For Anne Coelho, it was the stomach ache that changed her life – and likely prolonged it.
The Sequim resident wasn’t feeling well, went for a check-up and subsequent CT scan, and was told the pain in her lower abdomen had something to do with her appendix. She had surgery on Mother’s Day 2018 at the Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, where a cancerous neuroendocrine tumor was discovered and immediately removed.
“It was discovered early enough that the surgery was my treatment,” said Coelho, 36, a Kraken sales and services manager now six-plus years cancer-free. “I didn’t have to go through chemo, radiation, or anything. They said I was very lucky to find it because it’s a slow-growing cancer and so you either find it incidentally – like they did with mine – or when it’s too late.”
Patient awareness and early detection are key themes of this season’s Hockey Fights Cancer, pres. by Virginia Mason Franciscan Health during the Kraken’s game on Nov. 20 against the Nashville Predators at Climate Pledge Arena. VMFH staff will set up a kiosk at the game for men to come and have blood drawn for a PSA test to screen for prostate cancer.
Colorado native Coelho often thinks about the confluence of events leading to her tumor’s discovery and the hardship it spared not only her but her husband and young son, both named John.
“I think they ordered the CT because they thought my appendix was bursting just because of where the pain was located,” she said. “I think I was showing signs of that. So, they just thought it was going to be a regular removal. And then, they found the tumor.”
Had Coelho simply shrugged her discomfort off as an ordinary stomach ache, as many people often do, things could have quickly gotten worse.
“They usually find it at Stage 4 because it affects your endocrine system, which is like your hormonal balance,” Coelho said. “So, they usually find it when you start getting really random symptoms like redness in your face and sweats and really awful symptoms. It’s actually the same cancer that Aretha Franklin died of.”
Franklin, the Grammy Award-winning “Queen of Soul” with more than 75 million records sold worldwide, died of a neuroendocrine tumor in her pancreas at age 76 just a few months after Coelho’s surgery.
Coelho was initially “surprised and shocked” when told post-surgery she’d had a cancerous tumor within her.
“I really couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I have a history of cancer in my family, so I knew it was a possibility. But it was breast cancer, so I was always kind of more worried about that and just in disbelief that this was actually happening to me.”
She said her Gig Harbor-based oncologist and team do “a great job” of taking care of her and providing resources and support.
“I get worried that it could come back,” she said. “But that’s why they monitor it to make sure.”
Coelho goes for yearly CT scans and lab work to make sure the cancer hasn’t returned. But as fortunate as she knows she is, she still has trouble admitting it out loud.
“I feel kind of bad saying that because my aunt died of breast cancer,” she said. “And I watched my mom go through radiation. I feel bad saying ‘Wow, aren’t I lucky?’”
Instead, she tries to make the most of every day she gets to spend with her family. Makes sure she doesn’t skip out on follow-up appointments. And does what she can to spread the word about early detection.
“I love the Hockey Fights Cancer initiative,” she said. “I definitely encourage people to go to the doctor when you don’t feel good. Or, to get those tests, that yearly screening. All of that stuff.”
