I have learned from others on these pages and elsewhere not to bury the lede, so, as of Aug. 13, 2025, for the moment and the present, I am cancer-free!
Generally in good health most of my life, with the exception of a long-standing chronic medical condition (ulcerative colitis), I received word the day after my birthday, Jan. 31, 2025, that a small, shiny speck in my sigmoid colon, suspected to possibly be a cyst or precancerous lesion and due for some later attention and removal, was identified via pathology as a rapidly growing, highly malignant and rare cancer.
Though Adenocarcinoma of the colon is not unusual, roughly 25 percent of the cancer cells in my sample were signet ring cells, a hard-to-kill and rapidly metastasizing cancer which almost never starts in the colon, versus other organs. Besides being a novel birthday gift, the surgeon I selected to help me remove the tumor and the cancer, as well as later my oncologist, were both initially convinced I would have this deadly cancer elsewhere in my body as well ... we just had not found it yet.
I will spare you the details (as I chose to do then); however, should you Google or bring AI around to educate you on Stage 3b, it’s high risk. The prognosis was not great.
After a second colonoscopy confirmed the pathology and significant growth in the tumor, my surgeon expressed an urgent need for surgery, as well as removal of the entire large intestine. Right there, Dr. CiCi Zhang of Northside Cancer Center and Northside Hospital convinced me that radical surgery, in a matter of days, was the only logical option.
That surgery on March 7 was long and complex, but I had an excellent surgeon and care team and healed quickly, departing Northside at just over the 10-day-stay mark.
I dropped almost 25 pounds and became acquainted with several new medications and a few medical devices as I planned to begin life anew, minus the body’s largest organ. My daughter and her husband took me in and helped care for me, and worked to keep me from overdoing it during my own rehab. The visits, prayers, kindwords, gifts, texts, phone calls, emails, letters, and later hugs in public from complete strangers, all kept me from ever feeling for even one moment alone on this journey.
Shortly prior to the arrival of my third grandson, Cohen Daniel Carson on April 25, I took leave of the Carson’s home. I was still learning how to handle my ileostomy and the related stoma pouch and supplies, but necessity being the mother of invention, and with little choice, I figured out living on my own at home in Scottdale in about a week.
As spring arrived, we began a regimen of seemingly daily medical appointments and twice-monthly chemotherapy for 48-hour sessions with the excellent medical staff at Georgia Cancer Specialists in Decatur, where my care team was led by Dr.Kathleen Lambert.
I dove into three months of chemotherapy, the side effects of which are very real, making it quite daunting to maintain a regular life and work schedule.
Never wonderful at entirely following directions, I took all my prescribed meds but experienced a few gaps in managing hydration and fluid intake. I swapped once-weekly chair yoga for fairly regular and more challenging practice, walking outside when my body could handle the prickly heat, and weathering the neuropathy, cold sensitivity, and occasional falling out of teeth or hair. But again, with your help and support, I powered through.
My particular cancer (particularly those sneaky signet ring cells) has a high chance of return … but I am by nature a bit of a gambler.I like challenging projects and work which others often tell me cannot be done. Quality of life means incredibly more to me than quantity.I have no desire to leave, but neither do I choose a very limited or even decrepit existence as I witnessed during treatment, meeting several other long-term survivors still fighting hard after years of consecutive treatment.
I wanted to know if my treatment was doing its job, and if, as my body was telling me, the chemo had already successfully placed my cancer at bay and was by that time focused on eating/damaging other healthy cells. Challenges with blood cell counts, liver, kidney, and even heart function were beginning to multiply, along with a new prescription/ medication for almost every new symptom.
I saw a cardiologist and other specialists, began acupuncture to ward off the nerve pain and neuropathy, and resumed visits to a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which forces oxygen into deep tissue and internal organs, and, as I knew from earlier experience, aids healing. I continued to come across data telling me that cancer does not love oxygen ... which is part of why regular exercise is so good for you during healing and so bad for the cancer returning.
A newer technology and test called Signatera from Natera Pharma measures the presence of cancer cells, taken from the pathology and samples of your own tumor/tumors post-surgery, creating a customized sampling in search of specific cancer cells and their potential growth or return in your bloodstream.
Without cancer DNA, you cannot have new cancer cells, and without cancer cells, you cannot have a new mass or tumor. That test was drawn into multiple vials on July 30, before my last chemo session, and I was tipped on the results late afternoon on Aug. 12. And negative, there were no cancer DNA cells in my bloodstream! And that was the second time with that result. Those tests will continue on a roughly three-month schedule.
Again, operating on the supposition that signetring cells and perhaps a smaller or dormant tumor or mass were hiding elsewhere, I had my third CT scan in six months. Thankfully again, the results were the same all three times, no shadows and no visible tumors or evidence of cancer cells spreading or metastasizing.
I nearly exploded with joy that morning on the confirmation of what my body had been telling me for weeks. I will share one wisdom if you or your family later trod this or a similar path: listen to your doctors and medical team, but you are the expert on you, do not be afraid to self-advocate, and always listen to your own body and its signals. Just pay attention to what your gut is telling you.
Treatment will continue. I am exploring a highly regarded clinical trial at the University of Florida, where an mRNA vaccine, customized again for individual cancers, is helping patients’ immune systems identify, seek out, and destroy new cancer cells. Immunotherapy may also be a later treatment option.
Blood work and medical visits will continue to be routine, but without the rigors and after-effects of the chemo. I am taking/ making a calculated risk here, and my oncologist would prefer the certainty of three more months of that treatment. Time will tell if I made the better decision. This fall, a second surgery and a “bionic”, smaller intestine will give me a return to a more typical food and waste exit path.
Regular exercise, including morning Tai Chi, is already underway, as well as a much more freshfood diet, and no alcohol, all contributing to a better path to maintaining wellness on the journey yet ahead.
I feel incredibly optimistic, and just under seven months from the date of my diagnosis to today, I am feeling well, getting stronger each day, and I am cancer-free, while working and hoping to stay that way.
Thank you all again for reading these updates, as well as for caring, praying, and sending your warm thoughts and words along. My positive attitude never dipped for a moment, and in many ways, you all were collectively better medicine for me than the chemo.
God bless you and yours!