Patient Stories

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You can help others by sharing your story! You can offer hope, insight and/or words of wisdom for those newly diagnosed as they navigate our website for information.

Marilyn Hagar

Marilyn Hagar - February 2024

One evening a little before Christmas in 2020, I found a streak of blood on my toilet tissue. As a 74-year-old woman, that was a big shock. I knew something must be terribly wrong. I called my doctor that next morning. If you are here reading this, you know what happened next. I was examined, tests were ordered, and all...

Eugenia Lee

Eugenia Lee - February 2024

I had been misdiagnosed for almost a year with inflamed hemorrhoids. My symptoms were a change in bowel movements and an inflamed rectum, but my PCP attributed it to the hemorrhoids. Things started to change on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, when I felt a dull ache on the lower right side of my abdomen. I said to myself...naw, it's not...

Robert O’Neal

Robert O'Neal - January 2024

Sitting in the Emerson Hospital Emergency Room the night of May 26, 2022 I heard the words that would change my life – “it looks like you have cancer.” The previous couple days had taken me away on a business trip when I started feeling really full, like I had eaten too much. Up until that time, I was living...

Richard Thoma

Richard Thoma - December 2023

Tuesday, September 12th, 2023. 3:40 CST A day I will never forget. I was in Houston for work, about 20 minutes away from my next meeting, when I got the call from my Primary Care Physician’s office asking if I was someplace safe. I immediately knew I was not going to get great news. I pulled over in a Starbucks...

Marissa Iamello

Marissa Iamello - February, 2022

My husband and I got married in September of 2015. I always dreamed of having children, but by the summer of 2016 we still had no luck. It was strange because I swear, I felt pregnant: I was constantly feeling the urge to pee, my stomach looked big and felt bloated, and every other month I wouldn’t even ovulate. I...

Rachel

Rachel - February, 2022

I never could have predicted that my three and a half year struggle with infertility would end with a cancer diagnosis. My husband and I sought help for our infertility issues intermittently for a couple of years from 2018 through 2020. I had a minor procedure in 2018 to remove some endometrial polyps, but other than that, every test we...

Deshanna Armwood

Deshanna - September, 2021

My name is Deshanna and I am 44 years old. I was diagnosed with Stage IV appendix cancer on August 10, 2020. I had been going to the women’s health center about issues of a reoccurring water cyst on my right ovary. I would be in tremendous pain during my cycle, but I started to pass clots and I had...

Carla Keepes

Carla Keepes - September, 2021

My name is Carla and my journey with this rare cancer began March 2019. I am a registered nurse and worked in the emergency room and had recently noticed urine incontinence within myself. I went to a urologist and they did a cystoscope which revealed a mass. Seven months later and after several test and six rounds of chemotherapy, they...

Paige Martin

Paige Martin - August, 2021

My name is Paige Martin and I am 28 years old. My story started when I awoke in the middle of the night around 3:00am on Thanksgiving in 2020. I had horrible pain. I tried to call my dad and some other close by friends to see if they could take me to the ER because I was vomiting and...

Renee Hill

Renee Hill - August, 2021

May 2021 I’m Renee Hill and am an active, healthy 36-year-old. I was diagnosed with Stage IV mucinous adenocarcinoma (with signet cells) of the appendix on August 10, 2016. I was a healthy, active 31-year-old in the midst of training for my 25th half marathon. I have so many little memories from the summer of 2016 leading up to my diagnosis...

Rebecca Jacobs

Rebecca Jacobs - August, 2021

I am 39 years old and was diagnosed with appendix cancer at the age of 38. I was a healthy female with no underlying health issues and not taking any medications. In the beginning of March of 2020, I begin to feel bloating in my stomach, stomach pains, and a hernia. I went to see my primary care physician (PCP)...

Katherine Bell

Katherine Bell - July, 2021

My name is Katherine Bell and I’m 28 years old. When I was diagnosed with stage 2 appendix cancer, I was a healthy 27-year-old with no underlying risk conditions. One evening I started feeling cramping in my abdomen. I thought nothing of it until the intensity increased and I could barely sit upright or walk. I called my PCP and...

Sean Beattie

Kayla-Jane Mooney - April, 2021

Our story began in July 2018. We had just returned from the trip of a lifetime in South Africa, where we celebrated Seans 30th birthday. We brought home with us quite the souvenir for our families, finding out we were in fact 3 months pregnant with our first child. Little did we know at the time, this was not the...

Julie Wright

Written by Mike Wright - December, 2020

“Is she surrounded by love? Yes? Then she’s ok.” – A wise friend This is the story of Julie Wright’s 18-month journey with appendiceal cancer which sadly ended in March 2020. As Julie’s spouse and life partner, I bear witness to this story of hope, courage, and integrity. I share Julie’s (and our) story with the wish that others in...

Meghan Blomquist

Written by Meghan Blomquist - May, 2020

My name is Meghan Blomquist. I have many roles and titles; I’m a mother, wife, sister, daughter, aunt, granddaughter, cousin, niece, in-law, friend. I am a second-grade teacher. I’m a baseball mom and an avid reader. A new role, that of cancer patient, came to me very much uninvited and unwanted in 2014. I’ve tried to accept this role and...

Kelly Lund

Written by Kelly Lund - February, 2020

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...

Trisha Spata

Written by Trisha Spata - October, 2019

My story all began when my husband and I went through different types of fertility treatments for over 2 years to try and conceive a baby. We ended with IVF and we were very lucky enough to have two healthy embryos. The first one unfortunately didn’t stick, we were devastated, so we took a break on the entire baby thing...

Lauren Smith

Written by Lauren Smith - October, 2019

My name is Lauren Smith, I’m 23 years old and I live in Boston, MA. Two years ago, before my senior year at college, I was given the news that nobody ever wants to hear, I was told that I had a rare form of appendix cancer. Cancers and tumors of the appendix are extremely rare, it was once thought...

Bob Franek

Written by Bob Franek - September, 2019

I began to have health issues the summer of 2016. I went to the doctor and he decided to do a colonoscopy. I knew something was wrong, but the doctor said he couldn’t find anything. On my way I went thinking this was all in my head. Over the next six months I would visit the emergency room three times...

Jenny Malec

Written by Jenny Malec - June, 2019

In 2014, I was diagnosed with Appendix Cancer and Pseudomyxoma Peritonei (ACPMP), a disease characterized by appendiceal tumors that spread and cause a buildup of mucin in the abdominal cavity. I underwent numerous surgeries, medical procedures, immunotherapies and chemotherapy, only to be told in 2017 that I was no longer a candidate for HIPEC surgery. Since that is currently the...

JoAnn Hertshten

Written by JoAnn Hertshten - March, 2017

It started exactly 2 years ago when I was 64 years old. At some point I had decided that I wanted the be a healthy old person so I have been careful about my diet and have exercised regularly; I had been feeling absolutely fine. One day I started feeling an excruciating pain in my lower right abdomen. I wasn’t...

David Mason

Written by David Mason - December, 2011

My name is David and I am a Pseudomyxoma Peritonei survivor living in the UK. I was first diagnosed with PMP after my appendix burst in May 2009. I was out shopping with my wife and two daughters when I was taken ill and was rushed to the local hospital. Initially the burst appendix was not diagnosed and I was...

Laurie Todd

Written by Laurie Todd - October, 2010

Diagnosis I had been feeling exhausted for a year. In November 2004, I went for a complete physical exam. The doctor pronounced me the healthiest person of my age group on the planet. Four months later, I was diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer, rushed into surgery, and given months to live. A complete hysterectomy was performed, a soccer-ball-sized tumor removed,...