Cody’s Story

Site created on June 14, 2012


I want to first take a quick moment to thank you for visiting Cody's CaringBridge page and for showing him your support. We've learned very quickly how much that support will help to keep him, his family, and I all strong along this journey.

Now to get to the information that has gotten us to this point: For quite some time, Cody had been struggling with what we had always assumed was something wrong with his stomach. The symptoms finally became bad enough for him to make an appointment with Dr. Adkins on Monday, June 11th, 2012. After the exam, Dr. Adkins set him up for a colonoscopy with Dr. Keonin first thing in the morning on Tuesday, June 12th. After the colonoscopy was completed, Dr. Keonin came to us with the bad news. He told us he was 99% sure Cody has rectal cancer. As you can imagine, we were all taken by surprise at that news. Never in a lifetime would any of us have guessed we would be hearing this. Dr. Keonin even said himself that he would be surprised to find this in a 50-year-old, let alone a 27-year-old. We were then lucky enough to be able to set up an appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for the morning of Wednesday, June 13th. We were all holding on to the 1% chance Dr. Keonin had given us that he was incorrect; however, at that appointment, Sheila Buehler (Nurse Practitioner) confirmed our fears and said that it is, in fact, rectal cancer. After speaking to Dr. Boardman, she did more confirming of that fact. Cody was then given his schedule for the next two weeks and explained what would be happening along the way. He went for some tests, which included a CT scan. This scan will help tell whether the cancer has spread to other areas of his body. We won't hear the results of the CT scan until later next week (June 21st or 22nd). We are going back to the Mayo Clinic tomorrow morning for an endoscopic ultrasound and a second colonoscopy, which will get them an up-close view of the tumor. On Thursday, June 21st, we will be back in Rochester for a pelvic MRI and to meet with the doctors. On Friday, June 22nd, we have a scheduled meeting with the surgeons to figure out the next step. We have been told Cody will probably need a month or so of chemoradiation to shrink the tumor before they're able to do surgery on it. There are a lot of maybes we've been told about, but we plan to take this all one step at a time. I will do my best to keep you all updated on Cody's progress along the way. Thank you again for your support and encouraging words as Cody, his family, and I will need a lot of them along the way.

Newest Update

An Exciting Update!

Journal entry by Whitney Reese —

So I realize it has been a very long time since I have posted any updates, and, for that, I apologize! I will catch you up on the more recent information, which will give you what you need to be up to speed!

On April 20, 2017, (the visits between March of 2014 and April of 2017 will require some research to fill in the gap, but this will do for now) Cody went to Mayo in Rochester for his routine bloodwork and a CT scan. His doctors were happy enough with the results of both at that point that they gave him the all clear and released him from Mayo treatment! While it was a scary thought to not have them watching over him, this was great news!! At that point, he was just to follow up with his primary care doctor with wellness visits and schedule a colonoscopy in September of 2019.

Fast forward to present-day: here we are in September of 2019. Cody had a colonoscopy this morning with his new doctor right here in Emmetsburg, Dr. Sticca. Everything continues to look great! He should now not need another colonoscopy for 3 more years!

As far as life happenings: Dallas is now 15 and a Sophomore in high school, Harley is 6 and a 1st grader, and Aria is 3 years old and the ruler of the roost. We moved from Laurens to Emmetsburg in October of 2018 and we are loving it here!

Cody and I would both like to thank you all for your continued support throughout these years! It would have been a much more difficult journey without all of you, so, for you, we are grateful! I will post updates again in the future whenever there is anything new to report, but please keep your fingers crossed that you don't see another update until 3 years from now!
Read More of the journal titled "An Exciting Update!"
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