My Cancer Journey
I was first diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2012. I was 46 years old, in great shape, and didn’t see this coming. It’s been a long journey, which can be described in 3 stages.
(1). Diagnosis.
In 2012, I had an abdominal surgery to remove a couple of growths in my uterus. This is described in detail in one of my first blogs, here.
One of the best decisions I made at that time was to take an additional 6 months off from work to give me time to recuperate and recover. I used the time to re-set and re-evaluate my priorities. I learned that my friends and family are the backbone to my community and give me the strength, inspiration, and courage to fight this disease and live my best life.
(2). 6 years later, surgery & radiation.
In 2018, there as a small growth near the "vaginal cuff". I wasn't sure what to do with this. My oncologist suggested a wait and see approach, however I felt like I should be proactive. I had a surgery to remove the growth, and followed up with a month of radiation and some chemotherapy.
(3). Current State.
Fast forward to 2021. I had been feeling off throughout the pandemic, and had been in/out of the hospital from 2019-2021. In most of these situations, I had a small bowel obstruction (SBO). The treatment is an NG (nasal-gastric) tube for 5-7 days; this slowly removes food from the stomach and helps the bowels decompress. In Jan of 2021, I knew I had to get surgery to help relieve these SBOs.
SIDEBAR. INTERESTION FACT. In the evening of the day I agreed to surgery, I got my call to be on American Ninja Warrior! My surgeon, Dr. Danagra Ikossi, was awesome. So long as I could tolerate the pain, she was fine for me to do the show, and delay the surgery.
I had a full abdominal surgery in June of 2021. This was my second major abdominal surgery, complete with 14 inch scar. Instead of a simple bowel obstruction, food wasn't going through my bowels as they had hardened up from the radiation a few years ago. This is one of those side effects that you don't learn about until it's too late. Anyways, my bowel was re-sected and upon biopsy of the tissue, cancer was found.For the past 4 years, I've been on and off various chemo treatments: Oxaliplatin, Avastin, 5FU, Xeloda, etc. The more recent scans show some disease progression, and is being addressed with a combination of irinotecan, 5FU, and Erbitux (see my blog post, "What’s Going On?" for more information).
I’m grateful that I live so close to great medical care through Stanford Medicine. Most of my treatments are in the South Bay location, which is within 2 miles from home.