The Osler Society of the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell presented Stages as part of its Humanities in Medicine programming for the 2018-19 academic year.
Stages, directed by Adam Knight, is a one-man autobiographical dramatic performance by playwright, actor, comedian, and South Carolina native David Lee Nelson, who was diagnosed at age 38 with stage IV colon cancer.
Nelson kept a “heartbreakingly funny” blog of the chemotherapy treatment for his disease, and it is this material that became the basis for Stages. His story is not just about illness but about “life’s setbacks and surprises, and about searching for hope in the most unlikely of places.”
The 75-minute performance, accompanied by a slide show, tells the trajectory of his illness in a series of chapters, from when he first started not feeling well, the two months it took to get a definitive diagnosis, his surgery, and a six-month course of chemotherapy. The performance was followed by a Q & A session moderated by Lisa Martin, program manager, Humanities in Medicine, Zucker School of Medicine
Nelson’s diagnosis is part of a concerning trend that new cases of colon cancer are happening at an increasing rate among young and middle-aged adults in the US. According to Rebecca Siegel, MPH, a strategic director of surveillance information services at the American Cancer Society, “Trends in young people are a bellwether for the future disease burden. Our finding that colorectal cancer risk for millennials has escalated back to the levels of those born in the late 1800s is very sobering. Educational campaigns are needed to alert clinicians and the general public about this increase to help reduce delays in diagnosis, which is so prevalent in young people.”
A life-long planner, Nelson has embraced living in the moment and follows the advice given to him by one of his favorite doctors: “It’s not the time you have, it’s what you do with that time.” While Nelson’s health remains “a work in progress,” he is back at work—writing and performing.
According to the most recent information published on the web-site for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and the third most common cancer in men and women. For more information about colon cancer, visit www.cdc.gov or www.acs.org. For more information about David Lee Nelson and to view his blog, visit www.davidleenelson.com.
