Tammy’s Story

My journey begins in July 2002. This period of my life should have been one of the happiest times, I was just 6 short weeks from my wedding. I had not been feeling well for several months. I had lost weight, had abnormal bowel movements, extreme fatigue, and blood in my stool. I had talked about it with people but felt reassured that it was probably nothing, or that it could be hemorrhoids.

The weekend of July 10th I had a gut feeling that something was just not right. I had a lot of blood in my stool that day so I called a friend. I talked it over with that friend and with her I made a decision to go to the ER. Bryan (my fiancé at the time) met me there. The ER doctor did a blood occult test and it came out positive. He then ordered a colonoscopy with a doctor for that Monday. The thought of Cancer still never really entered our minds.

Monday came and it was time for the procedure. Dr. Robert Cusworrth performed the colonoscopy. I did not feel any pain and was awake and attentive during the procedure. During the procedure, he asked if my family was here, and I replied “yes, in the waiting room.” I then know that something was not going to be good news. Dr. Cusworth informed us that he thought he found a tumor, a cancerous tumor and that I needed to go down to Barnes Jewish immediately and see a specialist. Again, the thought of Cancer still had not set in.

We went to the specialist on a Wednesday, the doctor was David Dietz. During this appointment my biopsy results were going to come in while I was seeing Dr. Dietz. Bryan and I had decided that this was not going to be anything big but was probably something really embarrassing like a tear in that region or something. To my dismay, it was Cancer. Bryan came into the doctors room and I asked “Did Dr. Cusworth call?”, He said “Yes”, I said “Well what did he say, is it?”, He said “Yes Tam he called, it is, you have Cancer.”

At that moment my world seemed to stop, my heart fell to the floor, and the thought of death came into my head. Bryan was speechless and motionless, like a deer in headlights. Here we were, about to get married all of our hopes and dreams in our heads and then this.

Dr. Dietz recommended surgery to remove the tumor immediately. He found it to be rare to be 27 and have Rectal Cancer so he thought it to be best to do the surgery as soon as soon as possible. The surgery was set for Aug. 6th, 2002, just 4 weeks from the date of our wedding. The surgery was to remove the tumor, and doctors felt that would be it. Dr. Dietz had mentioned an illeostomy bag but felt that it may not apply in my situation.

Aug 6th came and it was surgery day. I was just not prepared for what was to come. All I could think about was getting it done and over with so that I could marry the man of my dreams. The surgery took about 6 hours, and went well. I woke up from surgery with an illeostomy bag and doctors felt that everything went well. The next day further results came in. The part of the rectum that was infected was removed and analyzed and the result had come back that the Cancer had spread to a surrounding lymph node. This would mean that further treatment would be necessary. This would mean chemotherapy and radiation.

Bryan and I’s first thought was family. Were we going to be able to have kids? Time was of essence and they felt we needed to move quickly. Bryan and I got married on 9/7/02, and after that day reality sets in. We would need to start the process to harvest eggs. At first, that was not an option because the Dr. had moved my ovaries during surgery, so that if further treatment was needed that they would be out of the way. Because of them being moved, Dr. Ratts (fertility doctor) would not be able to reach the ovaries to capture eggs to harvest. Our bubble had bursted, what were we to do?

God works in mysterious ways, as I had a CT scan that would reveal that my ovaries had dropped back down. We found that out 3 days before radiation treatment was due to start. We then delayed treatment and began the harvesting egg process. This process consisted of taking medication, giving yourself injections, constant lab work, and finally surgery to remove the eggs. That surgery was a success, and we now have 12 eggs. This foundation came about due to this process. Bryan and I had just got married, had little saved and this procedure was going to cost 12,000. Friends of ours started this Foundation and did a charity dinner that covered the cost of this procedure. We were so blessed.

Today, I am now in remission and, as a Foundation, we are concentrating on educating the community and helping those that have been diagnosed with this disease.