When nagging pain led Allison Jenssen to the emergency room, she never expected it would result in a colon cancer diagnosis. As a mom of four, including newborn twins, she faced an unimaginable challenge—but with the support of her family, medical team, and ThedaCare Cancer Care, she found strength and hope.
In this video, Alli shares her journey from diagnosis to treatment, the compassionate care she received, and her message to others about the importance of screening and early detection.
You can also read her story here: https://lnkd.in/g45ZMHw6.
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#ColonCancerAwareness#ThedaCare#CancerSurvivor#GetScreened#LifeInspired#ColonCancer#ColorectalCancerAwarenessMonth
It's quite shocking. It's sort of rocks you for a bit and then you just have to like get your footing and decide how you're going to tackle this. Hi, I'm Allie Jensen and I'm a colon cancer survivor. I am a mom to four amazing kids. I have my husband, Frederick, an intensivist here at Theda Care. We were outside with the kids. It's a beautiful afternoon, we're playing, and all of a sudden I just didn't feel so great. I had an intense pain in my abdomen. When you have a bowel perforation, as we found out that I did, time is of the essence and things can go South pretty quickly. Two days after my initial surgery, pathology report came back and my surgeon gave me the news that they were going to classify this as a colon cancer. It was not a straightforward case. She is younger patient population. She didn't have a lot of symptoms before she was diagnosed or rupture colon with rupture coming from the cancer itself, which was very unusual. When you come in here, you already have a certain level of angst about you're here to Cancer Center and what you're here to discuss. And you know, it's a lot. And so he just instantly was very warm, very calm. We drew out the colon. We drew out exactly the process that was happening. Inside me. So it's tangible, it's right there, you can see it. It's not so abstract. We came up with our consensus recommendation of doing some chemotherapy so that we reduce the risk of cancer coming back. It's an all hands on deck situation and everybody's in the fight. That meant family coming in from out of town, friends coming in to take care of me after infusions. Sort of beautiful because you do learn that the support that people give you, it boosts your energy and morale. So I turned 39 and I finished chemo, which was exciting. We rang the bell and my mom was in town and she brought the kids up and we did it together. The nursing staff came and sang happy birthday with a ukulele. It can be a dark place when you're getting an infusion and you know the next few days are going to be rough. But everybody was there celebrating and really happy that this was the last one. So good birthday present. In this last one decade, we have seen that patients who are younger have been diagnosed with. On cancer they increase is happening is alarming in a way that is why we are trying to explore what's going on. One thing is like changing lifestyle, the other thing is changing the fool. If you feel like something's different with you or not quite right. Trust your gut, no pun intended, and and get it checked out. I'm just grateful. I really take each day as a blessing. No side effects, no cancer. My latest labs came back great. The hard days don't seem so hard anymore when you put it in perspective with something like this. It's nice to reflect on that and remember that gratitude is important in this process. Look out for yourself and make sure that you're around for people that you love.
