My uncle Phil who am named after beat colon cancer. Was once a drinker. He had to fight hard to point of having to wear a diaper. Thank God it's in his past and now has fully recovered and living a normal but yet more healthy life. Get well Mark if you're reading fight as you did on the football field and you'll bounce back like my big unc. I hate Cancer.
Everyone without a family history of colon cancer should get a colonoscopy at age 50. The prep is mildly unpleasant. The colonoscopy itself is painless. Pre-cancerous polyp's can be removed during the screening. People who get virtually colonoscopies don't get the benefit of getting rid of pre-cancerous polyps that are the key to prevention. This is a deadly cancer that can be mostly prevented through colonoscopies. Don't put this off. This disease is a major killer and it ain't a fun way to go.
Sheese, this guy can't catch a break. I might get reamed for this, but depending how far along his Dementia and Parkinsons is, if I were him, I might consider foregoing treatment. I can't stand when family members get pissed off when somebody makes decisions about their own body when receiving treatment has no real benefit to them. It's wrong for family members to put pressure on someone to suffer longer than necessary just because they want them around nominally longer. I've seen it happen plenty of times, and it's beyond selfish. My Mom died from colon cancer. It traveled to her liver and brain. It was a horrible end and she did not go peacefully at all. People get sick and die, but the thing that was infuriating about it is that colon cancer is highly treatable if caught early. She was having symptoms for a year, didn't tell me, and never went to the doctor. She had a nervous stomach/digestive issues her whole life, and my Daddy died about 3 months before she was diagnosed. There was also a tremendous amount of stress going on before my father miraculously passed, all the stress having to do with my father's illness/looming nursing home/definite bankruptcy and financial ruin to come. She brushed off her symptoms and attributed them to stress and what usually happened to her when she was stressed out (nervous stomach/bad bathrooms) but only went to the doctor when she was in excruciating pain and crapping blood. Too late. A friend of mine died of colon cancer in June 2006. She was only 34 and left behind a nine-year-old daughter. Similar situation to my Mom, lifelong digestive issues, but she also had terrible insurance so she put it on ignore. And paid with her life. Get well soon, Mark Gastineau. I think. Again, the biggest issue in my mind is how far along his Dementia is. It may be an incendiary thing to say, but what good is it if he beats colon cancer only to be lying there like a lump crapping in his diapers and not knowing what his name is in the near future? If that's the case. I wish him well in any regard.
Michael Strahan steals his sack record and then all this other crap happens to him. Praying for you, Mark. You were one of the all time great Jets!
Been having a colonoscopy every other year since I was 45. Prep sucks, the propofol is a wonderful drug-makes it feel like the scope is over in about 2 minutes - and a few hours later you are back to normal. Small price to pay not to have to go through the disease. So easy to detect and treat.
i look at cancer everyday so the warnings should not be taken lightly. BTW......i believe the screening should start at age 45 (occult blood test) in the avg risk patient. the higher risk patients should start at age 40. please check the AGA website for more precise recs good luck to #99.
Very sad. Gastineau is 100% the reason I choose the Jets instead of the Giants. I was like 10 years old and his sack dance was what kept me turning on the Jets game. He should totally still be the single season sack king. F Michael Strahan & Brett Favre !
Snap! Channel 4 had just started to cover the NFL when the Sack Exchange was in full flow and seeing Gastineau go after the Q/B was one of the reasons I started following the Jets.
I’m sorry you had to go through all of that ......sounds very rough. And you’re right hopefully the dementia takes him before he realizes what is happening to him. It sounds awful....
As a ten year old I would play tackle football with friends on my front yard and do the Gastineau dance whenever I made a tackle . The neighbors thought I was a kooky kid.....I didn’t know any better - just having fun .
Come to think of it maybe we should be pissed at him for making us Jets fans. I could have been a Cowboys fan or a Steelers fan like the rest of the bandwagon jumping kids my age.
I'm with you but that's still a shot in the dark. A friend was diagnosed at 48, already in Stage IV; no family history, nothing happening out of the ordinary, educated, in shape, active guy. Responded well to first round of chemo then surgery then a new scan showed some more at the site and in the liver. Back on the chemo now and still out running four or five days a week. Nothing but the scope would have found it - 40 or 45 would have been good for him; I guess if anybody, regardless of age or history has anything working differently they need to get it checked fast.
