WGN-TV writer Mike Lowe’s mobile phone pinged as he drove to work early next year, about exactly a year after being diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
It was a message from his physician — the results of his latest colon, a test meant to show whether six days of energy and four months of treatment had worked. The cancer was not long visible, so the results were precisely what he had hoped.
” Getting those results, it was just the most wonderful feeling”, Lowe said. In some ways it seems like forever and in some way it seems like the blink of an eye, but what a year, when I went to the original doctor’s visit.
It was a time that started with amazement at his examination at the age of 44. Lowe’s surprise, but, rapidly grew into the conviction that he would use his software as a tv news reporter to spread the word about the condition, which has become more prevalent in younger people. For the past month, he ‘s , taken WGN people along on his voyage, talking about his diagnosis in news parts, inviting devices into his visits and treatments and sharing very personal information about his experience.
According to Lowe,” This country is experiencing a public health problems because more young people are being diagnosed with intestinal malignancy.”
About 20 % of intestinal cases were in people age 54 or younger in 2019 — nearly twice the proportion as in 1995, according to the , American Cancer Society. Although they’re unsure of the exact cause of the rise in diagnoses among younger people, experts are urging people to see their doctors if they notice unusual symptoms like vomiting, altered bowel movements, bloody stools, or bloating.
Colorectal cancer is the fourth-most common type of cancer in the U. S., according to the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
Lowe felt it was his responsibility to impart his knowledge to the audience as a journalist.
” It’s my job to ask people about some of the worst experiences they have in their lives and be open and honest about it”, said Lowe, who’s won 39 Emmy Awards. How could I do that for a living and then not be open and honest with the public about my own story when something similar happens to me?
Lowe, who grew up in Evanston, knew he wanted to be a journalist from an early age. Before beginning a series of broadcast jobs across the nation, he attended Northwestern University. He earned a spot at WGN about a decade ago.
According to Dominick Stasi, news director at WGN-TV, Lowe is a “born storyteller.”
He’s probably the best storyteller I’ve ever worked with, and when it came time for this journey he was taking, he saw this as a way to tell his story and educate people, Stasi said.
The diagnosis
Although Lowe was only recently diagnosed with cancer, he now realizes that the condition has been growing for years.
About five years ago, Lowe began experiencing concerning symptoms, such as blood in his bowel movements. He was aware that his grandfather had colon cancer, so he was aware that he had a family history of the illness. Lowe went to his general practitioner at the time, who recommended a colonoscopy.
Lowe, a devoted fan of Chicago sports, said,” I fumbled the ball.” ” She gave me the referral and I just never made the appointment.
I think that’s particularly indicative of a lot of young men who are apprehensive about having a colonoscopy,” Low said, adding that,” I suppose you’re also concerned about what they might discover.
A couple of years later, he had a new doctor. He requested a second referral and informed the new doctor that he was ready to have the colonoscopy. That doctor, however, told him he’d get a colonoscopy when he was 45, Lowe said. The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force reduced the recommended age for routine colorectal cancer screening from 50 to 45 in 2021, partly as a result of younger people becoming more advanced to the disease.
Lowe moved on. He was still suffering from constipation and some abdominal pain, but he was still an unwell person in his early 40s. He did triathlons and was known among friends and colleagues for his energy, humor and positivity. He jokes now that he originally believed he might need to cut back on the Mexican fast food and consume more kale salads.
But by February of last year, he could no longer ignore his escalating symptoms. Every time he boweled, he felt as though he couldn’t empty his bowels completely. He had blood in each bowel movement. One night he ended up in an emergency room with stabbing abdominal pain. He waited a short while before getting better, so he left without being seen.
When he told his mom about the episode, she was alarmed and insisted he make an appointment with his doctor — in front of her. She watched as he sent a message over the phone.
Lowe got an appointment, and the doctor did a rectal exam. He was reportedly fairly certain that Lowe had cancer right away. A colonoscopy soon confirmed the doctor’s suspicion. Low was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer. The cancer had spread to nearby lymph nodes, but not yet to other organs.
Man, I wonder if I had had a colonoscopy back then if we would have detected this as a polyp instead of stage 3 cancer, is what I’ll always remember in my mind. What I later learned is you really have to advocate for yourself if you think there’s something wrong.”
Sharing his battle
At that point, Lowe faced a winding path of medical appointments, treatments and side effects.
He started with radiation first. He had about 30 rounds of radiation treatments over six weeks. He claimed that fatigue at the end and a burning sensation while urinating were the worst side effects. Radiation is a lot easier on the body today than it was 20 or 30 years ago,” Lowe said.
The patient in front of him for the first time, renowned former Cubs player Ryne Sandberg, who has been battling prostate cancer, also made the radiation dose a little easier. As a child, Lowe had a poster of Sandberg on his bedroom wall.
In the end, the two spent a lot of time talking about everything from radiation side effects to the Rolling Stones.
” It was unbelievable to me because he was one of my childhood heroes,” Lowe said”. In that context, it was surreal to see one of your heroes in that way.
Lowe would get radiation treatments early in the morning and then head to work.
There were some setbacks, but Stasi of WGN said,” He just tackled each and every one of them and wanted to keep working as much as he could.” He approached the whole thing with a positive attitude. It was actually very motivating.
Lowe also continued working through his chemotherapy, which took a heavier toll on him than radiation. As the weeks progressed, the side effects of chemotherapy increased. He experienced nausea, numbness in his hands and feet, and the skin on his feet and palms peeled.
He once experienced sores in his mouth and throat as a result of a condition known as mucositis, which he described as the worst case of strep throat he’s ever had — times two. He detailed his ordeal with mucositis, which happened while he was on a pre-planned vacation from work,  , in a segment on WGN, describing how he couldn’t swallow or sleep for six days.
However, he never took a medical leave of absence from work because the side effects never really got so bad. Rather, he went to work most days, sometimes wearing a small zippered pouch across his chest that contained chemotherapy medication, which traveled via a tube from the bag to a port in his chest.
” I wanted cancer to be something significant that was happening in the background of my life but not to completely dominate it,” said Lowe. If I could have a real purpose and go to work and feel like I was able to do it and do it well still, then I was going to do it no matter what.”
Lowe thinks that because he was relatively young and healthy when starting cancer treatments, he might have been able to continue working.
During the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August he did live shots each night from the United Center. He worked on November’s election night before being allowed to travel to Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital for chemotherapy the following morning.
” I wanted to kind of demystify cancer treatment or show exactly what it looks like,” Lowe said”. I believe it helps to explain what someone is going through and make it understandable. The job of a journalist is to do that.
Dr. Daniel Dammrich, one of Lowe’s doctors and an oncologist at Northwestern’s Lake Forest hospital, said he’s already seen people benefiting from Lowe’s news segments, getting screened for cancer earlier than they might have otherwise.
Before Lowe and Dammrich were doctors and patients, they were adolescent football teammates at Loyola Academy in Wilmette a long time ago.
” He’s just always been a great guy,” Dammrich said”. There is no doubt in my mind that Mike’s story will be very helpful to a lot of people who are going to undergo early colorectal cancer screenings so they can catch it when we can intervene meaningfully because he has been extremely brave to share it.
‘ Keep up the fight!’
Lowe received support from numerous unanticipated sources throughout his treatment.
Shortly after hearing about Lowe’s diagnosis, Joe Johnson, founder of , Obvious Shirts, released a T-shirt that said” Lowe Strong” with a similar design to the Bears sweaters coach Mike Ditka used to wear. In the past, Lowe had covered Johnson and Obvious Shirts.
” If you know Mike, you know he’s a huge Bears fan, a diehard Bears fan, so I thought it was only right we show our support,” Johnson said.
At one point, Gov. JB Pritzker sent Lowe a handwritten note expressing support and encouraging him to”, Keep up the fight!”
” I have really felt the outpouring of support from the entire city,” Low said. I think that’s kind of a hallmark of Chicago. You can see how much you care and how much people care and want to help you. That is almost as important as the medical part, in terms of making you well again.”
Then, in January, Lowe had a sigmoidoscopy, a procedure that involves using a camera to examine the lower part of the colon, after chemotherapy. If the tumor was still there, the next step would be surgery.
Lowe received hesitantly positive news. The doctor couldn’t see the tumor anymore.
Although Lowe was optimistic about his chances, he would need a colonoscopy and biopsies several months later to determine whether the cancer had actually reversed.
That colonoscopy happened earlier this month. Polypsies were performed on them during the procedure, and they came back uncancer-free.
” It was kind of like singing Hallelujah from the church balcony,” Lowe said of learning the results”. It definitely felt amazing because, up until that point, I had no idea. I believe it to be the entire response I had hoped against all of my hopes.
Though Lowe is characteristically optimistic, he knows he won’t be leaving cancer totally behind him just yet.
He’ll continue to go through routine tests to make sure the cancer hasn’t spread. He’s also still dealing with lingering side effects, such as the numbness in his hands and feet.
Lowe also doesn’t intend to speak out against himself when it comes to discussing his experience in public. He has a calendar full of events in coming months where he’ll give speeches and emcee events to raise awareness and money for various cancer-related efforts.
I feel like I owe it to anyone who is dealing with cancer, whether it’s for fundraising, awareness, or even if it’s just to say,” Hey, you can get through this,” because at the time you get the diagnosis, it doesn’t always seem like that. It seems like a pretty steep hill to climb,” Lowe said.
I want to continue acting that way because I am fortunate to be through it if I can.
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