Check out my body. Regularly.

Over the last week I have heard two stories about men who discovered cancer in their bodies through freak accidents. In the first, a spectator was hit in the head with the golf ball at a PGA event, and during his examination by paramedics, a lump in his throat was found which turned out to be thyroid cancer.

The man had no idea that he even had a lump in his throat, and as a result, it is likely that the cancer would have spread before he even knew that there was something wrong.

See him talk about it here:

In the second story, a man goes to his doctor for a shoulder problem and an MRI is done.  The results of the shoulder examination were negative, but the MRI managed to pick up a portion of his lung as well, which was spotted with the metastasized cells from renal cancer.

Had he not gone to his doctor with the shoulder injury, he would be dead today.

Listen to him talk about it here:

All this leaves me wondering:

Should we be seeing our doctors more often?

Should bi-annual full body scans become standard procedure?

Would the increased cost of office visits and MRIs be offset by early detection?

Is this a common scenario, or do these two men represent a two-in-a-million story?

Doctors, medical personnel, and opinionate readers, please weigh in.  I find it terrifying to think that I could have a cancer growing in my body and be forced to wait until the symptoms become so pronounced that I am forced into the doctor’s office, too little, too late.

But perhaps I am overreacting.