Cody Updates by Mom

Post was originally shared on FB on 3/16

Some of the hardest words I have heard are “Your biopsy came back, and you have cancer”. I can attest to the fact that it is harder to hear “Mom, my biopsy came back, and I have cancer.”

My son, Cody, has stomach cancer. This is the same cancer that I prevented 9 years ago when I had my stomach removed.

The CDH1 genetic mutation has an 85% risk of getting a very aggressive and fatal stomach cancer. After my testing for the CDH1 mutation, the doctors did not think it was an absolute need for Cody to be tested immediately. Family history did not show stomach cancer early on and my breast cancer didn’t happen until I was 42. All indications were that we could wait.

Cody and I had decided that it would be good for him to be tested before he was off of my insurance later this year. After he tested positive in January, we immediately had his case referred to Mayo. The first step was to have a mapping biopsy to get a baseline. The mapping takes 30 biopsies throughout the stomach to look for cancer. This cancer is difficult to find as it exists in the stomach lining and is not a tumor. The mapping had 1 of the 30 biopsies find cancer. They found the needle in the haystack.

Next steps are to get a CT scan to determine if the cancer has spread. Then we will be meeting with Dr. Kendrick for surgery planning. These will likely happen next week. We are awaiting the schedule. The message from the doctors so far is that we have hopefully caught this early.

If you pray or have a prayer chain, we ask you to pray for Cody. If you have Cody’s contact information and want to reach out to him, that is fine. Please know that he is still processing all of this.

I will update as Cody is comfortable with what news is being shared. His privacy with this is my main concern. Thank you for your prayers and your understanding.