Leah Catherine Ploutz died of colon cancer on March 23, 2015 after a 2 1/2 year battle. She was a mother, a daughter, a wife, a sister, a cousin, and a friend. Leah decided to document her “healing journey”, as she called it, shortly after her diagnosis. What follows is the beginning of her story, in her own words. Leah’s complete journey can be found at her Healing Journey Blog. 

"I was diagnosed 17 September of 2012 with colorectal cancer.  I had symptoms of rectal bleeding since January of 2011 while I was pregnant with my second child. My gynecologist was informed of the bleeding and continuously told me it was hemorrhoids. When the bleeding was persistent for the following year and started to cause gastrointestinal issues I requested a colonoscopy. Diagnosis was done through a colonoscopy where a large tumor was found in my sigmoid colon. I received a CT scan where they found nodules in my lungs that have never changed size, but other than those nodules the cancer was believed to be confined to the colon. 

The pathology showed that 7 out of 28 lymph nodes were positive and that the tumor had broken through the colon wall and that I tested positive for the KRAS mutation. Upon pathology it was found that the cancer had spread to my ovary. It was then discovered that there were numerous tumors in my peritoneum along with a good amount of fluid in my belly. The plan at this point was to stay with my treatment until it didn’t work anymore."

Follow Leah's journey at her blog.