DENVER — A Denver doctor says his own experiences with cancer helped shape him into the physician he is today.
Dr. Luke Mountjoy is a physician at the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute, but he didn’t always want to become a doctor.
“I just wanted to be a firefighter or a police officer when I was young,” said Mountjoy. “I was actually, even in high school, I was working towards it. That was kind of the plan, one of the two.”
His life changed course forever when he was 14 years old.
“My dad was having abdominal pain and not feeling good, and he started getting jaundice or yellow, and unfortunately, was diagnosed with a pretty advanced pancreatic cancer,” said Mountjoy. “He started on his chemotherapies and stuff, but unfortunately, passed away within about four months of that.”
Dr. Luke MountjoyThat wouldn’t be the last time Mountjoy would come face-to-face with cancer.
“Two years later, I was having some pretty severe bony pain,” said Mountjoy. “People are like, ‘Oh, you got shin splints.’ Or I was playing basketball and they thought I got tendinitis or something like that. But it wound up getting substantially worse, to the point that I wound up in an emergency room and was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia when I was 16.”