Rory Kennedy, 36, has no family cancer background. It has no overweight and has always maintained a healthy lifestyle: clean diet, regular exercise, without smoking or drinking.
Thus, when he was diagnosed with colon cancer in phase 3C last September, it was a shock, to say -less.
“I don’t have a single brand of colon cancer verification,” he told The Post. “There is no main cause. They said something happened to the body, that something was mutating.”
It all started in 2022, when Kennedy experienced a week of black and Tarry stools, which can be caused by anything ranging from gastrointestinal bleeding to too many blueberries.
He went to an emergency care clinic, where he was told that he was probably “only an ulcer” or some bacteria, given some drugs and sent home.
“I took [the drugs] And the symptoms seemed to be relieved of the following month, “he said.” So I didn’t think about anything. Continued with my life. Everything went well. “
Flash-Forward until June 2024, when Kennedy saw “a single bleeding stool”, one of the most prominent signs of colon cancer, and decided to see a gastroenterologist, especially because he had had intermittent stomach pains, which is another common sign.
“He immediately told me that if he had black feces, Tarry, he should have immediately obtained a colonoscopy and an endoscopy,” Kennedy said.
Although colorectal cancer can sometimes be asymptomatic, Dr. Kiranmayi Muddasani, a surgeon from the staff of the Department of Colorectal Surgery of the Mount Sinai Medical Center, said in the publication that a change in intestinal habits or feces caliber, as well as straight hemorrhage or weight loss, is among the most common symptoms.
“That is why a colonoscopy is the best way to detect -and treat it,” he said.
Once these procedures were performed in Kennedy, he felt a phrase that no one wants to hear.
“It was when I was hit with the news brick,” You have a mass in your colon, “he said.” I was surprised. I had no idea. I knew something happened, but I thought I had only a polyp that bleed or an injury to the colon or something. “
What followed was a “quite intensive” surgery in the Mount Sinai Medical Center of Miami, during which 10 inches of colon were eliminated, some small intestines, appendix and 45 lymph nodes. Cancer was found in eight of the 45 lymph nodes, causing a diagnosis of the 3C stage in September 2024.
“There are letters involved because I guess each step is a little worse. So 3a is not as bad as 3B, which is not as bad as 3C. 3C is the last letter of Stage 3,” he said.
“So basically I am at a point of distance from stage 4.”
It was, to say the least, devastating.
“Have you ever got a burn of pizza? When you eat a hot pizza and it burns the top of your mouth? Imagine -you feel everywhere.”
Rory Kennedy
“I would say from the moment I learned [the diagnosis] And until you like a month later, you are just in a terrible head space, “he said.” I have a woman, I have a newborn child who has just met 1 the day I made surgery. “”
The treatment of chemotherapy began, which has affected its body.
“There are many side effects,” he said. “You have nausea, I cannot sleep because you are in steroids the first days that nausea is supposed to relieve, but you are still nausa, so you are taking pills for that.”
Chemo weakens the immune system, causing frequent diseases, which means that it cannot be around your young child as much as you would like.
When tears in the eyes, they burn, and also their mouth, a lesser known condition known as “Boca Quimio”.
“Have you ever obtained a burned pizza? When you eat a hot pizza and it burns the top of your mouth?
However, Kennedy believes that the hardest part of cancer is uncertainty.
“The mental is definitely the worst part because physical time is cured,” he said.
“It’s really a challenge because all the scenarios just went through your mind. Oh, no, I will not see my son going to kindergarten or that I will not see him in high school or he will marry or some of these things.
He credits his wife, Facebook support groups for people with cancer and their faith to get it during the darkest days.
“Sometimes I wonder when I was black [stools]I wish the doctor had said to me then, “Hey, I mean a gi.”
Rory Kennedy
“I am a Christian and I would say that he has made me an even stronger Christian, he made me even more faithful,” he said.
And through all the pain, getting a cancer has given him a silver lining: he has made him aware.
“In the good side, I have been more present right now, because I don’t know how many good times I will have,” he said.
Kennedy is currently finishing chemo, after which explorations and blood testing will be submitted to check cancer. If the tests are clear, it will be referred, but it will have 40% -50% of recurrence.
If you are free of cancer for five years, it will be downloaded, but it still faces a risk of recurrence of 10% of a lifetime.
These days, it feels much better, especially because the preliminary tests they have made have been clear. But if there is something, he laments: he did not get a colonoscopy sooner.
“Sometimes I wonder when I was black [stools]I wish the doctor had said to me then, “Hey, I mean a gi.”
He has decided to share his story in the hope of urged people to obtain colonoscopy, emphasizing that a colonoscopy is the only way to prevent colon cancer by eliminating precancerous polyps.
He also emphasized that, unlike common belief, the procedure is fast, painless (under anesthesia) and easy to recover. And it surely surpasses the alternative.
“I don’t want other people to happen for that,” he said.
“I do not highly recommend cancer, it really is not fun. I would prefer to do 30 colonoscopies in a row than to go through chemo.”
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