Download Kelly Keough`s Story - Chris4Life Colon Cancer Foundation

Kelly Keough’s Story
I was first diagnosed in 2008. We had gone on vacation to Topsail Beach and while we were unloading
the car up 4 flights of stairs, I was having trouble breathing. Then the next week we were moving my
oldest daughter from her house in Baltimore to an apartment and again, after a few flight of stairs, could
not breath. My husband gave me a hard time and said "if it were him, I would make him go to the
doctor." So the next day, I made an appointment. My GP referred me to a cardiologist who requested
blood work in addition to an EKG and echo and veno cardiograms. Turns out my heart was just fine, but
I was severely anemic. My ferritin level was a 2 (it should have been a 200)! I was admitted to the
hospital for a blood transfusion. Then, to determine why I was losing blood, I had an endoscopy and a
colonoscopy. The colonoscopy turned up a large mass in my ascending colon. It had not penetrated the
wall (Stage 2A), so I was told I should have surgery to remove that section of my colon. In the
meantime, I was receiving iron infusions. During the third infusion, I had an anaphylactic reaction and
was rushed to the hospital. After that, I requested that the iron supplement be changed, but the doctor
did not agree with me, so I changed oncologists. My new oncologist, Dr. Deepnarayan Tiwarri, referred
me to one of the top colon surgeons in DC – Dr. Jennifer Ayscue at Washington Hospital Center. He also
consulted with Dr. Marshall at Georgetown. I had my first surgery in October 2008. Dr. Ayscue was able
to remove all of the tumor from my ascending color, and good news – no lymph node involvement! I
was in the hospital for 12 days, mostly because I was still so weak from the anemia. I was scheduled to
start chemo treatments on December 9, but the day I showed up for my first treatment they had just
received the results of my tumor pathology from the Mayo Clinic. I had a micro-satellite instability (a
miss-match repair gene - a genetic defect), so the thought was I would probably not benefit from the
chemo - yay! So I continued to receive iron treatments, blood work every 6 weeks, CT scans every 6
months, PET scans and colonoscopies every year. My doctor kept a very close eye on me. I had a clean
colonoscopy in September 2011 and was told I did have to come back for 5 years. After 3 years of clean
scans, we thought I had it beat! I was tested for Lynch Syndrome and it came out negative. The MSI
was probably just a defect in the tumor, not in my genes.
Then my CEA started to rise ever so slightly. In January 2012, my oncologist wanted me to have another
CT/PET. It showed a fluid filled sac at the anastomosis (reconnection site of my colon) on the outside of
the colon. I then had another colonoscopy that showed the tumor pushing into my colon - this was
undetectable on the colonoscopy I had in September, so it was growing fast! So in March 2012, I had
another surgery to remove that section. I also had a total hysterectomy as a precaution so that the
cancer could not spread to those organs. (I wasn't using them anyway, so why not, as long as they were
going to open me up again - two birds!) As with the first surgery, no lymph nodes were involved, but
since it was outside the colon, it was technically Stage 4. (Although I had one doc refer to it as Stage 3
1/2!). This time my oncologist insisted on chemo, so in May, I started 6 months of FOLFOX infusions,
every two weeks. I had the usually side effects, hair thinning, taste changes, loss of appetite, but mostly
diarrhea - I lost 35 lbs (I was thrilled, but my doc was not very happy!). By September I also started
having severe peripheral neuropathy - numbness and pain - in my hands and feet. They eliminated the
oxalaplatin from my last two treatments, but I still have problems. I take neurontin for the pain and am
trying various other alternative therapies - massage, yoga, MELT - to try to restore the nerve
endings. After that, I had one clean scan in November, then in May 2013 my PET/CT showed a tumor in
my liver - a very small one. I had my third surgery in July. They removed about half of my liver. My
oncologist recommended another round of chemo, but Dr. Marshall had just opened a clinical trial for a
new drug, not yet FDA approved - Dovitinib - so I signed up! I have been on this drug for eight weeks
now with very minimal side effects. I will have blood work every 4 weeks and CT Scans every 8
weeks. So if anything new shows up, I will know immediately. I am very hopeful that this works for me
and that thru the research of the trial, it helps others.
So the moral of my story is GET SCREENED! If I had been screened at age 40, when I should have
because my grandmother (on my fathers side) had colon cancer, they would have removed the polyp
that eventually turned into a tumor and I would not have a story to tell.