Survivor Story: Katherine Annala

I am a Portland Oregon native, an artist and a masters student at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine. There is no family history of colon cancer, although my aunt had breast cancer and my mother had chronic lymphasitic leukemia.

The first sign I had that something was wrong was the presence of blood in my stools. When I went to my doctor I was assured that I just has internal hemorrhoids. I was in grad school and sitting for hours a day so I thought O.K., this seems logical, the bleeding will go away. But it didn’t. Two months passed with blood every day and now I was having around eight movements a day. Something was wrong.

Then one day in my Anatomy and Physiology class the teacher was talking about cancer. “Cancer bleeds and does not heal” she said. I had an epiphany, I had colon cancer. I returned to my doctor and asked her to take pity on me, “Remember when your were in your second year of medical school and self diagnosed in every class? We are learning about neoplasms and I need to be referred to a gastroenterologist.”

She laughed, referred me, and yep, I had cancer. My colonoscopy showed a four mm tumor in my sigmoid colon, and several of the adjacent lymph-nodes lit up during my CT scan. The CT scan also showed an my left ovary had a large tumor on it as well so I knew things were pretty serious.

About a foot of my colon was removed during the surgery, as well as my left ovary and 23 lymph nodes. The ovarian tumor was benign, but when I was told that the cancer was found in six of my lymph nodes I threw up. I knew then I had stage three cancer and that I would undergo chemotherapy. This news was particularly distressing for me, who was studying the beautiful energetics Chinese medicine and didn’t relish the idea of hitting my body with the toxic hammer of chemo.

I healed well from the surgery and started chemotherapy seven weeks later. I began seeing a naturopath as soon as I was diagnosed. He taught me a great hydrotherapy method that helped my digestion gear back up after surgery. He also helped me with my diet, to deal with the malabsorption syndrome from surgery and 5-Fu.

I also enrolled in an immune enhancement program where I received acupuncture twice a week, herbal supplements and shiatsu. This adjunct care enabled me to stay in the challenging masters program I was studying. I only missed three days of school last year, and was back in school just three days after I was released from the hospital.

I choose to not get a port installed and got and infusion of Oxiplatin every 21 days and took the pill for of 5-FU for 14 days for six months. My mother also a cancer survivor joined me each time. The 5-FU caused painful blisters to form on my feet. I endeavored to take a walk every day I was on chemotherapy, but the fatigue from anemia and blisters prevented me from being as active as I wanted to be. I gained 15 pounds. The weight is coming off, now that I am more active, but I never thought a person could have cancer and gain weight! I was very open with my diagnosis.

I wanted to be able to talk about what I was going through with anyone who wanted to know. What surprised me was how many people decided to leave me alone, as if they didn’t want to intrude on my illness. Cancer isn’t contagious, reach out to friends and family with cancer. Being ill can be pretty depressing.

I went to school the whole time, very fortunate that I was in a school where everyone was studying to be a healer. I experienced all of the classic side effects of chemo, but managed them with diet, acupuncture, massage and exercise. I was nausea, but never threw up. I lost some hair, but never enough that anybody noticed. My brain was foggy, but I still did well in school. When it was all over my husband and I spent two weeks in Maui to celebrate.

I now am gluten free and attempt to avoid foods that have been linked to increased inflammation in the body. I take supplements prescribed by my naturopath. I take Chinese herbs and get acupuncture regularly. I run three miles three to four times a week and practice yoga.

I encouraged my four siblings to get colonoscopies and my youngest sister was found to have five adenomatous polyps. My brother got a date with the colonoscopy prep nurse.

I write this waiting for my oncologist to mail me my latest CEA results, which have all been normal so far, but I know I will be a little on edge waiting for every test result. Has it returned? I’ll just have to deal with it if it does. I do, however, feel very hopeful and positive.

Before my diagnosis I had a great routine: every Saturday morning my friend Tiffany and I would go for a run, then go out for breakfast. When I was doing chemo, the run turned into a walk, and breakfast was a smoothie. Now we are running again and she is my team mate in the Portland 5k. I am happy to be back at my routine and team Da Chang (Large intestine in Chinese) are getting our rears in gear!

Words of wisdom: Treatment for colon cancer is quite sophisticated. Do your research, I did mine. People with the best outcomes took advantage of all the available tools. This means diet, exercise and, for me, Complimentary medicine. Another word of wisdom, if you are treated with Oxaliplatin get some gloves and put them on top of your refrigerator. You’ll figure out why.