Survivor Story: Gabrielle Denby

Cancer is not just an old person’s disease.

I grew up in upstate NY, was raised vegetarian and have never eaten red meat. I have been an athlete all my life. I hold a masters degree in political science and am currently in law school. My friends and family will tell you I’m obsessively healthy, active, and tuned in to my body.

I don’t have a family history of cancer and was never really concerned about my health, but I didn’t ignore symptoms either. Ever since I was very young, I have suffered from very bad stomach aches. Many doctors diagnosed me with acid reflux and told me to use an antacid. Over time, I became convinced that I just had a very sensitive system. To minimize symptoms, I tried changing my eating habits – first eliminating dairy, then gluten, and then all processed foods. But it didn’t help and my stomach pains never went away. By the time I was in college, chronic constipation was another regular symptom. I become obsessed with maintaining a regular routine as everything seemed to affect me.

One winter break, I suddenly started passing large amounts of blood. I filled the toilet with red liquid. I was alarmed, but my family doctor performed a quick exam and told me I had hemorrhoids. (I later learned that hemorrhoids were a symptom, not the cause of my condition). I believe that being a young “20-something” is why my doctor did not perform a digital exam. This exam would have found blood and led to further tests.

I stopped passing blood about a week later but my constipation and stomach pains continued. When I began grad school in 2009, I began vomiting every morning. I went to the school clinic. The doctor was convinced I had a stomach bug, even though my symptoms had persisted for a month and I dropped 10 lbs.

I was frustrated and I began to believe that this was just the way my body acted. By the spring of 2011, my constipation was worse and I noticed blood in my stool. My stomach pains intensified and I could no longer eat and yet, I was slowly gaining weight and my stomach was bloated.

By mid-August I was entirely impacted; laxatives had no effect. I went to the campus clinic and the nurse suggested I go to the hospital ER for an enema. I went straight there and when various laxatives had no effect and an x-ray showed a large blockage, I was given a colon-prep (if you know anyone who has had a colonoscopy they’ll tell you this gets rid of everything!). I was sent home and told not to ignore my constipation and to eat healthier (but I did that already!).

Two days later the constipation and blood in my stool were back. The school nurse told me that laxatives would make it go away. At this point, my boyfriend had had enough and made me an appointment with a gastrointestinal specialist. After I described my symptoms, she immediately ordered various tests, including a sigmoidoscopy and a CT.

The next day, she called to tell me I had colon cancer. I was 26-years-old that summer. The surgeon told me that I would need a resection. I learned that while rare, colon cancer in the under 40 crowd is not as rare as people think. During surgery they removed an apple sized tumor from my descending colon. The tumor had gone through my intestinal wall and had entered my lymph system. I had stage III colon cancer.

I completed seven months of chemotherapy and have been in remission since April 2012. Needless, to say, having no family history of cancer, being extremely healthy and active, as well as young, did not prevent me from developing cancer. It not only angers me that my symptoms were ignored at a point when my cancer could have been caught early, but it also angers me that the medical community seems unaware that colon cancer has risen 150% in individuals under 40. If caught early as a polyp during a colonoscopy, colon cancer is entirely preventable.

No one is immune to cancer. When will doctors get that?