Former former major league baseball player CJ Stewart didn’t want to have a colonoscopy. He dreaded the liquid diet. The needles. The IV sedation. The possibility of cancer.
So how did CJ face his fears—and what happened next?
On track for a heart attack
It started in 2020 when CJ scouted a new primary care provider. He chose Dr. Randy Hines II, Wellstar Primary Care. He said Dr. Hines was the most straightforward doctor he had ever visited.
“I was overweight,” CJ remembered. “My health changed positively because Dr. Hines said things to me in a very positive way. He was direct with me and that helped save my life.”
Dr. Hines learned CJ’s father was a diabetic and had quadruple bypass heart surgery to treat a heart attack. CJ remembered him saying, “‘You’re on track to have the same thing but you can control it.’”
CJ admitted that he had a daily dose of French fries and two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before bed. Dr. Hines challenged him to rethink his relationship with food if he wanted to see his daughters walk down the aisle one day. It was tough talk and it meant something.
“I really love my daughters!” CJ said. “It made me change.”
As a result, he modified his diet, took up running and lost 45 pounds.
Preventing colorectal cancer
Then CJ’s mom revealed a family history of colon cancer.
“My wife and daughters were like, ‘We really need you to go get checked to make sure you’re good,’” he said.
Because of his fears related to the colonoscopy, CJ wanted to have Cologuard, an at-home screening test for colon cancer. But Dr. Hines recommended the 47-year-old have a preventive colonoscopy screening instead, explaining that if pre-cancerous polyps are detected during the procedure, they can be removed before becoming cancerous.
“I didn’t want to hear it,” CJ laughed. “But hearing that from a fellow African American man, I trusted that it was the right thing to do.”
