Update 9/01/23: I did it! I made it to age 31! I had my last post op appointment today at 3pm. I was given the go ahead to try and eat whatever my body will let me.  

Update 8/15/23: Finally time to leave my grandparents and go home!  Mollie starts her first day of 5th grade tomorrow! I’m so happy I’ll be able to take her to her first day! Then I can start to get in a routine and start my new life as a seahorse.

Update 8/04/23: I had to go to Sharp memorial today because I woke up at 0100 throwing up bile dry heaving and in a bunch of pain. I kinda felt like I was about to pass out too. So my amazing grandma took me to Santee urgent care. Then they took me by ambulance to Sharp Memorial from the santee urgent care. They got me hooked up to an IV for BOLUS, pain meds, nausea, and then I had a CT scan with contrast. My CT scans showed a spot on my spleen and I was told to follow up with my surgeon Dr. Kim for next steps. I messaged Dr. Kim everything the did and got mu CT scan on a disk for him. He’s off this upcoming Monday so I might not hear from him until Tuesday. The accident on Monday really messed me up….

Update 8/01/23: Soooo on the way up to my post op appointment at 3pm yesterday, Phillip and I got rear ended at 1:50pm (the truck is okay, needs a new bumper and tailgate). When this happened the seatbelt yanked on my incisions, so they hurt. Plus it’s my time of the month, so my uterus wasn’t pleased either. Thankfully it happened on our way up to Upland, so Dr. Kim was able to examine me right away. Everything looked okay and everything felt okay too. He also told me only worry if I get a gnarly seatbelt bruise… If I do then I have to go get a CT scan…. The one incision that was bugging me super bad was a little pink and it still looked perfect… but he said that’s just slightly pink because it’s irritated from the seatbelt being yanked on it. Woke up this morning thankfully to no gnarly seatbelt bruise…. However, I hurt…. My whole left side hurts…my neck, left shoulder, and ribs hurt. I couldn’t sleep for shit last night… I woke up with some reflux too.   

Update 7/26/23: I’ve been discharged from the City of Hope hospital on the 25th to one of their hotels for 1 night to see how I do before heading home to San Diego. I had a good night so now I’m off to my grandparents to finish recovering ❤️‍ Made it my grandparents at 11:50am ❤️‍

Update 7/23/23: I got my total gastrectomy on the 19th, so Gaston the Gastric Cancer is officially gone. My 5-7 hour surgery tuned into an almost 10 hour surgery because, of course, I would have some type of complication. Turns out my anatomy isn’t on my side either. Super rare since I was the 3rd case they’ve ever experienced over several decades but…My stomach was higher up into my chest than expected, so they had to remove more esophagus than anticipated. Even with that complication they were still able to remove my gallbladder too. I’m still at the City of Hope in Los Angeles, walking around, and supposedly making excellent progress…so much so they gave me pill form medication! That wasn’t fun at all and boy did that set me back… Today I was told I’m going to be getting liquid meds again, and to take it easy today. My doctor visited me this morning and told me this usually happens too…you make excellent progress and then day 3 or day 4 have little set backs. It’s totally normal, it just means your body isn’t ready yet. Hopefully I’ll have a better day today and can start making more progress soon. But for now I’m walking around, attempting to eat, and taking it one day at a time. Thanks again everyone!

This is a wishlist link for Necessary Supplies to kick out Gaston the Gastric Cancer and recovery after total gastrectomy: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/ZYHAXBWVHMHT?ref_=wl_share

Hey everyone it’s me Jessica!

Not only do I have stomach cancer my mom does too!

On July 19th, I will become a seahorse. Fun fact about seahorses…they don’t have a stomach. Fun fact about me…I have CDH1 gene mutation which causes Hereditary Diffused Gastric Cancer and Invasive Lobular Carcinoma Breast Cancer.

When I was 23 years old I got my CDH1 mutation diagnosis. That means I have a cancer gene, a mutated genetic code, that puts me at high risk of developing stomach cancer and lobular breast cancer.

Every 6 months I go in for breast exams, and once a year I would go in to get screened for stomach cancer. This involves getting over 50 biopsies taken from my stomach to be tested for cancer. Since it’s a diffused gastric cancer that means the cancer can develop anywhere in the stomach AND underneath the stomach lining, making it almost impossible to detect early. The suggested treatment protocol is a prophylactic total gastrectomy.

I told them I’d rather keep my stomach until I got the cancer and do the proactive screenings.

A few years ago they moved up my stomach screenings to every 6 months.

March 15th they took over 50 biopsies for a regular checking…but on March 20th I got my first positive stomach cancer biopsy. I’m now the 4th person in my family to get the stomach cancer.

Thankfully it was caught super early, which means that a total gastrectomy should fix everything. As an added bonus, they’ll be taking my gallbladder too!

When I had an upper endoscopic ultrasound my gallbladder wasn’t looking too good either…it has some sludge and a possible 4mm polyp. Since they’re already taking my stomach out, they’re just gonna take that too, saving me future complications.

When looking in my stomach they didn’t see any visible tumors or anything concerning so they strongly believe I won’t need chemo or radiation at this point in time. My other CT scans and MRI scans all came back as boring and nothing remarkable.

We're extremely grateful about my breast MRI being unremarkable and showing no signs of cancer though, because with my family history, I should've gotten that first. We thought I was dealing with a cancer double whammy due to that. Since I’m dyslexic, apparently it turns out I get my cancers dyslexic too.

I qualify to have a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy and reconstructive surgery a year after my total gastrectomy.

Unfortunately, my entire stomach, some lymph nodes, gallbladder, and my small intestines are going to have "reconstructive" surgery. They're going to take part of my small intestine and connect it to my esophagus and then the bile duct flow from my liver and pancreas will be reconnected lower into the small intestine.

This type of surgery has been know to help reduce reflux and dumping syndrome. However, this means I will be out of work for at least 3 months…IF there’s no complications.

Since I was an Ansible Government Solutions Contract employee for 3 years, and then became a GS VA federal employee last July 13th, I barely have any sick and annual leave due to doctors appointments and so on.

Once I hit my first full year at GS on July 13th I’ll qualify for FMLA. Unfortunately, that’s unpaid and I don't qualify for state disability benefits either because federal employees don’t pay into a disability fund. Therefore, I can’t apply for it. Which means for most of the 3 months I’m out I won’t be getting paid.

If anyone is able to donate anything to our family it would be extremely helpful and greatly appreciated.

If you’re unable to help financially, I understand that as well, but as I said, any help we can get will be tremendously appreciated.

This is a huge life changing hurdle that I’ll overcome one day at a time…but I will be extremely grateful for any help given along the way.

Thank you for your time and possible help, and I hope you have a wonderful day.

@Jessica_Hyams_710