NEED TO KNOW
Suzanne Rogers revealed that she was diagnosed with colon cancer.
In a new interview with TV Insider, the veteran actress opened up about her health and how following her intuition brought her to the doctor’s office. The Days of Our Lives star said she felt like something “wasn’t quite right” with her body so she made a doctor’s appointment this summer. After a series of tests, including a colonoscopy, MRI, PET scan and biopsy, the 82-year-old was diagnosed with stage 2 colon cancer.
“[My doctor] said, ‘You have cancer and you have to start treatment,’” she recalled. “It was all a shock. I mean, I think I was in shock for several days because I take pretty good care of myself. But he said, ‘It’s a good thing you caught it in time.’”
Colon, or colorectal, cancer is the third most common cancer in the world, after lung and breast cancers.
The American Cancer Society recommends that adults aged 45 and up get regular colon cancer screenings, either stool analyses or colonoscopies. And they urge people with symptoms of colon cancer — such as a change in bowel movements, including increased diarrhea, rectal bleeding, dark stools, unexpected weight loss, cramping and excess fatigue — to get checked out by a doctor. They emphasize the need for preemptive screenings, as these symptoms typically only appear after colon cancer has already spread.
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Just three days after wrapping up filming the soap opera in June, Rogers jumped right into treatment.
“It was radiation every day and chemo every day for six weeks and it was tough,” she said. “It was tough knowing you had to do it five days a week and then you had off Saturday and Sunday. I thoroughly enjoyed my weekends because I didn’t have to go and see a doctor. I was so tired of seeing doctors.”
Rogers admitted that the treatment was difficult to navigate, but she had the support of her Days of Our Lives family while keeping her battle private. She specifically leaned on Linsey Godfrey, who is a cancer survivor.
“It was scary,” she shared. “When I had to go see a doctor, one of them would go with me because you get to a point where once they say cancer, you don’t hear anything else.”
“I had to have an infusion, and it takes about an hour and a half, so Linsey sat there with me and held my hand while I was having it,” Rogers relays. “We would go out to lunch or dinner with Paul Telfer and Linsey’s daughter, Aleda. I knew I could count on them, so it was a lovely experience on and off the set. We really feel like a family.”
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Rogers completed treatment on July 31 and has since been feeling better, but she can’t deny that the journey has been challenging.
“The biggest thing is that I was tired because that’s not like me,” she explained. “I have a lot of energy all the time, so it really kind of shook me thinking, ‘Am I going to get my energy back?’ And it seems like it’s coming back. It’s not 100% yet, but I feel better. Today I feel really good, and that’s happening more and more than the other way around, so I’m really happy about that.”
“I didn’t lose my hair,” she added. “I guess because I was taking the chemo pills. I’m sure there’ll be people that are saying, ‘Well, she didn’t really have cancer,’ but you know what? I really don’t care what people say. I know what I’ve gone through and I’ve come out on the other side, so that’s all I care about.”
Rogers, who is the longest-running actor on an American soap, told the outlet that because she’s recovering well, she’s excited to get back to Salem. And with a positive prognosis, she’s left with so much gratitude.
“I’m feeling really good,” she said. “I start back to work next week, so we’ll see how that goes. Now, I’m feeling anxious like I do any time I get scripts because I want to do my very best and you don’t want to hold up anybody. So that’s the only anxiousness I feel. It’s not because of my illness, let’s put it that way.”
“It’s so funny because I used to worry about some silly things,” she said. “And when you go through this, it kind of takes you a while to say, ‘OK, well, this is what I have, and I will do my very best to fight it and to get through it.’ And that’s what I did. The prayers and the good wishes from my friends and my family helped me stay positive and stay on top of it and beat this.”
