My Lynch Syndrome Story

By Lisa Squatriglia

In 2013 I went in for my "baseline" colonoscopy due to family history for colon cancer. At 47, I found out I had colon cancer. I was lucky enough that my doctor knew about Lynch Syndrome and sent me for genetic testing.

When I came back positive for Lynch, my dad and sister both went and had their testing done. Dad was positive but luckily, my sister was negative. I then had my two children tested and they both were positive. My dad sent an email out to his side of the family and we found other family members who were positive too. Lynch came from my grandmother on my father’s side. She had Uterine cancer, her 2 sisters died of Colon cancer and 1 brother has had a colostomy bag for over 30 years. My one doctor knowing about this saved many lives! If we had known earlier, we may have saved more.

It is now 2021. My father, who has never had health issues, was told at his last colonoscopy (at the age of 79) that he never needed to go back for a colonoscopy again because of his age. One and a half years later, Dad was run down and really tired all the time. His doctor sent him to the cardiologist who put him on a heart monitor for 2 weeks. They told him he needed a pacemaker. When they took him back for the procedure, they found his hemoglobin was dangerously low. They never put the pacemaker in and sent him back to the doctor. That is when they decided to do a colonoscopy and found he had colon cancer in 2 places. Luckily, they caught it early.

I am bringing my dad up because not only was he diagnosed with colon cancer at a late age but his cancer grew large enough in less than 2 year to make him sick. His cousin was a stage 3 in less than 2 years and had no symptoms. I know statistics say colon cancer is a slow growing cancer but I am not sure about that for Lynch patients. Having 2 family members in less than 2 years makes you really wonder. I know they tell us to have a colonoscopy every 2 years but I will be doing mine a little sooner.