Help save our Jordan from Stage 4 Colon Cancer

My StoryBack in 2016 I met the most amazing man I have ever met. Ben and I fell in love the first time we met and have been together ever since. We decided that social media wasn’t really for us so we stayed off. Now I am back and wanted to share my story with everyone.

Ben and I have had the most amazing life together living in Long Beach. Living a few blocks from the ocean, enjoying the great food in town and enjoying 30 mile bike rides along the beach. Then in November of 2021 our lives were shattered. I thought I had food poisoning and I could not keep anything down. My stomach bloated so the love of my life rushed me to the ER where I was admitted.

That was the beginning of when our world shattered. While in the hospital they found a mass wrapped around my colon and intestines. After two different hospitals and many many doctors, (the health system is really messed up) we made the decision to go through months of intravenous antibiotics to help contain the infection before they operated. Throughout this time I have been in the hospital for months unable to go to work, and with the Covid protocol there were no visitors allowed in the hospital. This made it very difficult for Ben and I, as we could only call and FaceTime each other. We have almost never spent the night without each other since the day we met.

Once I was ready for surgery the doctors opened my abdomen to remove the mass and 30 lymph nodes. I had a great surgeon and surgery went well. The news that we did not want to hear was that the mass that was removed ends up being malignant. I was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. So on to chemo therapy.

I went through 8 rounds of intravenous chemo treatment. A 4 hour dose every 3 weeks. I could not have done it without Ben by my side. My family was also there for me, but it was Ben who took care of me every day. There were days when I couldn’t walk. He held me up through all of it. I was only able to make it through with his daily support. Truly the man I love. So glad I found him.

All this time I have been unable to work, and through much of the time Ben was also unable to go back.

After the 8 rounds of chemo over about 6 months, I had a CT scan. We were set to celebrate after successful surgery and 8 rounds of chemo. The results of the CT scan had some good news - the colon cancer is gone, but now they’re about 28 nodules on my lungs. Too small to biopsy. I needed to start a different type of chemo.

After six rounds of this new treatment there was no change in the nodules on my lungs. This was heartbreaking. Two different treatments, over a course of almost 2 years and still battling.

Although neuropathy from the chemo caused great pain in my feet and hands, and hair loss made it hard to deny what was happening, I needed to get back to work, to get my mind off things and keep myself busy. I was able to find a new position at Whole Foods that allowed me to get back to work, for a while.

As it turns out there is a clinical trial treatment that I fit into that targets the first strain of my colon cancer. So we decided to go with that treatment. There is the trial drug and another more normal chemo drug - one intravenous and one oral.

One of the drugs had a terrible side-effect for me. I broke out in a rash on half my body. The rash was so intense it looked like shingles meets small pox and scabies. My immune system started to crash. Ben and I had to completely change all our soaps, detergents, linen sprays, lotions, to all non hypoallergenic solutions, nothing helped. I could no longer go to work with this skin condition. My immune system continued to fail, my blood pressure was beyond hypertension and I can’t even get myself off the couch most days. Not to mention the side effects from all the medications I’ve been on.

There are so many facets of cancer and how it affects us all and I fell like we all try to hide it all and we try and make it all seem ok for everyone around us. It’s almost like we are trying to make sure they don’t look at us like we are sick. So we tell them it’s all ok and that Ben and I are good and honestly……what do you expect to hear…HONESTLY do you honestly want to hear the truth? The truth is WE DON’T have it in us to tell you the truth.

But then this catches us up, when my cancer actually comes to the point where the love of my life can’t make it to work anymore and can’t hide his hurt and I’m too weak to stand up for him or tell others the honest truth of the situation. So Ben, the oncologists and I decided to put treatment on hold, after much much anguish and thought. We decided to put me on medication to see if we can clear up the rash and get my auto immune system better. After a month of 22 pills a day, 14 of those antibiotics, and blood pressure medication. The rash is better and I was able to start half the treatment with the trial drug.

This is where we are today. All the while I have been out of work. This is why I'm reaching out, just trying to get Ben and myself back on our feet financially, with all the medical bills and being out of work. Any donation will help Ben and I, and will be greatly appreciated.