For Erin Grimm, it was supposed to be a 50th birthday vacation to the mountains in Highlands, NC. She was looking forward to spending time with her family and enjoying the picturesque mountain views and post card-worthy sunrises and sunsets.
“I was excited about the trip, but I hadn’t been feeling well for some time. I thought, ‘I’m turning 50. It must be menopause.’”
While she was experiencing many of the symptoms of menopause, her body was actually in a desperate fight against colon cancer.
“My main memory of my 50th birthday in the mountains was the intense pain I felt. It didn’t go away.”
When she returned home, she scheduled an appointment with her doctor, who recommended a colonoscopy to determine if she had colon cancer.
The endoscopies revealed that she not only had a large colon cancer, but also that it was invading the duodenum, which is the first portion of the small intestine. This situation is exceedingly rare.
“A few days after the colonoscopy I was admitted to an ER. The pain was unbearable. It was there that a physician recommended I see Dr. David Roife, who’s a surgical oncologist with HCA Healthcare Tri-County Surgical Associates.
Dr. Roife performed additional tests to determine how advanced the colon cancer was.
“Our tests determined Erin had metastatic colon cancer. If hearing the word ‘cancer’ is traumatic for patients, it’s even more traumatic to be told a cancer is metastatic, which means it has already spread to other organs.”
The surgical challenge for Dr. Roife was the location of the cancerous tumor. “It was located high in her abdomen and invading the pancreas and duodenum.”
In most situations like this, surgery is not an option, and patients have a poor prognosis. Fortunately, the biopsies from Erin’s colonoscopy revealed a potential for her to have a good long-term outcome from immunotherapy. However, without surgery, she would not have been able to survive long enough for this treatment to take effect.
“Her young age and otherwise good health pushed me to be as aggressive as possible, especially in this new era of immunotherapy for gastrointestinal cancers,” explained Dr. Roife.
The surgery required removal of half of the colon including the large original tumor, as well as removal of all the other organs that the tumor was invading, which included the end of her stomach, duodenum, entire pancreas including spleen, gallbladder, bile duct, and omentum. Her gastrointestinal tract was then reconstructed.
The procedure lasted nearly 10 hours and required Erin to be hospitalized for nearly 10 days, while making a remarkable recovery from surgery.
She went on to receive immunotherapy for her metastatic colon cancer with a great response. “Her follow-up scans look very encouraging for continued remission,” said Dr. Roife.
Just a few days before celebrating her 51st birthday, she, her family and a large group of friends returned to HCA Healthcare Trident Hospital for a red carpet celebration. She was joined by Dr. Roife as a large group of family, friends, doctors and other clinicians cheered with enthusiasm.
Following the red carpet event, which included a loud and playful singing of “Happy Birthday,” Erin and Dr. Roife drove to a nearby tennis court for a playful match.”
Following the events, Erin said, “I’m encouraged by my progress over the past year and thankful for Dr. Roife. He has a calm confidence I’ve seen in athletes who compete at the highest level.” Said Erin.
“His experience in performing the surgery gave me confidence that I’d not only recover from the surgery, but I’d also be able to return to playing tennis. And, I did. I play about five days a week and every time I’m on the court I’m reminded of what I could have lost had I not trusted Dr. Roife.”