Weeks after grappling with norovirus, Jessica Wozniak’s abdomen felt off. She persisted experiencing cramps, pains and low bouts of diarrhea.“I used to be like one thing’s bizarre with my abdomen, however perhaps I nonetheless have some lingering results of the norovirus or the flu, or perhaps I ate one thing,” the 36-year-old from Wheaton, Illinois, tells TODAY.com. “I simply saved feeling no longer really well.” After an ultrasound, she was once identified with a cyst, however her signs persisted, and a CT scan detected irritation in Wozniak’s bowel. A colonoscopy discovered that she had most cancers. “(The physician) says, ‘Yeah, you’ve got two lots for your colon which are cancerous,” she recollects. “It was once rather a surprise.” ‘I wasn’t feeling customary’ In February 2024, Wozniak gotten smaller the norovirus. “It was once vomiting, diarrhea,” she says. “It was once beautiful graphic and dangerous.”
After Jessica Wozniak skilled abdomen cramping for months, medical doctors discovered that she had Degree 4 colon most cancers. Courtesy Jessica WozniakWhile she slowly started feeling higher, she by no means utterly rebounded and “wasn’t feeling customary in my digestive gadget,” she explains. Wozniak and her husband had been making plans on having any other kid to sign up for their daughter, and Wozniak had stopped taking her beginning regulate tablets. She puzzled if that contributed to how she felt. “These items all came about on the similar time,” she says. “I gave it a few weeks.” Her GI signs lingered and worsened. When she had a telehealth seek advice from in April, she discussed them to her physician. “I stated, ‘Gosh, I’m getting abdomen cramps each and every morning. Whilst I used to be consuming breakfast, I simply doubled over with cramps,’” Wozniak recollects. “They requested me some questions and had been like, ‘Oh, it may well be ovarian cysts. I believe you will have to pass get a CT.’” Wozniak went to the emergency room, and the wait time was once goodbye that she determined to time table with considered one of her suppliers and went to the midwife staff who delivered her daughter. “They had been a bit bit dismissive, like, ‘Smartly, yeah, that is an ovarian cyst. That sounds precisely what it’s. It’s going to be numerous ache. In case you have fuel ache, too,’” she says. They ordered an ultrasound and confident her the cysts would “rupture of pass away on their very own” and he or she could be “positive.” The technician detected an ovarian cyst however spotted one thing at the ultrasound on her left aspect however felt not sure of what it was once. At one level after that seek advice from, it appeared like the cyst had burst as a result of Wozniak skilled “horrible ache.” However her abdomen cramps by no means stepped forward.“Each time I needed to have a bowel motion, it was once ache, it was once cramping,” she says.Her number one care physician ordered a CT, which discovered bowel irritation. That caused a colonoscopy. Even nonetheless, the physician didn’t appear overly nervous. “The gastroenterologist was once like, ‘I don’t suppose that is most cancers,’” Wozniak says.But if she woke from her colonoscopy, Wozniak discovered she did have most cancers. “I used to be identified early June of 2024 with colon most cancers,” she says. Whilst Wozniak knew her paternal grandparents had colon most cancers, they had been of their 60s after they had been identified. Her paternal aunt discovered she had colon most cancers at 47, and Wozniak’s father won a colon most cancers prognosis round the similar time as Wozniak. It wasn’t till she was once identified that she discovered there generally is a genetic hyperlink.“No person had ever instructed me that there was once a genetic take a look at I may do,” she says. “I used to be identified with Lynch syndrome.” Lynch syndrome is an inherited genetic mutation that will increase one’s possibility of growing various early-onset cancers, together with colon most cancers.“It’s nonetheless a surprise to me that … this didn’t go someone’s thoughts, and right here I used to be at 35 being identified with Degree 4 (colon most cancers),” she says. “This truly shouldn’t occur. We will have to have recognized. There’s issues in the market to be told about quicker.” 
Jessica Wozniak enjoys using horses and did it up to she may ahead of her prognosis. Courtesy Jessica WozniakPeople with Lynch syndrome regularly go through various most cancers screenings so to stumble on any cancers at an previous level, and so they additionally would possibly obtain other remedy after prognosis. As an example, Dr. Matthew Yurgelun prior to now instructed TODAY.com that immunotherapies — remedies that bolster the immune gadget to combat the most cancers — paintings “exceptionally neatly,” in lots of Lynch syndrome-related cancers. Wozniak’s medical doctors really helpful a remedy plan that integrated 4 rounds of 2 immunotherapy medicine, which she started in July. A CT scan after the ones remedies confirmed that her liver metastases, had been shrinking however any other mass in her sigmoid colon looked to be rising. Her medical doctors sought after to shrink and scale back maximum of her lots so they may carry out surgical procedure with transparent margins. “My physician’s suggestions was once to proceed the immunotherapy and upload on chemotherapy,” Wozniak says. However ahead of Wozniak may get started the brand new remedy, her insurance coverage on the time, Cigna, denied it and really helpful that she simplest do chemotherapy. “They stated, ‘No, no, no, immunotherapy isn’t running,’” she says. “My physician stated, ‘It’s. Right here’s the scan that presentations the liver (lots) getting smaller.’” Wozniak discovered she may enchantment, however she felt surprised through her insurance coverage.“I believed, ‘Who’re you to come to a decision that for me? You’re no longer my physician,’” she says. “It made me truly disenchanted. It made me truly indignant.”She and her circle of relatives took to social media to invite what she may do, and folks introduced tips, together with running together with her human assets division at paintings at the enchantment, which she did. She additionally reached out to the pharmaceutical corporate asking if she may pay for it at once. NBC Chicago lined her tale in February.Wozniak quickly discovered her remedy could be lined through her insurance coverage.
Jessica Wozniak discovered that she had Lynch syndrome, a inherited genetic mutation that reasons folks to expand sure cancers and at a more youthful age. Courtesy Jessica WozniakCigna supplied TODAY.com with a observation: “We’ve evolved scientific pointers to make certain that all sufferers obtain protected and suitable care. Our pointers are in line with printed clinical literature, main scientific mavens, and for oncology, the information of the Nationwide Complete Most cancers Community and the American Society of Scientific Oncology. Our physicians paintings collaboratively with treating physicians to conform those pointers to every particular person’s distinctive well being wishes and cases. Sufferers and their physicians can ask for expedited critiques for pressing wishes, which can be finished inside of 72 hours. Our processes labored as supposed for Ms. Wozniak and her remedy was once licensed inside of 24 hours.”’You truly have to talk up’ Wozniak is present process her 8th spherical of remedy. Later on, medical doctors wish to carry out an MRI to peer how the loads have spoke back. There’s a tumor close to her pelvic wall that medical doctors concern they can not but take away with blank margins. Since July, she’s was hoping that she may go through surgical procedure. “They’ll take away nearly all of my colon except for a small piece on the finish and so they’ll re-route my small gut to take over that bit,” she says. She’s going to most probably additionally go through a mix of resection and ablation in her liver. Wozniak has six lots in her liver, however the surgeon believes they may be able to be addressed. In the future, she may have a hysterectomy as a result of Lynch syndrome may cause uterine cancers, and he or she’ll even have her fallopian tubes got rid of to give protection to in opposition to ovarian most cancers. 
Having the beef up of her circle of relatives whilst present process remedy has helped Jessica Wozniak grapple with one of the crucial difficult issues she’s confronted. Family and friends supplied tips on how she may deal with an insurance coverage denial. Courtesy Jessica WozniakWhile going through Degree 4 most cancers feels difficult from time to time, Wozniak hopes her tale encourages folks to combat for his or her well being. “I am hoping folks be told that they’re their very own greatest suggest. That nobody goes to do it for you,” she says. “When you don’t believe one thing that’s going down otherwise you’re feeling one thing for your frame that different persons are denying or pronouncing isn’t there, you truly have to talk up.”
