Let’s start from the beginning...on July 17th Kelli was at work and felt as if she was going to pass out. A coworker took her to urgent care, they thought she was having a heart attack and sent her to the ER. At the er they thought she may be having a pulmonary embolism so they did D-dimer test. Long story short, they did a cat scan and found multiple tumors. At this point she was told she had cancer that had metastasized. 

Multiple dr appointments and tests later she was told she has stage 4 colon cancer that had spread to her liver and lungs. Left untreated she would live 3-4 months. With aggressive chemo we could hope for 18, however, keep in mind these statistics are based off people 30 years older than Kelli. It is rare to get this cancer at such a young age. 

Now for treatment options, the drs are concerned about the size of the tumor on her liver as well as the one in her large intestine. To have surgery to remove the tumor in her large intestine would mean we’d have to wait 4ish weeks to begin chemo. To start with chemo we would then risk the bowel obstructing and if that happened after chemo started then you’d have to have surgery which would be extremely dangerous. Why not place a stint you ask? Well, the GI Dr. was concerned that the tumor was too big to place a stint and the risk of perforating her intestine was too great. So flip a coin...let’s start with chemo. 

Fast forward through the longest 4 weeks of our lives so far to August 20th and Kelli goes in to have a port placed and will start chemo the following day. Here we go...this is all becoming so real. Wednesday morning, chemo day and...insurance shits the bed and has not yet approved chemo. Wait, what? Ugh, there are so many feelings, anger and fear were up at the top for me. More waiting. 

Early Thursday morning Kelli began to feel ill. She was told if she stopped having BMs and began throwing up that could possibly mean her bowel was obstructed. Off to the ER, which in my opinion is not very emergent. I watch a lot of Greys Anotomy and Kelli has her doctorate from WebMD and between the two of us I’m sure the drs and nurses were feeling pretty lucky to have us to consult with. It was a very long day and she ended up getting admitted to the hospital. They did another cat scan only to find that her tumors we’re growing faster than they thought. At this point our only option was to try the stint...

Luckily all went well and the GI dr was able to get the stint in. Now Kelli is on a very restricted diet in hopes of maintaing the function of her stint. Chemo starts August 26th. Every other week for 12 weeks. Then another PET scan to see how it’s working. 

Those of you who know Kelli we’ll know that she loves laughter and is always joking. So if there’s anything you can bring her bring her laughter.