Some people call it their conscience. It’s that voice you can hear in your head occasionally when facing a tough decision. Sometimes we follow the voice’s advice. Other times we do not.
Jessie Stoops heard the voice while considering what would turn out to be one of the most important decisions of her life.
“I am usually pretty stubborn. But I was so glad I listened once in my life. It changed everything.”
The voice spoke up when Jessie was considering cancelling a medical test she needed called a sigmoidoscopy. It’s a mini-colonoscopy, examining the lower part of the colon or large intestine, close to the rectum, for cancer and polyps, which can be pre-cancerous growths. Jessie found out in the days before her scheduled test that her insurance would not cover the cost.
“I almost cancelled it because I was going to have to pay for the test myself,” said the 43-year-old mother of four. “But I had a gut feeling that I should not do that.”
Jessie was correct. The sigmoidoscopy was the first of a number of tests she underwent that would determine she had stage 3 rectal cancer. Stage three indicates a tumor that has grown larger and has advanced beyond its original site, but hasn't yet spread to distant organs in the body.
“Out of the blue and unexpected,” said Jessie of her diagnosis. She is healthy, active, had no family history of cancer and was not yet of the age when colorectal cancer screening is normally recommended.
“I was terrified. It is the worst thing you can think of as a mom. Who is going to take care of these kids if I can’t? I never would have thought that we would have gone through something like this in a million years.”
How it began
Jessie, a Louisiana, Missouri resident, went to see her primary care doctor because she was not feeling well overall - nauseous, not eating as much as normal and had lost about 20 pounds. Jessie also happened to mention she thought she had an internal hemorrhoid she wanted treated. That led to a referral to Blessing Health fellowship trained colon and rectal cancer surgeon Dr. Harsha Polavarapu, and to Jessie’s cancer diagnosis.
Dr. Harsha is the area’s only surgeon who performs rectal cancer surgery, and he is part of the team that provides care through Blessing Health System’s comprehensive rectal cancer program. Other members of the team include physicians from medical oncology, radiation oncology, radiology and pathology. Rectal Cancer Coordinators are also part of the team - registered nurses who help coordinate a patient’s treatment plan moving them from timely diagnosis to staging work up, treatment, and to survivorship.
Joining Dr. Harsha on Jessie’s care team were medical oncologist Dr. Daniel Koh, radiation oncologist Dr. Rob Johnson and rectal cancer coordinator Diana Seals. Jessie underwent five-and-a-half-weeks of combined chemotherapy and radiation therapy, followed by an additional four months of chemotherapy only.
“It was pretty unpleasant,” Jessie said of the first two stages of treatment. “But I decided I was going to stay positive and get through it.”
Jessie knew there was a chance she would need surgery to remove her rectum, a life changing procedure. But at the end of the challenging chemotherapy and radiation therapy Jessie received some good news. The first two stages of treatment had attained a level of effectiveness that she could choose to delay surgery and follow a schedule of intensive monitoring.
Jessie chose intensive monitoring, or the “wait and watch” approach.
“I was really worried about it at first,” she admits. “Surgery would eliminate the chance of the cancer recurring because the rectum would be gone, while the wait and watch approach carried a chance of recurrence. But, being in my early forties, the change in my life with surgery would have been so dramatic.”
“The doctors I had were great, and I felt confident that they would not have given me the wait and watch option if they did not feel it was an option I should consider.”
Jessie has been undergoing intensive monitoring since March 2024. The process of regular MRI and CT scans, and sigmoidoscopies will continue for another four years.
Jessie’s advice and “new life” today
“The takeaway is you really have to listen to your body and pay attention. If something does not feel right, it probably isn’t right,” Jessie says about health.
She has been a nurse for nearly 20 years. After her treatment ended, Jessie chose a new employer – she chose Blessing Hospital and a nursing position on the inpatient medical oncology unit. Jessie drives nearly a 90-mile round trip for each of her work shifts.
Why?
“I just really like the hospital,” she said. “And I was so grateful I thought maybe that I could give back in some way; that I could help, offer advice or just be a hand to hold.”
Jessie says she models the support she provides after advice given to her by her rectal cancer coordinator Diana Seals.
“You have to take it one day at a time. It was absolutely the most valuable piece of advice,” Jessie concluded. “You cannot give your energy to things that haven’t happened yet. You need to focus all of your energy, all of your everything, on right now. That helped me so much, and I have given that advice to so many other people.”
For more information on colorectal cancer and the treatment provided by Blessing Health System, go to blessinghealth.org/colon.
In the top portion of the accompanying photo are Jessie and daughters Abby and Lily on Jessie’s first day of cancer treatment. In the bottom portion of the photo is Team Stoops again, a year later, celebrating Jessie’s return to work after treatment and her new job at Blessing Hospital.