Jacee was at her 25thbirthday party but was not happy at all. Several days of planning went bad because she was sick with diarrhea which turned bloody on her special day. Her loving husband was worried. Their tow small children also could sense the concern on both of their parents’ faces and their mannerisms. Jacee was referred to a local bowel specialist and was asked if anyone in her family had tumors or cancers in their bowels. Jacee checked with her mother. A pause preceded her negative answer. Jacee thought that her mom was thinking about the family tree….and she was. Her mother had never told her the whole truth about Jacee’s father. Her mom was not really sure.
Twenty-five years ago Jacee’s mom was “wild”. At that time she had acquired quite a test for clubbing-going out to bars, drinking and partying with the boys. Her mother, Nicole, had just broken up with her boyfriend and just went wild. She drank every night and had multiple men sleep over at her apartment. She finally crashed her VW beetle and the man who stopped had helped her. When she was so distraught she finally fell in love with and married 3 weeks later. She found out she was pregnant. Her new love was perfect-he didn’t drink, smoke or curse. He adored Nicole. How could she tell him she was pregnant by one of the several random men she had slept with? She decided to go along with his assumption it was his and Jacee was born.
Jacee’s real father had a very worrisome colon cancer gene. Multiple family members had a condition called familial polyposis. The doctor did not know this. Jacee was given antibiotics. The doctor thought her risk of tumor causing the bleeding was minimal. She continued to bleed. Four weeks later she was so weak that she could not walk for 5 minutes without becoming short of breath. She was transfused and her insurance company would not pay for further hospital workup. She felt better after the transfusion and stayed on liquids. Another appointment was made with the bowel doctor but the wait was two months. Jacee’s doctor was part of a large medical group which only used their own bowel doctor. Two months was too long.
She required another transfusion. She lost 25 lbs and looked anorexic. Jacee’s mother called daily and got her an appointment immediately with a different doctor who recommended immediate colonoscopy. A large cancer was found and Jacee had polyps covering her intestines. A CAT scan was done which revealed cancer all over her liver. She had only weeks to live. Jacee’s husband was never told the truth……. But he suspected something was wrong. Jacee died a horrible death at home—vomiting, short of breath and oversedated with narcotics. Her children cried till there were no more tears and then became silent. They were so depressed. Depressed more over their father who could not get over her death.
Familial polyposis is a near 100% deadly diagnosis. If it occurs within a family tree. Members need to be screened with colonoscopy their teens and there is a cure. The cure is removing the colon once the polyps are found. The surgery prevents the cancer by removing the thousands of polyps inside the colon by removing the colon. Jacee never knew she was supposed to be checked as a teenager. Neither did her mother. Neither knew who her daddy was.
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