A masters runner navigating multiple cancers

Tag: Endometrial cancer

26 August 2026

Worry, who me?

Dilation therapy is a reality for endometrial cancer survivors who’ve undergone pelvic radiation. It’s preventative to ward off long term side effects such as stenosis, which can impact your quality of life and your medical care.

Though there’s differing opinions on how long you need to maintain it, the first two years post treatment are definitely considered essential. So after taking a break while I recovered from my hemicolectomy, I picked up my therapy schedule again – twice a week — and for the first month, everything was fine. Then, at the beginning of August, I bled after using my dilator. Twice.
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28 July 2026

The Eligibility Paradox

Questions come up when you are living in this ‘after.’ Not about your diagnosis, but mid-scroll of a new trial report on the shifting standard of practice for endometrial cancer — your exact profile — your gut frames the question before your brain is even fully engaged: should I be on that? And even though you are actively trying to shift from living in ‘patient’ mode to living your full life, the rabbit hole of research opens, and you’re off — chasing a question that, on paper, might have been better answered two years ago.
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23 July 2026

Living in the ‘after’ …

There’s a season in your cancer journey that nobody warns you about, mostly because nobody has a good name for it. Not treatment. Not recovery, exactly — recovery implies an endpoint, a discharge summary. And it’s not quite survivorship, since that also implies you’ve been handed back to ‘normal’ life. This is something else. Let’s call it the ‘after.’
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4 July 2026

Epi(c) mutations

As I get more used to living with a diagnosis that means cancer risk will always be part of my everyday life, I’m learning more about what makes my specific profile unique. This latest research quest was triggered by my appointment at the High Risk Breast Clinic this week. My doctor’s interest was focused — I’m her first Cowden phenotype with no genotype. She’s my sixth oncology specialist and the eighth member of my core care team.
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30 June 2026

10k training: Week 1
It’s been a long time — three years — since I’ve built a 10k training plan and looked ahead to see what my body can accomplish over 15 weeks. This time, I started with new questions, given my health journey since 2023:
- What genetics am I working with?
- How does aging impact my training?
- How have my multiple primaries and treatment affected my ability to train?
An early search revealed some things I didn’t yet know about Cowden-like syndrome, as well as new information on aging and female masters athletes.
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27 June 2026

Let’s run a 10k: Take 3

So I’ve done it now. I’ve signed up for a fall 10k to put a race on my calendar — the Marathon Beneva de Montréal has a 10k route with a generous two-hour cutoff. Far enough out to rebuild my base, early enough in October that the weather should still be good racing conditions. And it will be after my September scans and follow-ups, so I’ll know where I am heading into race day.
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8 May 2026

When timelines collide

The thing about managing multiple primaries, I’m learning, is that overlapping timelines are unexpected triggers. I’m POD14 — 14 days post right hemicolectomy — solidly on a recovery timeline, albeit slower than I expected. And at the same time, my social media is serving me memories of starting chemotherapy two years ago for my endometrial cancer. That intersection has me feeling unsettled in a way that isn’t simply waiting for pathology results. It’s more of a reckoning with just how much my body has been through, and is still processing. Today, that feels like a lot.
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19 April 2026

Let’s make a hard pivot

I was just getting into the headspace of starting immunotherapy this coming week when my phone rang at the end of the day last Thursday. It didn’t have call display, so I debated whether to even answer. Who would be calling me that wasn’t already in my contacts? I’m glad I picked it up.

It was a colleague of my medical oncologist, calling to tell me that the tumor board had met. Instead of moving ahead with immunotherapy, the new plan was to proceed directly to surgery. The rationale was that the lesion in my colon is small, and my other CT findings are unrelated to the bowel tumor. A successful resection should complete treatment. Good news, right?
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16 April 2026

Sitting with what comes next

I wish that title were tongue-in-cheek, but I tweaked my right knee last week, and for the last few days I’ve been resting my legs while the swelling goes down. It’s feeling better, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to run again by the weekend, but in the meantime, I’m feeling proud of myself for not running through an injury, however mild it might be.
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2 April 2026

Everything comes in pairs

I really wanted to be boring for a while. But oh well.

A few weeks ago, while waiting on pathology, I was musing about my colonoscopy results being ‘the other cancer shoe.’ Well, shoes do come in pairs, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when my doctor confirmed my colon lesion was malignant. To be precise: “Invasive poorly differentiated colorectal adenocarcinoma, BRAF Positive, dMMR, MSI-high.”

Two primaries. One body. Zero chill from my cells, apparently.
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