People may read this article and think, I will get a checkup soon and never do. I had a colonoscopy and sure enough there was that nasty bug, a small tumor. Fortunately it was removed by surgery and had not spread to other parts of my body. I was a lucky man, I had a checkup before it was too late and avoided the dreaded colostomy. It has been 5 years now and I am still clean of cancer.

Since then however, my brother was wondering why he could eat food and nothing was coming out the other end.He insisted it was only constipation and continued his daily life of doing nothing. He had been retired for several years and was not into exercise or any thing physical, except riding his Harley.

The only indication of something wrong was the weight loss, even though he was eating all meals, just a lack of no bathroom activity. He finally went to the doctor for a checkup.

After spending a couple days of tests he was given a colonoscopy and there was the culprit, a large portion of his colon was almost eaten up by cancer.He was still in good spirits, saying just cut it out and get me out of here.

When the doctors opened him up for the surgery they found spears of cancer shooting in all directions. His right kidney was full of spears, so it was removed, along with his large intestines. He was given a colostomy to wear and eight days later he came home.

I truly believe the medicine and surgery changed his brain function, he was incoherent at times in the hospital and it continued after he left the hospital. He could not finish a sentence on the subject he started with. This went on for months and finally the doctors diagnosed him with having Alzhiemers;

He would stumble over words, had a loss of balance, and would become somewhat violent at times.

His wife had to put him in a nursing home. At first he was pissed off at being there. After several days he finally was able to move around and tried to talk to others.

He was in the home for about a year when he started having pains in his lower abdomen. While in the hospital for xrays of his intestines, he just suddenly died. The doctors said it was all the stress of Alzhiemers but I think it all started with his surgery a couple years ago.

My brother was 73 when he died. He could possibly be alive today if he had only gotten regular checkups over the years. So I would like to say to anyone reading this article--GO GET A CHECKUP.