My Cancer Story

March 2020 I went to donate blood and was told I couldn’t because my hemoglobin was too low and to come back the next day and try again. I didn’t think much about it, other than that’s not how hemoglobin works, it doesn’t just bounce back the next day. The following week I went back to try again, maybe it was a false low or something. This time the girl checking me in looked at me and told me to go home and call my doctor immediately. That got my attention!

When I called the office the nurse practitioner that I normally saw was out of the office sick. But, the doctor happened to have a minute so I hopped on the phone. He ordered blood work and asked me to go the same day to have it done. Seeing as how it was the beginning of a pandemic, it took 5 days to get the results back. The doctor called and said I was bleeding internally and I needed to go to the ER as soon as possible, don’t wait until tomorrow.

I had been having some pain intermittently for several months, but it seemed to get better when I took coffee out of my routine. Acid seemed to irritate it, so I thought maybe an ulcer, I was super stressed out and not enjoying the work I was doing at the time.

At the ER they confirmed there was blood in my rectum, did some blood work and gave me a blood transfusion. They sent me home with instructions to return if anything worsened and scheduled me for an endoscopy and colonoscopy the next week.

Before they put me under the doctor said, it’s probably an ulcer, you’re so young, I was 39. Because of the pandemic my husband wasn’t allowed in the building. So, when I woke up and heard my husband’s voice I knew something wasn’t right.

Dr G said he was 99% sure it was malignant, the tumor was so large that he couldn’t get past it. I needed a CT scan. About a week later I was back in Dr G’s office for the results of the CT. At this point I had put myself on a liquid diet because food caused too much pain. The CT showed a large tumor in the UR quadrant of my large intestine that was nearly blocking it. I was referred to an oncologist and a surgeon.

When I called the local surgeon after I left Dr G’s office they couldn’t get me in for about 10 days, I had already started the process of getting into Mayo Clinic and had an appointment for about 7 days out. So I scheduled at the local surgeon for about 14 days out because I needed time to get back from Mayo.

The oncologist, Dr O, got me in the next day, asked why I wasn’t scheduled with the surgeon for 2 weeks, I explained. She called the surgeon on his cell and told him he had to see me that day or the next, it couldn’t wait. This was a Thursday. The surgeon said he was at Lowes and filthy, but he would come in and see me first thing in the morning the next day. Monday I was in surgery.

Dr J, the surgeon, removed part of my large intestine and liver. The tumor was larger than it appeared on CT and had grown into my liver and attached to my stomach, pancreas and duodenum. He said he wasn’t able to get it all from my liver because I had already lost too much blood. Where he peeled the tumor off the stomach, pancreas and duodenum still most likely had cancerous cells that needed to be removed. He was pretty sure I needed a Whipple, he said I didn’t want him doing it, but he would get me to someone that could take care of me. I’m forever grateful that he was humble enough to know his limitations. I was diagnosed with stage 3c adenocarcinoma.

Two weeks later I was in surgery with Dr H, a surgical oncologist that did Whipples all day long. I went into surgery not sure what I would be coming out with, pathology had confirmed that margins weren’t clear in the liver and 1 of about 40 lymph nodes were positive from the first surgery. Dr H wasn’t sure if he would have to do a Whipple or not, he was hoping not.

When I woke up I was in excruciating pain, I had never experienced pain like that before, ever. Dr H had warned me it would be rough and a 3 month recovery, but in my head I thought I was young, in good shape, I’d be good to go in a month. Not the case.

Dr H had to do a Whipple and removed more of my large intestine, more of my liver, part of my small intestine, the head of my pancreas, ⅓ of my stomach, ⅓ of my duodenum and my gallbladder because it would be very hard to access in the future should I have problems with it due to scar tissue.

In June 2020 I started Folfox chemotherapy, 24 rounds over the course of 6 months. It was brutal. Dr O made it sound like it wouldn’t be bad, older people had it all the time and would continue to work through it. I vomited most days at least once for 4 months, lost a ton of weight, just felt horrible. About 4 months in, one of the oncology nurses questioned why Aloxi hadn’t been tried for me for the nausea/vomiting. The stuff worked wonders! It was far from perfect, but it was so much better with it! I started gaining some weight and just started to feel more like myself.

Due to my age, they recommended genetic testing, which came back showing a CHEK2 and an MSH2 (Lynch Sydrome) mutation. Between the two I have increased risk for colon, ovarian, uterine, breast and several other cancers. It was recommended that I have a preventive hysterectomy.

Fast forward to the end of December 2020, beginning of January 2021. I had finally finished chemo, after several delays. Ct’s looked great, blood work looked great, all cancer markers were normal, pelvic ultrasound looked good (ovaries and uterus). My gynecological oncologist, Dr A, and I decided to wait until June to do the hysterectomy because everything looked great and I needed to have a neck surgery that had gotten delayed because of the colon cancer diagnosis.

March 2021 I had my neck surgery, a disc and vertebrae replaced and C4-7 fused. About 10 days later some back pain I’d been having from a recent accident started to really pick up. I was vomiting because the pain was so bad, even though I had taken some pain meds that I had from my neck surgery (hadn’t been taking them because the neck didn’t necessitate it at that point).

At the ER they did an MRI of my back and said there’s no reason my back should be causing me pain and basically told me I was a drug seeker. I asked if they had looked at my medical records and maybe they needed to do a CT, they told me to go home and call my doctor on Monday (it was Saturday).

It took about a month from that point before a doctor ordered a CT. I finally called Dr H, the surgical oncologist that did my Whipple surgery and told him I had lost 25 pounds in the last 3 weeks and was having horrible back pain. He immediately ordered CT scans. About the same time Dr A ordered blood work. They came back within a few hours of each other. I had ovarian cancer. It took another 6 weeks to get another test and PET scan.

June 2021 I had a full hysterectomy, another resection of the large and small intestine because the tumor had grown into them. When they did the surgery they also found Stage 1 uterine cancer. The ovarian was stage 3c.

At the urging of a friend, I went out to MD Anderson in Houston for a second opinion as soon as I was able to travel. I will continue to have my local doctors and MD Anderson follow me. They were very impressive, I learned a ton about the genetic mutations that I have.

August 2021 I started carboplatin with taxol, this is only 6 rounds (thank you Jesus) over the course of 4 months. I have 4 rounds down, 2 to go!

I had read about epigenetics and nutrigenetics and had been looking for a practitioner that specializes in cancer, but wasn’t having much luck. Hippocrates had it right when he said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. I knew my diet had been crap through this and for several years prior. You read so many different things about the best way to eat when you have cancer, and it is honestly just hard to sort through, especially when you don’t feel well.

My gut said keto, but because of the Whipple I struggled with processing fats, so I didn’t know how that would work. Plus I had read somewhere it can actually be bad for some types of cancers, and I had had 3 different primary cancers. So I continued to eat all the carbs.

Finally in September 2021 I stumbled across a nutritionist that specializes in nutrigenomics and cancer. And that is what has led me here. It has not been an easy transition, and I am accustomed to eating pretty healthy and I’ve always loved to cook. I even had a business for awhile where I made fresh paleo meals. I’m finally getting the hang of it, and I know it will get easier and I will get better at it as I go.

My nutrition plan is based on my specific genetics, so it may be different from someone else who has had the same types of cancer as me. But I will offer suggestions for substitutions as I go. Most of my recipes will be keto, dairy free, egg free (or very, very minimal), minimal additives/processing, fruit, or sweetener. They will focus on high intake of cruciferous veggies, eating the rainbow and eating seasonally. Deep nutrition is the focus! So they are great recipes for anyone trying to eat healthy!

This process has got me to thinking, how do people manage this if they aren't accustomed to cooking or aren't as knowledgeable about healthy eating habits? I think it would be a really hard transition to make these changes if either of these situations were the case, especially if you aren't feeling well and trying to implement changes.

If I can help YOU have an easier transition to a keto lifestyle, or even just a healthier lifestyle that is focused on overall wellness, then, I will be happy and successful with my blog.

Wellness and a lifestyle that fosters health is ever changing, we should be continually learning and that means our lifestyle should change with it. So, here’s to change!