Kelly Lund

My story began in 2014 when I began training for a half marathon. I was training with two personal trainers and some friends and I noticed I was gaining weight. I thought it was weird since I was trying to eat healthy and I was training harder than ever. I began gaining more and more weight. I decided I needed some answers so I went to the Emergency room. I felt so ridiculous sitting in the empty Emergency room waiting room just for gaining weight. Yet, after two ultrasound exams and a CT scan, the doctor finally came in and said they found something probably the size of a bunch of grapes on my uterus. A tumor.

I was admitted to the hospital that same day which was a Saturday and had surgery Monday. What was supposed to be a 2-3 hour surgery ended up being over 6 hours. My doctor said he thought I had appendix cancer. He had seen it before, but we’d have to wait until pathology came back to confirm. Pathology came back. It was Stage IV low grade appendiceal carcinoma. After surgery, I was considered in remission. I also traveled to the half marathon I had been training for and participated just 12 weeks after having surgery!

In 2016, the cancer came back… I went out of state to do another surgery, this time with HIPEC (heated chemo treatment). This surgery lasted over 10 hours. Some disease remained, but with HIPEC, the surgeon and I were certain it would remain stable for some time. Recovery was very rough, but I focused on my nutrition, activity and family.

In 2019, the cancer began to grow again. I had another surgery. This time I did not receive HIPEC. Not all of the tumors were taken out due to location… A few weeks after I got home from this surgery, I was admitted to the hospital due to a bowel obstruction. I was taken in for emergency colostomy surgery. However, I am hopeful that this has corrected the symptoms I have been having.

When I am not dealing with the after math of cancer, you can find me at home snuggling my babies and hanging out with my husband and our two dogs. I love taking walks, taking pictures of our kids and eating whatever my husband cooks up in the kitchen. Before our son came into our life a little over a year ago, you could find us fishing, off roading, remodeling our home and enjoying all that Nevada has to offer. Since our son was born, we now enjoy hanging out at home in the company of each other!