Curtis Snyder survived colon cancer | colonoscopy | colostomy bag | chemotherapy | colorectal cancer

DESCRIPTION

On this episode of the @CancerInterviews podcast, Curtis Snyder tells host Bruce Morton how he survived colon cancer.  Although he waited weeks to seek medical attention, he still achieved early detection, which led to survivorship, a journey that averted chemotherapy and a colostomy bag.

In the fall of 2020, Curtis, of Boulder, Colorado, noticed blood in his stool.  His primary care physician said Curtis should see a gastroenterologist.  An appointment was set for February 2021, an appointment that would include a colonoscopy.  As he came out of sedation, the doctor said that Curtis had cancer.  Because the cancer was located in the lower part of the colon, it was almost rectum cancer instead of colon cancer.  This explained the blood-related symptoms.  Curtis was told if the cancer was higher up in the colon, the colon could have absorbed the blood, there would not have been the symptoms, and for a critical length of time, Curtis could have unwittingly walked around with cancer, resulting in a lethal diagnosis.

It was in April 2021 that Curtis underwent surgery, and doctors were confident all the cancer was removed. In fact, it was three days after the procedure that Curtis was told there was no evidence of cancer.  He was told he was part of one percent of those diagnosed with colon cancer, who en route to survivorship did not have to have a colostomy bag, and did not have to go through radiation treatment and/or chemotherapy. 

By way of advice, Curtis Snyder says when your doctor suggests you get a colonoscopy, to get one.  He says in terms of screening, the colonoscopy is the “gold standard,” as opposed to the at-home tests.  He also says if you think you have some unusual symptoms, such as bloody stool, to seek medical attention, instead of waiting six to eight weeks, like he did. 

Curtis Snyder says he doesn’t work out as much as he used to, but that is more of a life choice than a cancer choice.  He has made some dietary changes, naming decreasing his intake of red meat and increasing his consumption of fiber.  Going forward, Curtis chooses to use food as medicine.

TRANSCRIPT

Bruce Morton: This is the @CancerInterviews podcast, and I am your host, Bruce Morton.  On our interviews, we often stress the importance of early detection as a means of fighting cancer and as a means of minimizing that fight.  Our guest on this episode is Curtis Snyder of Boulder, Colorado, who survived colon cancer.  No cancer journey is easy, but his was made easier, thanks to early detection.  Now it’s time to hear his story, and Curtis, welcome to Cancer Interviews.

Curtis Snyder: Bruce, thank you so much, it’s a pleasure to be here, I appreciate it.

BM: Curtis, it is our custom to begin our interviews by learning a bit more about our guest, which in this case is you, so, if you would, tell us a bit about where you are from, what you do for a living and when time allows for fun, what you do for fun.

CS: Sure.  So, I am born and raised in Boulder, a Boulder native.  I work at the University of Colorado athletic department in the sports information office, mainly working with football and skiing there.  I have been mostly at CU my entire career.  I graduated in 1998 from the Buffs, worked for the great Dave Plati, starting in 1994 as a student.  I had one five-year stint at Duke from 2003 to 2008, but when my wife and I decided to have a family, we decided to come home, I was able to get back in with the Buffs, and I have loved it ever since.  I am a Colorado native, and I do snow ski, but I think the most interesting thing I do is water skiing, so that is a unique about myself when I tell people I am from Colorado, especially if they are not from Colorado and they ask me how I water ski in Colorado.  That’s kind of my nutshell.  I played basketball at Boulder High School, married the former Cammi Carmen, she was a basketball player under Ceale Berry at CU.  I have three kids, two 12-year-old twins and a nine-year-old, a couple dogs and a cat, and livin’ the life.

BM: So, I have to ask, how does one water ski in Colorado?

CS: That’s a great question.  I grew up on the Boulder Reservoir, about two miles from the Boulder Reservoir.  My dad had a job in the summertime and would get off work about four o’clock, and not long after that, we were out on the water in about 20 minutes.  There’s not a lot of water on the Front Range, and a lot of the lakes are protected from boating, so, we have found a lake just north of nearby Longmont that I am kinda passing along to my kids, so that is fun as well.  We love to snow ski, too, we get up about once or twice with them.

BM: We’re confident you’ll be able to learn some tips and tools to help you through your cancer journey, but first we’d like to invite you to please give us a ‘like’, leave a comment or review below and share this story with your friends.  Kindly click on the ‘subscribe’ button below, then click on the bell icon.  That way you will be notified when we release our next cancer interview.  And if you or a loved one are facing a cancer diagnosis, please click on the link in the Show Notes below to check out our free guide, “The Top Ten Things I Wish I Knew When I First Got Cancer.”  Now, Curtis, to your journey, for all of us who have been through one, there is a point, a juncture in which something happens that gets your attention because it isn’t quite, and that discovery can set off a chain of events that leads to a diagnosis.  How did such a moment manifest itself for you?

CS: That would be the fall of 2020.  Obviously, we are going through the pandemic at that point.  I had noticed some blood in my stool.  It wasn’t going away, so probably after six to eight weeks, I thought I should get this checked out.  I was 45 years old at the time and I went to see my primary care physician.  He said it could be hemorrhoids or it could be something else, but the medical community was about to lower the suggested age for a colonoscopy to 45, and he said he should get me to see a GI doc.  That was in December of 2020 around the holidays that I had the appointment with the GI doc.  He said the same thing.  He really didn’t think it was anything serious, but you’re 45, so let’s do a colonoscopy.  The appointment got postponed from January 2021 to February, and we thought it was low-risk, but thought it was best to not leave anything to chance.  My doc was very candid with me and said if it turned out to be something serious, he was going to let me know right away.  I forgot to tell my wife that, so as I am waking up from the colonoscopy, I was still kind of out of it, the first thing I hear him say was, “We got a fight on our hands,” and I realized I should have told my wife, so she was caught off-guard pretty well.  I was as well, but I was still coming out of the sedation.  The first thing I remember was asking, “What’s next?”  I had a colleague of mine when I worked at Duke who went through something similar with a different cancer and I remember him being very matter of fact, saying he was going to beat it, he wanted my support, but didn’t want to talk about it.  So, I have always had it in my head that the mentality you take does control a little bit of what’s going on.  Obviously, I caught it early and I am one million percent thankful for that.  Where my cancer was, was almost more rectum cancer than colon cancer and because it was that low, that’s why I was having symptoms with blood.  If it was a bit higher up in the colon, the colon is an amazing thing, it could have absorbed all that blood and not presented, so, I got very lucky in that it was a little bit lower.  That caused a few scares in terms of how can they re-attach everything and not have a colostomy bag and all that, so that added a few scares because the procedure is harder to do if it is lower, but having those symptoms as early as I did, was great.  So, six weeks later, in April 2021, I had surgery.  They had obviously sent everything to the lab and two days later, we had a pretty good idea we had caught it all, which was amazing.  Obviously, moving forward from there, I am going to have a colonoscopy every year for quite a while and I am going to have blood work every six months for quite a while just to make sure it’s at bay, but for the most part, that’s the journey and sometimes I feel like it was easy and it’s not.  The last two years have been ups and downs in the mental side of everything; but I know I am in the one percent of people who have a cancer diagnosis and didn’t have to have radiation and didn’t have to have a colostomy bag, so I am super grateful for both of those things.  I was talking to my wife in the middle of all this, and the hardest thing is that I am always going to be defined as a cancer survivor, but I feel like my journey was so much easier than most that there is even a bit of guilt there in putting myself in the same category as someone who has had a harder fight on their hands.  At the same time, if I can be a beacon of early detection, and look at my case, then look at so many cases that don’t work out, then I will gladly tell that story as much as I can.  There is luck in my early detection, 100 percent, but I am 100 percent on board of when the doctors and scientists tell you to start the process of screening, just go do it.  In my circle of life, I have had a dozen or sort people come up to me and say that because of my story, they have gone out and gotten tested.  As far as I know everyone in my world who has done that has had a good outcome.

BM: Curtis, I want to backtrack to an early part of your story.  With some of our guests, the day they find out something is wrong, they want action.  Others wait months.  In your case, you waited six to eight weeks.  If you had it to do over again, and not just speaking for yourself, but speaking for other people who could be diagnosed with colon cancer or rectal cancer, would you do anything differently in terms of the timeline that you acted on this?

CS: Absolutely.  I would have gone in there quicker, for sure.  I am thankful, too, that those doctors suggested I get a colonoscopy.  It saved my life.  I would say even if you think it is not related, if you are having any issues, if you are noticing blood, the pains may be something as easy as hemorrhoids to deal with, or something that’s not cancer-related.  Just get it taken care of.  That’s my biggest takeaway.  It isn’t normal for blood to be seen, so if you see it, that’s an indication that you get an appointment and get the process started.  The process getting started in one month versus getting started in five months could be the difference between whether it is early detection, or you’re talking about a different level of cancer.

BM: It sounds like, as you retell your story, that when you got this terrible news, on a scale of one to ten, your anxiety level was pretty low, like a two or a three.  Is that correct?

CS: I would say it was probably like a five or six, but I am a person who normally never goes above a two or three.  So, I was definitely anxious.  I was probably playing a little bit aloof in my description of it.  I vividly remember that, but I vividly remember still being in the sedation when I got the news.  My wife was asking me, “Do you understand what they’re saying?”  I am not an overly an emotion-sharing person, especially when you meet me, but I very quickly went in my head to ask myself what do we need to do to fight it?  I said to myself I was going to win this, I am going to beat it, so let’s go.  That probably made this process between February and April, between diagnosis and surgery, there were some very hectic, very high-stress moments in there, and there’s a lot with our healthcare system that could be better, there is a lot that could be worse, but obviously I am very thankful for where we are, but if don’t advocate for the process, don’t assume somebody else is.  It was part of the process that I needed to go to another doctor and my surgery day was April 11, and they said they could get me in April 16.  I said no, I need to get in before the 16th.  It was seven or eight doctors I was talking with, and I was trying to work through.  I think I had decent anxiety, but I am not an overly anxious person to begin with, so at least outwardly, but I do very clearly remember that moment of realizing that I have cancer and let’s move on, what’s next. 

BM: You’d mentioned high-stress moments.  What was the highest-stress moment during this journey?

CS: I knew it was probably harder on my wife and my kids and my parents and my in-laws and my sister than it was on me.  I know what I was going through.  I know what things I had to do.  My wife and I took it very differently.  She was listening to tons of podcasts of people who have survived and people who have gone through all types of cancers.  I remember about a week before surgery she asked me if I wanted to know what the worst could be, and I said no because I wanted to focus on what the best could be.  I’ll have plenty of time to focus on the worst if we get there.  I just had two goals at that point.  I knew we had caught it early, so at this point I had had a few ultrasounds, so I had a hunch that it was going to be an early-stage cancer.  I thought if I could get out of this with no chemo and no colostomy bag, I will count it as a huge win, and that’s what I was focused on.  With those two things in my head, I was focused on those two things, and if I would have had to deal with either one, I would have wanted to confront whatever was next.  My wife wanted to know every possible thing that could be wrong, what’s going on, are they taking more colon or less colon, do I need a bag, do I not need a bag.  I told her there would be plenty of time to deal with that if we get there, but for now, here is where my focus is.  That’s probably the hardest part, putting the stress on others, especially on my wife.  My kids were seven and ten at the time, so they knew something is going on, and they were amazing, showing love and that good stuff.  I know they were scared, but dealing with all that was probably the toughest part.  The healthcare system of one doctor saying one thing and another doctor saying another thing, it was difficult, but then again, I learned from family members and others, you have to advocate for yourself and that there is no set person who is going to advocate for you with this healthcare system, so you to speak up and speak your mind and say, no, that’s fast enough, that’s not soon enough.  I had my date for the surgery, and I did not want to delay it.  I just wanted to get to that surgery and get it out.

BM: You talked about Cammi and the kids and the in-laws and friends, and you talked about their anxiety and their advice, but Curtis, if you would, and I hope this is a pleasant topic, could you talk about them as a source of support for you?

CS: Amazing.  Unbelievable support.  Part of my process was to share my story as I was going through it, so I think I put some tweets and some Instagram posts out saying I have this fight ahead of me.  That’s what I chose to do and if somebody wanted to talk to me about it, they could talk to me about it.  What I loved was that it probably brought a lot of friends I hadn’t seen in some time back out to the forefront and having Happy Hour with them and just talking.  It made my co-workers at CU who have gone through similar journeys, and the support from my wife and kids, I knew this was hard on them, but they were there with support all the way around.  Everyone is different, everyone needs a different type of support.  I didn’t need to cry and gush up and tear up all the time, I understand those people who would, so whether that was easy or hard for them, I don’t know, but the support was absolutely amazing.  There was no way to do this journey without that sort of support.  I will say if people aren’t that lucky to have that much support in their household, I know there are other resources to provide that support to people who need a little bit more than their immediate bubble can give them.

BM: On another potentially pleasant topic, at what did you feel like you were getting the upper hand on cancer?

CS: Probably not until surgery.  I think we had a pretty good diagnosis from the start.  From that standpoint, it could have been very advanced from the beginning.  If I am arm wrestling cancer, I think I was dealt a very good deck and kinda got the upper hand right away.  Through the process, I believe it was the third day after surgery that they walked in and said there is no sign of cancer in my body.  That’s when I thought we had beaten this, and now what do we do to keep it out?

BM: And how exciting was that?

CS: It was great, it was amazing.  It was a moment with my wife that I will never forget, and she was probably better positioned to let go of the anxiety than I was.  She had been holding on to so much that I felt the tension in the room left, like a big exhale.  You feel like the world is lifted off your shoulders a little bit, like this part of the fight is over, and again, what’s next?

BM: In terms of the present and the future, what can you not do now that you could do, pre-diagnosis?

CS: Nothing.  I don’t work out as much as I used to, and that’s more of a life choice, not a cancer choice.  At this point, 18 months out, I can still feel where they worked on it.  One thing I wish I could change in the aftermath was, everyone was so focused on my getting back to my normal life.  I knew I needed to make some changes in terms of diet and exercise, things like that to help my long-term success in beating this.  I know the intent of everyone, the doctors, in saying this was good, but where I used to be was what gave me this cancer.  I still need to take it upon myself to make some changes and things like that, but I think it would have been much better advice to stay away from certain foods.  Navigating that is hard.  We all have our daily routines and things that we do and  if you seek from one person, their advice might conflict with what somebody else is saying, who do you believe and all that kind of stuff.  At the end of the day, just simplifying it and eating better and exercising is something I need to make more a part of my day, so that in ten years I don’t have this over again.  In the aftermath, all the testing showed this was not genetic, so something I was doing caused it, whether it was stress at work, stress of life, what I eat.  You could go down a rabbithole of that stuff because there are so many things it could be and there are so many things we do as a society that probably aren’t healthy for suppressing cancer.

BM: There is one part of your answer I want you to circle back to because you had briefly addressed exercise; but in terms of dietary changes, can you get into a few specifics because somebody watch or listening has been diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer, or they think they could be a candidate for it, they might be very interested to hear what you have to say about that.

CS: The big thing that I had heard while I was going through the aftermath of understanding, trying to understand how the colon works, it’s such an amazing organ in your body.  I flat out asked the GI doc, and he said the one thing to avoid is red meat.  The red meat is likely the one thing that is linked to causing colorectal cancer or any of that type of thing.  Fiber?  Get a lot of fiber.  At 18 months out, I am trying to establish better eating habits, like not stopping at fast food on the way in or on the way home, but with the weird hours I work, take the time to make a salad instead of stopping at McDonalds, so that’s where I am at in that journey.  I also say I am not fan of dieting to lose weight.  I tried that ten years ago and it all came back.  So I think it is all about making life changes rather than restricting diet and restricting certain things out of your food, understanding what each food does for you.  You know, even as we went through the pandemic, too, a late night talkshow my wife and I listen to, said the pandemic was a perfect opportunity to educate the public that food is medicine.  That was the first time I had heard that, and it makes 100 percent sense to me.  It is not necessarily medicine like Advil in which you take it and pain goes away, it is medicine in a preventive sense.  The healthier you are, the better you are going to be in fighting all these things, whether it is cancer or COVID or whatever.  So, if you view food as medicine and understand that, that it fuels you the right way or the wrong way, then you have the right mentality to start making changes.  That’s the journey I am still going through.

BM: Curtis, we’re about to wrap up, but there are two other areas I want to cover.  No doubt you have seen commercials for over-the-counter tests for colon cancer.  To what extent would you recommend a colonoscopy over these over-the-counter remedies?

CS: I would 100 percent recommend a colonoscopy over an over-the-counter home test.  I don’t think that they are useless.  I think there is something to them, but if you read the fine print after those ads, they tell you what is wrong with these remedies.  If for any reason you cannot undergo a colonoscopy, that’s one thing.  The prep is the worst part, but on the day of colonoscopy, you have a nice, relaxed day.  You get some nice drugs, they put you under, you wake up and you’re pretty calm.  The night before kinda sucks, but that’s eight or nine hours of not feeling great, but you know the sickness is going to end, so you’re not going to be sick for a week, you’re just sick for a night.  If there is a valid reason to do the over-the-counter type of things, I view them as a C+ and a colonoscopy as an A+, so why would you not spend another eight miserable hours for an A+?

BM: Finally, I want to end our interview in the same way we end all of our interviews.  Imagine your encountering someone who has just been diagnosed with colon cancer, rectal cancer.  If you had a message for that person, and there was one point you wanted to make that stood out above all others, what would it be?

CS: I would say people love you and their support is one of the most important things of the mental side of it.  I strongly believe the mental side of it helps the physical side.  There are people to love you, people to support you and there is other support out there, and don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself through this process.  In my case, I had seven different doctors at one point and they weren’t talking to each other and I had a week where my primary care doc was out of town on vacation and I understand the need for a doctor to be on vacation; but if I had not raised hell a little bit, one of the tests would not have happened in time and I would have had to delay the date of the surgery.  So, just communicate with those who are communicating to you.  You don’t have to be a mean person, you don’t have to be mean-spirited.  I found that when I pointed out here’s the situation I am in, is there anything else we can do, that worked 99 percent of the time.  I would say there is always support for you, don’t feel like you are going through it alone, and if you need to, reach out, whether it is a loved one, a family member or a support hotline, web resources, all that stuff, and at all times, make sure you are advocating for yourself. 

BM: Excellent.  Curtis, thanks so much for an excellent recitation of your cancer journey.  I know for anybody who has just been diagnosed or anyone who feels they might be diagnosed, the information in this interview can be very helpful.  Curtis, once again, thanks for being with us on Cancer Interviews.

CS: Bruce, thank you so uch for the opportunity, and anything you need in the future, just let me know.

BM: Will do.  And that is going to wrap up this edition of Cancer Interviews.  As Curtis said, when you go on a cancer journey, you are not alone and please remember that.  So, until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.

SHOW NOTES

TITLE: Curtis Snyder, Colorectal Cancer Survivor – Boulder, Colorado, USA

Early detection made all the difference for Curtis Snyder in his journey with colorectal cancer.  He tells Cancer Interviews about the importance of self-advocacy and getting a colonoscopy and shares how life is virtually the same as it was, pre-diagnosis.

Additional Resources:

Cancer Interviews: https//www.cancerinterviews.com

Time Stamps:

03:53 Curtis noticed blood in his stool.

06:00 Was told he had cancer after waking from a colonoscopy.

06:48 Says a positive mental outlook is important when fighting cancer.

07:55 Was told the surgery was a success.

10:54 Curtis says he wishes he hadn’t waited six to eight weeks before seeking medical attention.

13:25 Recalls his attitude when he got the good news about his surgery.

20:45 Curtis is asked when he felt his cancer journey was turning the corner.

26:02 Says a healthy diet can help one fight cancer.

28:35 Says a colonoscopy is far better than an over-the-counter home test.

KEYWORDS (tags):

cancer

colorectal cancer

cancer interviews

colonoscopy

bruce morton

colostomy bag

curtis snyder

chemotherapy

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