Butt Cancer Buddies :: Dawson Leery Has Colorectal Cancer, Too!

In February I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Yep. Butt cancer. The most embarrassing type of cancer. I’ve had Crohn’s disease for about twenty years now, so thankfully I’ve been getting annual colonoscopies since I was ten years old. How fun!

When I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, I was the healthiest I had been in a while. My daughter had a milk, soy, and egg protein allergy that thankfully she’s outgrown. Unfortunately, my insurance at that time didn’t cover formula and it wasn’t in our budget to pay for a $50 can of formula every three days, so I continued to breastfeed. I eliminated anything that contained milk, eggs, soy, and soybean oil from my diet. Soy and soybean oil are in literally everything, including the prenatal vitamin I was still taking. Great, now I need to switch to a $50 vitamin, too! I started eating more fruits and vegetables. We stopped going out to eat. We were eating cleaner as a family and my husband and I were losing the weight we put on since we first became parents.

Is it Hemorrhoids or Colon Cancer?

Around November or so, I started noticing blood on my toilet paper when I wiped my bottom. “It’s probably hemorrhoids,” I thought to myself. I’d given birth to two kids so hemorrhoids were par for the course. I didn’t say anything to my doctor and hoped they would go away on their own.

I was due for my annual colonoscopy in December. I try to schedule my colonoscopies in December every year since I’ve usually met my insurance deductible by then. I did the bowel prep (gross), went in for my colonoscopy, and when I was finished went home. A few days later, my GI called me and told me he found a few polyps that he removed but found some suspicious looking cell clusters. He wanted me to come back for another colonoscopy in January.

Great. Another bowel prep. Anyone who has had a colonoscopy knows what I’m talking about.

I went in for my January colonoscopy with a fresh $2,000 deductible and an empty stomach. On February 3, 2025, I was getting my Remicade infusion when I got the call from my GI. Colon cancer. More specifically Stage III Rectal Cancer. My GI was just as surprised as I was. The December colonoscopy was the first one in my entire life where there were polyps or anything remotely suspicious.

But that’s the thing about colon cancer. There’s really no way to know if you have it without getting a colonoscopy. My bowel habits were normal except for the few drops of blood I’d have on the toilet paper when I would wipe too much.

Celebrities Get Butt Cancer, Too!

James Van Der Beek has been in the news recently about his colorectal cancer diagnosis. He was diagnosed in 2023 and explained that before his first ever colonoscopy, he noticed his bowel habits had changed. His poops were getting weird. He eliminated coffee from his diet, but his poop stayed weird. He contacted his doctor, scheduled a colonoscopy and he was diagnosed with Stage III Colorectal Cancer.

“I got screened at 46. I didn’t realize they had dropped it to 45. I thought I was way ahead of the game.”

More and more young people are getting diagnosed with colon cancer, but weirdly enough that’s actually a good thing. In the past, people wouldn’t get colonoscopies until they were in their fifties and even then, they would put off colonoscopies as long as they could. I don’t blame them. They aren’t very fun. Even my own mother who had a daughter with Crohn’s disease didn’t get her first one until her mid-fifties.

But the key to survival with colon cancer is early diagnosis. When people would wait until their fifties to get a colonoscopy, they may have had a tumor that had been growing for who knows how long. My tumor was thankfully so small that it never showed up on any scans and was still at the cellular level. That second colonoscopy in January probably saved my life.

We took an aggressive approach to my cancer treatment. I no longer have a large intestine and will have an ostomy bag for the rest of my life. I just completed six rounds of chemotherapy, but James Van Der Beek said it best. “Living with cancer is a full time job.” Between the doctor appointments, monthly scans, bloodwork, and alternative treatments, I still have three or more cancer related appointments a week in addition to being a mom, wife, and summer camp director.

Colon Cancer Doesn’t Discriminate.

Like I mentioned before, I was in really great shape when I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. James Van Der Beek was in the same boat. “I ate as well as I could. I was healthy. I was in amazing cardiovascular shape. There was no reason in my mind that I should have gotten a positive diagnosis.”

Other celebrities who have had colon cancer include Chadwick Boseman, Kristie Alley, Charles Shulz, Audrey Hepburn, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Now more young people are having the awkward conversations with their doctors sooner rather than later. “My poops are weird. Can I get a colonoscopy to make sure nothing scary is happening?”

Colon cancer is the third most common cancer for men and women combined in the United States, as well as the second leading cause of cancer related deaths. Early diagnosis can be the difference between life or death. So next time you think about putting off that colonoscopy, or avoiding that awkward conversation about your poop habits, think about what’s more important: avoiding an awkward conversation, or saving your life?

You decide.