‘If I would’ve waited any longer I could’ve died’: Cancer patient shares his experience with colon cancer

Michelle Jennings
·3 min read
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COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — Colon cancer is a rapidly growing disease that is being found in a younger demographic of people.

Statistically, the disease was found in patients ages 50 and higher with the leading demographic being African American men. With this, the healthcare providers at John B. Amos Cancer Center actively treat patients.

WRBL interviewed a current colon cancer patient at John B. Amos who told us what it is like to live with this disease.

William Gunn was diagnosed in 2019 with colorectal cancer at the age of 43.

My lifestyle has changed dramatically. I had to change my diet, my eating habits,  the way I move,  the way I travel. Oh, anything you can think of it changed in that that way.  I’m still  independent.  If I can get up, its according to how I feel  that morning when I wake up,  if I feel sluggish down hurting,  it’s going to be a bad day for me. But if I feel  like this morning when I woke up, I felt, okay,  it’s going to be okay. It’s a good day because I push myself  through it to keep going.

William Gunn

Gunn, who is a sports fan, told WRBL about an episode that turned a fun football weekend into a nightmare. Gunn says he attended the Magic City Classic for his birthday weekend and felt fine, but as he woke up the next morning he said, “I can’t move. I am hurting from my neck down, so I get up and take my cancer medicine that eases it up about 2%.”

He continues by saying, “I forced myself to get up, get in my car, and leave to come home. I wasn’t feeling well, so I stopped at a gas station and drunk a soda. 5-10 minutes later, I am vomiting everywhere. Everything, Every color. After about 20- 30 minutes I leave. Every 30 minutes I pull over on the side of the road and throw up.”

He also said, “When I got to the hospital- my friend tells me, but I don’t remember- I passed out three times. I was admitted from Piedmont Midtown to Piedmont Northside. I had a surgery Tuesday morning, an emergency surgery Wednesday morning because they had to cut me open even more and stick tubes in my nose, my throat, my stomach, my private area, my bottom to suck everything out because it had backed up so bad that doctors said if I would’ve waited any longer I could’ve died.”

Gunn, who is 45 years old now, says that the episodes are about the same as this one.  He now has stage 4 colon cancer due to the cancer growing slightly and spreading into his bones.

WRBL also had the chance to speak with Gunn’s oncologist, Dr. Suresh Nukala who is an attending physician at John B. Amos Cancer Center in Columbus.

Nukala told WRBL, “It is a preventable cancer to some extent. That’s unique from most other cancers. We may detect cancer but cannot always prevent it.”

This is because colon cancer is accessible for early detection, so there are procedures that can treat the cancer in its early stages and diminish it.

Nukala said that a change in lifestyle can help to keep this cancer preventable like changing your diet, decreasing alcohol intake and quitting smoking.

Nukala recommends all get checked sooner rather than later. Piedmont offers Colon Cancer screenings and multiple treatments for those who do have the disease.

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