Mother Decides To Have Stomach Completely Removed After Cancer Diagnosis
“How much of your body could you live without?” After hearing this question, I bet most of us would respond, “All of it!”
But upon giving it some reflection, I’d also wager that we could also draft up just such a list if we had to. Sadly, there are plenty of maladies that require the ultimate sacrifice of having us pare away parts of our physical frames.
Cancer is just one of those awful illnesses. From limbs to eyes to even parts of the brain, cancer can require up to subtract them all if we want to add to our days.
Jessica Solt of New York understands exactly how that terrible arithmetic works. In 2016, the young mother of a then-14-month-old boy received frightening news.
She had hereditary diffuse gastric cancer. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the disorder starts as a genetic susceptibility.
By the time those who’ve received the diagnosis have reached age 80, a full 70 percent of men and 56 percent of women will have developed stomach cancer. And when the cancer develops, it causes a thickening of the stomach wall rather than producing a singular, well-defined tumor.
Unfortunately, that means there’s only one real treatment: removal of the stomach itself. And that’s exactly what physicians told Solt to do.
“It just seemed so shocking,” Solt explained to People. “It was just so bizarre and terrifying.
“They were like, ‘Our recommendation is that you remove your stomach because you don’t know what’s going to happen. This is a very deadly kind of cancer and, once it starts spreading, there’s no way out.’”
So that’s exactly what the thirty-something did. Approximately a month later, she underwent a gastrectomy, a procedure where, according to Healthline, a surgeon completely removes the stomach and attaches the small intestine directly to the esophagus.
Solt said, “Life as I knew it was over. I thought I was gonna be achy all the time … that I wasn’t gonna enjoy life or food or my son or my marriage or anything.”
It was a life-changing procedure, no doubt about it. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the hospital where Sloan had her procedure, provides a lengthy list of potential post-surgery changes.
Gastric reflux, sugar-induced cramping, diarrhea, low blood sugar — these are just a few of the potential side effects. What’s more, most who undergo the procedure need to start off on a liquid diet and slowly graduate to six little meals per day.
“The first year was a nightmare,” Solt said. “It was like eating through a really tiny straw.”
Yet after she had a second surgery in 2017, life improved. Solt recalled, “Five days [after the procedure,] we ordered Thai food and I ate like a normal person!”
Solt still suffers from a decreased energy level due to her inability to eat large meals. But she enjoys a largely normal life — and one that’s cancer free.
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