In hindsight, my colon cancer diagnosis seems so obvious. My gastroenterologist asked me to repeat a routine blood test in December 2006. He asked if I was tired. I responded, “Of course, I am – I just tiled a bathroom, and my wife is pregnant with our third child.” 

That’s when the bad news started to come. My doctor said that I’d already lost half of my red blood cells, likely related to the ulcerative colitis I’d been...