When you turn 45, it’s recommended you schedule a colonoscopy. While this recommendation used to be 50, the age was lowered due to an increase in colorectal cancer cases in younger adults. For one South Dakota woman, that age change potentially saved her life.
When Dawn Konstanz was 48 years old, she decided it was time to schedule her colonoscopy.
“We are lucky we have surgeons come out to Platte and perform colonoscopies, that’s where I work at the Platte hospital, and so went in for my screening colonoscopy, did not have any symptoms, I did not have any issues, so was kind of surprised when he came into my room after surgery and told me that he found something,” Avera patient, Dawn Konstanz said.
“She was found to have a mass in a portion of her colon, called the sigmoid colon, which was very unexpected and appeared to be highly suspicious for a colon cancer. We can never tell for certain so we always take biopsies of it,” said general surgeon, Avera Medical Group Surgery – Mitchell, Andrew Reynolds, MD. “It confirmed what we suspected, which was a colon cancer.”
About a week after her colonoscopy, she was scheduled for surgery.
“It basically involves removing that area of the colon that has the tumor along with some normal colon on each side and then hooking the two ends back together,” Reynolds said.
Due to her having a higher risk of recurrence, she met with Dr. Heidi McKean in Sioux Falls. There she started chemotherapy.
“In Dawn’s case she was fortunate that the cancer had not made it into any lymph nodes but when we looked at that pathology report there were still, what we felt, high risk features. It was a higher grade tumor, active underneath the microscope, it was budding, it was trying to invade those lymph vessels and move to the lymph nodes and so I did recommend three months of adjuvant chemotherapy to try to decrease her risk of cancer recurrence,” medical oncologist, Avera Medical Group, Heidi McKean, MD said.
“I went with her recommendations and then I started that after my body had healed, so I had to come every two weeks,” Konstanz said.
Now over a year later, she is now cancer free, but is still under medical surveillance.
“We will follow her for five years, checking on her with occasional laboratory studies and CT scans and colonoscopies to make sure this doesn’t come back,” McKean said.
Konstanz is glad she went in sooner than later.
“I probably would have waited until 50,” Konstanz said. “So I’m very glad I did not put it off, but yeah I hate to think what would have been in two years compared to now, it probably would have had more opportunity to spread and maybe would have been a harder road and little bit different outcome for me if I didn’t get it done when I did.”
And she has this simple advice for others.
“Any time they can do something to prevent cancer that’s simple enough, I think everyone should get their screenings done,” Konstanz said.
Konstanz said she did have a repeat colonoscopy last year and will have another one in three years.
Learn more about colon screenings and get a colonoscopy scheduled.
