A first-time mother was given a year to live when cancer was found in her pregnancy symptoms. Jennaca Russ, 37, of Oklahoma, US, began to suffer from blood in her stool and anemia in her second trimester throughout her pregnancy. Jennaca was a nurse, so she realized something wasn’t right when she began to experience the symptoms.
So she made an appointment with a doctor, who reassured her that her issues were caused by the pregnancy. According to Today, Jennaca was not convinced and booked a colonoscopy, a procedure that provides a closer look inside your bowels. That appointment was set for November 21, 2022, just over a month after she gave birth to her first child, August Russ, on October 4, 2022.
Jennaca’s problems had improved after she gave the baby, and the former nurse thought she no longer need the appointment. But it was her mother who convinced her to go for the colonoscopy when she found she had colon cancer and only had a 10% chance of life. She said: “It was a pretty dark day for us, I got the news two or three days before Thanksgiving.”
“Initially they thought I would be stage one or two but the next day I had a CT where we found out it had spread to my liver.” Jennaca added: “It was devastating, speaking to my doctor and he told me I had a year to live. “After Thanksgiving, I had an appointment with an oncologist who changed my prognosis.
“He said I have years but it will be a long fight as the survival rate is poor. I have a 10 percent chance that I will live for five years.” “I contacted my doctors throughout my whole pregnancy and they said to wait until the baby has been born. “As my pregnancy went on I kept getting concerned about the bleeding and I reached out to a doctor and was put in for a colonoscopy.”
The mum added: “I had a gut feeling it was something more than that.” But the new mother decided to defy the odds, so she planned a December 2022 appointment at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Jennaca said: “The doctors there said that my cancer is surgical and they believe they can remove my liver tumors.
“I have my colon cancer surgery at the end of February, they said the cure rate is about 40 percent which is light years ahead of what I was told before. “Doctors are still deciding when I will have my liver surgery.” Jennaca has had four rounds of chemotherapy in preparation for surgery later this month.
Jennaca has lost her job as a nurse as a result of her illness, thus a GoFundMe page has been put up to help cover the cost of her cancer treatment. Since its start, the event has raised $29,598 of the $50,000 target.