Survivor Story: Ernie Behrle
I originally posted my story in February of 2009. I had been diagnosed with colon cancer in September of 2008 and had surgery in October of 2008 to have approximately 7″ of my colon removed. The surgery went very well and no further evidence of cancer was found. I just wanted to update that a year following the surgery, I had another colonoscopy and while a couple of small polyps were removed, none were cancerous. I am now on a three year cycle for followups and feel extremely fotunate that early detection saved my life.
Also, I will be participating in my first 5K ever, the Raleigh edition of Get Your Rear in Gear on March 6th!!
My name is Ernie Behrle and I am 54 years old, from Raleigh North Carolina. My story, while a very scary period of my life, so far has a good ending.
As a background, I have been basically healthy my entire life and rarely if ever even suffer from head colds and I had absolutely no symptoms of carrying cancer at all. In September of 2008, I went to my family doctor for a yearly physical and was finally convinced I needed to have a routine colonoscopy because of my age. Imagine how I felt when I awoke from the procedure to hear the doctor telling my wife he thought I might have to have surgery.
Three days later, I was sitting in a tree stand deer hunting, when my phone vibrated. I answered it to have the doctor tell me that during the colonoscopy, he removed a single polyp that had just come back from biopsy as being malignant. Thank God for my safety harness, as I almost fell out of the tree. Before I left the stand, I called my wife, my parents and made an appointment for the following day with a surgeon.
I was operated on October 2nd to have approximately a 7″ section of my colon removed. The good news was when my surgeon came in to my room the following day to tell me there was no evidence found of additional cancer. He wanted me to schedule another colonoscopy within six months. He told me that my decision to have the initial colonoscopy indeed saved my life.
To anyone reading this who is 50 or older and has not yet had this critical exam… DO IT! It is such an easy procedure yet, oh so worth while!
