Dr. Sachin Kulkarni took a good look at his life when he turned 40 in 2022. The anesthesiologist from Sea Cliff, New York, was doing well.
He was married to a woman he admires, he had two children, and he maintained a pretty good lifestyle by eating well, running and using his Peloton. Health-wise things were looking fine, but a checkup would probably be a good call, he decided. “You turned 40,” Sachin Kulkarni said to himself.
“Maybe you should think about seeing a doctor, given that you are one yourself.” For the past year, Kulkarni had noticed some gastrointestinal issues, but he suspected it was nothing more than irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS. A visit to his primary care physician found that his vitals looked great, but the GI discomfort persisted.
“Right about the (time of the) new year of 2023, I started feeling a little bit worse,” Kulkarni recalls. “I noticed I was having changes in bowel habits, some bloody stools. Just more discomfort after eating, and just even after not eating, just day to day.
And so, I actually went to see a gastroenterologist that I work with.” In February 2023, the gastroenterologist sent Kulkarni home with antacids for gastritis and told him to return in a few months for a colonoscopy and endoscopy. “So, June 2, 2023, was a Friday.
Beautiful day outside,” Kulkarni says. “I go in for this colonoscopy, and it turns out to be the worst day of my life. And the rest is history.
” Things were hazy when Kulkarni woke up aft.