Help a Brave Mother of 3 Fight Colon Cancer

I’m a mother of 3 beautiful children: 4-month-old Lyla, 4-year-old Oliver, and 6-year-old Elliott. I had been in a lot of pain during my last trimester with Lyla. Everyone chalked it up to pregnancy pains. We ended up having an emergency c-section at 37 weeks with her due to my amniotic sac detaching from the uterine wall.

A month later, I had excruciating pains, went to the ER, and they found a fluid collection in my lower right abdomen. I had a drain put in, and everyone was happy as it didn’t have any infection in it. I was still in pain, so they did a CT and saw my appendix was inflamed, as was my cecum in my colon. They wanted me to get a colonoscopy first, but they wouldn’t do it because I was too inflamed; they didn’t want to puncture anything. The surgeon told me I could have colon cancer, but the appendix needed to come out before it burst again. That’s when I learned it had already burst, and then everything seemed to be a miracle at this point that I was alive.

After having the appendix out, I was still in pain, so another CT showed the cecum was still inflamed, and a lymph node was enlarged from previous scans. I then got a colonoscopy, and they found a mass. It came back as cancer. No one could tell me the stage because they didn’t know if it was due to cancer or the recent appendectomy. I had surgery to remove the mass, which ended up being almost twice the size it was during my colonoscopy, and it was attached to my abdominal wall. The surgery took 4 hours instead of 2, and she had to cut some of my abdominal wall to get the tumor out. Surgery got all they could. The tissue testing came back positive for cancer in the lymph nodes, leading to a stage 3 colon cancer diagnosis. I will be having chemo.

My story is unbelievable for me and so real at the same time. I’m scared but need to stay strong for my husband and children. They are what drives me to be who I am every day. I am the head of the household as far as money goes, so it’s going to be a rough road for us trying to pay for insurance, the mortgage, and bills out of pocket without my income. I used all my vacation up for my maternity leave. Any donation you can send our way would be helpful. It’s going to be a rough road ahead, and I’m doing my best to set us up for as little stress as possible.