Faces of Blue: Kara Mathews

Editor’s Note: Feb. 28, 2021: Kara passed away on Feb. 25, 2021. Our hearts are with her family, friends, and loved ones. 

I began having noticeable bowel issues and ended up in the ER in February 2011 with what I thought was a bowel obstruction. They did a CT scan and sent me home with antibiotics and said it was a stomach bug. I continued to have more bowel issues and after a month or so, I decided to go get checked out. It took me a few weeks to get a primary care physician, because I had never needed another doctor besides my OBGYN.

They did some blood work and had me do several stool samples. It took more weeks to get results and they all came back negative for colitis, Crohn’s, and celiac disease and was told that I was anemic. I was then referred to a gastroenterologist and waited another several weeks to see him.

My colonoscopy was scheduled in the middle of May 2011. Everyone kept telling me it was probably hemorrhoids from childbirth. I woke up from the procedure and found out I had a tumor almost completely blocking my sigmoid colon. He referred me to a general surgeon and said I should get surgery as soon as possible. It took a couple weeks to get my surgery scheduled but it felt like forever! They were able to remove the tumor with six inches of my colon and 15 lymph nodes. I thought it would be benign and never imagined it could be cancer. I was 31-years-old with no family history.

SHOCKING NEWS

Four days later in the hospital, the surgeon walked into the room and casually told me we could finally go home and oh, by the way, I had stage III colon cancer. It had spread to seven of the 15 lymph nodes they had removed. I would need chemotherapy and would be referred to an oncologist. I was numb, in shock and scared out of my mind, not to mention, recovering from major surgery. I had lost probably 20 pounds in just a few weeks. How was I going to tell my kids? They were barely 4 and 2 years old. We were living in Las Vegas at the time and had no family close by.

I met my oncologist a week or so later and learned of the treatment plan of 12 rounds of FOLFOX chemo. I had a PET scan to check for cancer in any other parts of my body but they didn’t see any. I got my port placed and was scheduled to start chemo about a month after my surgery. It felt like the longest time ever and I just wanted it all over with.

When my port was accessed for the first time, I thought I was going to pass out. The chemo room was full of chairs arranged in a circle and there wasn’t room for my husband to stay with me after I started on the IV fluids. I looked around the room and everyone seemed twice my age. I put my headphones in, wrapped myself up in my blanket, hid under it and cried. I would get 2-3 hours of treatment and then come home with a pump, with continuous poison running through my veins.

The next two days, I would go in to get unhooked from the pump and have the next week and a half to rest and recover before doing it all over again. I handled the first treatment better than I expected. I went in for round two and my white blood count was too low for treatment. So I had Neopogen shots for three days to boost my count and waited another week. I had to have someone come stay with us for 3-4 days every other week to take care of my kids and me so that my husband could continue to work. I had several hiccups along the way; low white blood counts and postponed treatments. I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t just give me Neopogen shots every time so that I could stay on track. It ended up taking seven months to complete the 12 rounds of chemo. My scans at the end and blood work showed NO EVIDENCE OF DISEASE and normal tumor markers! I continued to have regular scans and blood work every three months for the first year, then spaced out to every six months the second year with colonoscopies every nine months to a year.

START OF A NEW LIFE?

Three years after my diagnosis, we moved to St. George, UT. I saw all my doctors in Las Vegas one last time and they told me I was good to go. Free and clear; live and move on with your life. I didn’t feel good about that so I established myself with a new oncologist in February 2015. My new oncologist, Dr. Naduald was young and kind. He talked to me about genetic testing and ordered tests to be run on my tumor and decided to start a baseline with new blood work and a CT scan He also recommended a gastroenterologist in town.

My tumor markers were slightly elevated and he looked at my charts to see what was normal for me. He assured me that it could be elevated for a number of reasons, but that we’d check again in six months. I had a colonoscopy and my normal two or three polyps that were benign. When I went back for scans and blood work in August, my tumor marker had doubled again and my scan showed a few “spots” in my abdomen that appeared to be swollen lymph nodes. They were so small and hard to get to that no radiologist in St. George wanted to try doing a biopsy. My doctor encouraged me to go to Salt Lake City to the Huntsman Cancer Institute for a second opinion.

The doctor at the institute looked at my PET scan and reaffirmed my fears; my cancer was probably back in my lymph nodes. After waiting a couple weeks, I met a surgeon who was available for a biopsy. I went back up to Salt Lake City and waited a few more weeks for the results. By the time we got the official word that it was indeed cancer, it had been about two months since my first scan and blood work. They ordered a new scan to see how fast it was growing and scheduled my new chemo. This time I did eight rounds of an oral chemo, Xeloda, for two weeks on and one week off with an infusion of Avastin every three weeks.

The palms of my hands and the bottoms of my feet were red and burned and the skin just peeled off in layers. The oral chemo made me really tired and I was getting weaker by the day. About halfway through chemo, I was bleeding so heavy and was so anemic that I almost needed a blood transfusion. I was referred to a gynecologist to see if they could give me some hormones to regulate my bleeding and he decided that we should do a uterine biopsy just to check things out.

About four days later, he called me and told me they found cancer cells in my uterus! Not uterine cancer, but colon cancer cells. So they took me off Avastin and referred me to a gynecological oncologist in Salt Lake City. She was amazing and talked to me about performing a hysterectomy using a robot and what the recovery would be like. We briefly talked about the choice of taking my ovaries or not and we decided that it was best to remove anything where the cancer could possibly be spread to.

I really didn’t know much or think about what it would be like to be thrown into menopause in my mid-thirties. I just wanted the cancer out of there. A couple weeks later I was back in Salt Lake City for surgery. It went well and my recovery wasn’t bad. I had about four weeks off chemo and then I started back up again, finishing the last four rounds. I had clear scans again and normal tumor markers.  I began the process of healing and recovering and learning what it felt like to have menopause at 36.

I had scans and blood work every three months and started to feel a little better every day. I began working on my mental and emotional healing and finally reached out and began attending a support group. I met wonderful people who could understand a little bit about what I had been and was going through.

About nine months later my tumor marker was back up and my scan showed a couple nodules just outside my colon, deep in my pelvis. I was heartbroken and so sad! My oncologist looked at my scans and thought that she could go in with the robot and just remove the affected areas. It was back up to Salt Lake City for another surgery. I woke up from surgery and found out she wasn’t able to remove the mass. It was too close to my bladder, part of the outside of my colon and all intertwined with my urethra. Back to St. George for more chemotherapy.

TAKING IT ALL IN STRIDES

They did more DNA genetic testing on the new stuff and we learned what new chemo we would try this time. I would get eight cycles of Irinotecan, Cetuximab and I would take the oral chemo Xeloda again.  I went in for weekly infusions of the Cetuximab and had Irinotecan for the first two weeks of each cycle and took the oral chemo for two week, and then I had one week off. The worst side effect for me was the acne-like rash that broke out all over my head, face, neck, chest, and back.  I used every kind of cream, lotion and potion to calm it down but it was miserable. I had to be on antibiotics for the entire six months that I was on the drugs.

I got yeast infections and all kinds of other problematic issues with my skin. My hair was falling out at a rapid pace, but I didn’t lose it all. Then I got all kinds of crazy facial hair! I was on steroids for the first time with this chemo so that wasn’t fun. I would leave treatments so tired from the Benadryl and anti-nausea drugs, but I couldn’t sleep. After four cycles, we did another scan and blood work and it showed NO EVIDENCE of DISEASE!  My tumor markers were already back to normal, but we wanted to make sure we tried everything we could to get rid of every cell, so we continued with the last four cycles over the next three months at a reduced amount.

It was easier with more time off in between treatments. As of Dec 2017, my scans were ALL CLEAR and my tumor markers are normal. I will continue getting scans every three months and hope that it stays gone for good this time. I am now 38 years old and 6 1/2 years out of my original diagnosis. I have completed 28 rounds of chemotherapy and had three major surgeries related to my cancer. I am living proof that you are never too young to get colon cancer. I have friends who come to me a lot asking me what my symptoms were. I’m so glad I listened to my gut and got my rear to the doctor and that the P.A. I saw ordered a colonoscopy on a 31 year old with no family history. I encourage everyone I know that has any family history to get a colonoscopy and feel strongly about patients advocating for their health by taking charge of and continuing to follow up with care.

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