with an extended hand:
"I'm Bob Leming, I'm 80 years old, I'm from the Ostomy Association and I've had a colostomy for 36 years.' They don't always believe me, but I convince them there is life after colostomy."
Mr. Leming, of Milford, was 44 in 1962 when doctors diagnosed the blood in his stool as colon cancer.
"When the surgeon told me I was going to have a colostomy, I said, "Explain colostomy.' I had no idea what it was all about."
A colostomy means that part of the diseased colon is removed surgically and an opening is made through the stomach for bowel wastes to pass into a detachable plastic pouch. Several times a day, people with ostomies empty the pouch as an alternative to bowel movements, and they have to be diligent about hygiene, diet and access to bathrooms.
"I adapted to it and continued to practice law for 20 years," says Mr. Leming, who recently underwent 18 chemotherapy treatments for a second bout with colon cancer.
"Since I've had the colostomy, I've been around the world -- to Alaska, Australia, New Zealand and on safari to Africa."
He urges all people over 50 to have a colonoscopy -- an internal examination of the colon -- every five years as a screening tool for colon cancer.
And he urges people -- especially men -- to talk about what can be a difficult subject.
"Two men I went to talk to refused to accept (the colostomy) and made up their minds they were going to die, and they did," he says, shaking his head slowly.
"I never let it interfere with my lifestyle."
Joan Hughes
In retrospect, Joan Hughes wishes she had pushed her doctors to be more aggressive in finding out what it was.
In March, after five months of troubling digestive and bowel symptoms, Mrs. Hughes, 68, was diagnosed with colon cancer that had slipped past one at-home test and one doctor's-office test of her stool in late 1997.
The White Oak woman underwent surgery in March to remove 14 centimeters of her colon, chemotherapy for several weeks after that and is back in the swing -- baby-sitting, exercising at the Gamble-Nippert YMCA and volunteering several days at week at Children's Hospital Medical Center.
"I am feeling good," says Mrs. Hughes, 68, market research retiree from Procter & Gamble. "I've got most of my energy back and am leading my life pretty normally. I feel blessed."
Her bout with colon cancer has made Mrs. Hughes' six children more aware of their need to be screened for cancer earlier than age 50. Her major symptoms were typical of early signs of colon cancer -- bowel movements that were more frequent, smaller in size and skinnier than usual, occasionally tinged with blood.
When she finally was scheduled for surgery, she wasn't sure what the outcome would be -- whether doctors would be able to remove the cancerous part of the large intestine and simply reattach healthy ends to each other, or whether they'd have to perform a colostomy, which they didn't.
"The worst thing is the fright of anticipation," she says of a cancer diagnosis.
"Facing it is not so bad. Friends and family help get you through. I did fine with the surgery -- I just didn't know that abdominal surgery hurt that much!"
Putting aside the stigma of colorectal cancer
![[reece]](/editions/1998/11/04/reece_380x550.jpg)