So You Think You Are Too Young for Colon Cancer? [Video]

Newswise — LOS ANGELES (May 14, 2024) — Michelle Usher knew something was wrong when she became too tired to hold a paint brush or read a book. The avid oil painter and voracious reader could devour 100 novels and memoirs a year until late 2022, when overwhelming exhaustion set in.

Usher consulted her primary care physician, who ordered blood tests that revealed Usher had anemia, a condition caused by not having enough healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin to carry oxygen to the body’s tissues. To determine the source, Usher’s physician sent her to a gastroenterologist for a colonoscopy to check for polyps or cancer.

The procedure revealed the culprit of Usher’s anemia: a colon tumor that would later be diagnosed as stage 2 colon cancer. Usher, then 37 years old, was stunned. Like many, Usher thought she was too young to get colon cancer.

“I was in shock,” …