Stage 4 Colon Cancer, are you serious??????

My husband Rondell was a very active and energetic person all his life.  He always played sports and worked out quite often.  I still cannot see how colon cancer invaded his body at such a young age with no prior family history of cancer.  He had the number 1 symptom, rectal bleeding.  I am not sure at what age, but he had a case of hemorroids.  After we got married, he started telling me that he had been noticing blood in his stool.  He went to the doctor and the doctor told him it was probably from him straining and working out a lot.  Then I look back and think about how he would get shortness of breath every now and then.  He went to the doctor for that and they couldn't find anything wrong.  So we thought it was just something seasonal going on with allergies. So we move up North and the bleeding becomes worse.  He goes to the doctor and the doctor asks for a stool sample finding a great amount of blood in the stool.  The doctor sets up a colonoscopy with the gastro specialist where he tells us it is indeed colon cancer.  So Rondell has surgery the next day to remove the diseased part of his colon.  Surgery goes well; however, the surgeon comes to us with the news that it was Stage 4 colon cancer.  It was no longer confined to the colon where it started.  It had gotten into his liver and his lungs.  Are you serious??  My mouth dropped.  He told us there was no stage 5.  Stage 4 is the final stage of this disease.  He said that Rondell was going to have a fight ahead of him, with chemo, possible radiation, radiation and chemo and maybe even a liver transplant.  How could something like this been overlooked for sooo long?  If he was diagnosed with Stage 4 at 30 years old, how long had this disease been progressing in his body.  Who gets colon cancer at such a young age?  Colon cancer is supposed to be for people aged 50 and over.  They don't recommend screening until the age of 50 unless there is family history of cancer.  Rondell had no known family history of colon cancer and certainly he was too young to even consider colon cancer; therefore, doctors didn't push the issue for further tests.

I think for us, we just didn't know about colon cancer.  I do know that when I heard those words, it felt like someone punched me in my stomach.  It was like a blow I never had before.  We didn't know the signs and symptoms of this disease.  This disease would have been the last thing I would have thought was Rondell's problem.  We just took the doctors word for everything we were being told. 

I am posting this to inform people about how serious it is to be proactive about your health.  No matter what the doctors may tell you, if you feel that something is not right, be persistent about your health.  Request more tests.  Know your family history so doctors can serve and help your situation.