Full-Body MRI Scan Helped Detect Cancer and Saved My Life

September 12, 2024
Earlier this summer, I underwent surgery to remove a tumor on my kidney and repair an abdominal hernia. During the surgery, complications arose. Surgeons made an emergency decision to remove the entire kidney. The tumor that was removed, however, was cancerous. Thankfully it was caught at Stage 1. A full, cancer-free recovery is expected but my surgery was not the byproduct of doctors reacting to test results.

Shortly after turning 40, I started to think more deeply and proactively about my physical health as well as my family’s well-being. I read an article about a full body MRI scan through Prenuvo that was not available in Connecticut nor covered by insurance. I paid out of pocket for a scan for me and my wife, who has limited access to her medical history. Ultimately, a small mass was found on my kidney. That prompted an additional MRI that identified it as a tumor.

Without this proactive approach, the traditional “sick care system” might not have unearthed my tumor until it was too late.
Medical technology and policy solutions are not moving at the same speed, so is this a chance to reimagine health care as more preventative than reactive and expand insurance coverage in that direction as well? Please click here or on the photo above to see me discuss my experience, as well as potential policy solutions, with Mike Hydeck of NBC Connecticut during his 7 p.m. newscast this week.

I appreciate the interest in this story and hope my experience is both illustrative from a proactive health perspective, and potentially illuminating as a public policy issue that I plan to work on during the 2025 legislative session.