I commented quite a little bit in this thread, but I guess it doesn't hurt to write a summary. I was diagnosed with colon cancer ten years ago at 28 without any family history. It started inocent enough with blood in the stool. Sure enough, I was too young to have cancer, so that hemoroids for a year. It did suck so, that really were hemorroids, because that explained everything. Until it became to frequent, and my doctor recommended a colonoscopy. It was a cancerous polyp, caught early, so.
I had surgery where they removed around 30 cm of my colon and some lymph knots, one of which had cancerous cells. went on to get 6 months of easy, as compared other people I saw and met, chemo therapy. The worst part was, when roughly one month after the chemo finished I again had blood in the stool, a lot of it. At that point I was on a high, after all I just finished chemo and survived, right? Damn, that sucked, worse than the initial diagnosis, back then I almost expected it. Luckily, it wasn't cancer, but it took my months to recover from that scare. looking back, I'd say that was harder than everything before, also because people around me kind of got the hard time going through cancer. They didnt really get why the fact not having cancer was so much harder for me.
What I did learn from that is, that I'm less afraid of death than I am from the process of dying, if this makes sense. And that life is too short to care about certain things. It changed me, and then it did not, it is hard to describe. The things that really helped me was my son, aged 3 back then, having a wife that regularly kicked my ass when I needed it. Especially the one time I was cloe to give up (silly me, but it made sense back then). And having a good friend to talk to about stuff that wasn't for families ears.
One thing, so, that very very few people got was the stress and hardship cancer means for ones family. As a patient you can get, and are offered, all the support from your environment. Your family not so much. And man, was I an ass sometimes back then.
Luckily, I have no genetic preposition for cancer. Still, my kids will get colonscopies aged 16. better be safe than sorry, and a cancer diagnosis is nothing you want to miss. I undertand why people are afraid of the diagnosis, but this is nothing that can be ignored. The earlier cancer is caught, the easier the treatmen and the better the chances of survival. And sometimes, a couple of months can make all the difference.
So yes, get a colonoscopy early, as early as possible and do not wait. Coloniscopies are no big deal, the worst part being the prep and even that got better over the years. And even you find it intrusive and unpleasant, which some people do, it still beats surgery, chemo therapy and potential death.