I Was “Too Young” to Have Colon Cancer

As told to Shannon Shelton Miller

I was thrilled to be pregnant with my first child at 29. Everything went well for about eight months — until the day I went to the restroom and the toilet was full of blood. I immediately called my OB-GYN because I was scared something was wrong with my baby.

At the appointment, he assured me we both were fine. It was probably just
hemorrhoids or my baby was starting to rest on my organs as he grew bigger, leading to some bleeding.

But new symptoms started to show up. I was dizzy, had bad abdominal pains and couldn’t sleep at night. My OB-GYN told me these were all normal during pregnancy. I had never been pregnant before, so I figured that made sense.

2016 (Photo/Michael D Images)

The bleeding and crushing fatigue didn’t stop after I gave birth to my son, Cameron. Once again, I was told this was normal for a new mom. Even as I continued to have vaginal and rectal bleeding months after giving birth, my OB-GYN only suggested changing my birth control method.

When Cameron turned 1, I knew something had to give because the bleeding wasn’t stopping. This time, I went to a primary care physician, who first gave me pills for
irritable bowel syndrome. Just in case that didn’t work, he said, he’d send a referral to a GI specialist.

Weeks later, I had to see the specialist since the pills had done nothing. “You’re way
too young to be sitting in my office,” he said. “What’s going on?” I told him about my symptoms, and he ordered a colonoscopy.

When I woke up in the operating room after that procedure, the doctor and four nurses were there, along with my husband, Derrick. The room seemed too full, and I asked what was happening.

My doctor showed me photos of my colon and told me I had cancer.

“No, I don’t,” I said. We had built a rapport, so I started to laugh a little. “Ok, what’s really going on?”

He kept a straight face. “I would never joke about something like this,” he said. “You definitely have cancer.”

A few weeks later, my mother, my husband and I met with the oncologist. He walked past us, sat down and said, “Well, you have stage 4 cancer and …” He continued to go on, but I didn’t hear anything after that. I just knew it couldn’t be as bad as what I was hearing in my head.

It was. He said I was an exceedingly rare case because of my age and good health. Genetic testing showed nothing. We had no family history of cancer. I was healthy, I played sports, I didn’t grow up eating red meat — I couldn’t understand it.

I didn’t want to think about treatment at that moment. I told my family I wanted to go to the sunflower patch by my house because I’d never been. We picked sunflowers and took photos. It was such a nice day. Afterward, we picked up my son from daycare, and I held him the rest of that day.

The last seven years have been very difficult. I’ve had multiple rounds of chemotherapy and surgeries. After my diagnosis, they removed a foot of my colon, two parts of my liver and my gallbladder. I was very weak and couldn’t walk. My toddler son couldn’t sit on my lap, and I couldn’t pick him up. I couldn’t even hold him by myself.

The cancer was already in my liver when I was diagnosed. And, over time, the cancer spread to my lungs and my lymph nodes. I developed spots all over my body, but one on my heel was noticeably darker, and I asked my oncologist to check it out. It turned out to be precancerous melanoma. I had to have surgery to remove it, and it was incredibly painful because it was on my heel and they couldn’t numb it. They took out a chunk of my heel and I couldn’t walk, drive or do anything for myself for four months. I just was helpless.

2023 (Jommy Photography)

There were some bright moments during that time. I was in remission for most of 2021 and 2022, and 2022 was one of the best years of my life. I got back into working out, doing Pilates, hanging with my friends and playing baseball with my son — it was wonderful. I was even able to go off treatment. But before that Christmas, cancer was found in the lymph nodes in my chest. My doctors wanted me to start treatment before Christmas, and I said I couldn’t. I had to have my perfect Christmas first. I’m glad I did, because it was wonderful.

I started treatment again in January 2023, and I have to continue treatment for the rest of my life. My regimen consists of three days of chemotherapy in the hospital and at home, and then I’m off for three weeks. I still stay busy as a chief administrative officer for a tech-focused startup. I work a lot and travel a lot — I had life goals before I got sick, and I’m determined to do my best to meet those goals. I’m 38 now, Cameron is 8, and I try to enjoy as much time with my family as possible.

I started sharing my story after going to a Colorectal Cancer Alliance event in 2019. At the dinner, they were asking people in the audience to stand up and share their stories. There were actors and dancers on stage who would act out whatever you were saying. It was very cool.

I was nervous, but I stood up and shared my story. People were clapping and coming up to give me a hug. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

To this day, no one knows why I developed colon cancer and why it happened during my pregnancy. Was it the rapid generation of cells that took place to grow a new human inside my body? That’s the only link I can think of, because I’m the only person in my family to have it. Because I had no family history or risk factors for colon cancer, I know my young age wasn’t helpful in getting an early diagnosis.

That’s why I always tell people to do your best to advocate for yourself with your healthcare providers because you don’t know what you don’t know. No doctor knows everything. Tell your doctor that you aren’t leaving that office until they look deeper into your issue because it’s your body, and you know best when something is wrong.

This educational resource was created with support from Daiichi Sankyo and Takeda.

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This article was originally published on healthywomen.org.