Dave Dubin shares what he’s learned from colon cancer
For those that have been diagnosed with colon cancer, it always helps to hear from someone who has been there.
Dave Dubin has been there. Twice, in fact.
His experience with colon cancer and lynch syndrome drove him to to found AliveandKickn.org
Dave is committed to sharing his story in hopes that people can learn what the disease is like and become educated patients.
For more on Dave and his story, watch the video below:
Video Transcript
Dave Dubin: So, my story begins in 1997. I was 29 years old and I started having symptoms of colon cancer. I had the traditional symptoms of feeling like I had blockage. I was cramping. I had blood in the stool, but I wasn’t lethargic and I wasn’t really anemic. I kept a full schedule, so like many people who are in their younger years was misdiagnosed initially, but I received followup further and you know I was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 29.
Now, it was not an out-and-out shock. It was obviously surprising giving the age, but I also had a family history of colon cancer, so I kind had that going for me or going against me if you will. Grandfather had colon cancer in his 60s and lived well to his 80s. My father had colon cancer in his 40s; he is now 82, so even though it was on the chart, it was still a surprise.
Anyway, chemotherapy for six months obviously surgery was significant issue back then. You cut open like a tuna and whatever time it became a bad memory after occurred it and you moved on that’s just kind of how we did things. It got a little more complicated when my older brother developed colon cancer when he turned 37 which was a couple of years after me and then I had a second reoccurrence or actually as a primary at age 40 in 2007 which ultimately turned into the whole genetic component which is 2007 that Al Gore had invented the internet back in 1997, so you know 2007 people were talking about genetics. I was diagnosed with something called Lynch syndrome which is the one of the genetic forms of colon cancer and other body parts which I had kidney tumors two years later in 2009, so this has become a way of life for me. It’s constant maintenance. It’s always keeping track. It’s looking at multiple body parts. I called them quarterly annuals because the genetic form of the Lynch can lead to bladder cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer in men, obviously the kidney cancer and women who developed Lynch, it can be endometrial cancer can be significant, so this is part of my world, constant maintenance, and I make the best of it.
