I was diagnosed with colon cancer at the stage of 31, although I am fit and healthy. Doctors discarded my concerns as symptoms of pregnancy.

• Jenna Scott was diagnosed with a fourth colon cancer at 31, although she was fit and healthy.

• Missing diagnosed symptoms during pregnancy delayed the diagnosis of her cancer, complicating treatment.

• She expects to undergo treatment for the rest of her life to keep cancer.

This essay is based on a conversation with Jena Scott, a 39-year-old CEO at Peach Tree Corners, Georgia. The following is edited for length and clarity.

The first three decades of my life were all great. I was a cheerleader at high school and college where I met my husband.

We got married in 2015 and our friends would say we live a story.

I declined with our son Cameron, the same year and thought, “Oh, how can life improve?”

But in 2017, at the age of 31, I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer at Stage Four.

The doctor said my symptoms are related to my pregnancy

My symptoms started when I was about seven or eight months pregnant. I told my obstetrics that I had a really bad cat spasms and rectal and vaginal bleeding, but he said not to worry because they were symptoms of pregnancy.

It was my first pregnancy, so I thought, “Here’s what a pregnancy is, I can handle it, I’m difficult.”

My abdominal pain did not disappear after I gave birth and my obstetrics released it in the section. Cameron was my main concern. I was always tired, but I didn’t want to complain.

I saw a doctor who gave me some IBS pills and said he would refer me to a GI specialist if they didn’t work.

They don’t, that’s why he sent me to a GI specialist who told me, “Why are you in my office? You’re too young.”

On June 29, 2017, just over a year after Cameron was born, I had a colonoscopy and woke up to four nurses, my doctor and my husband in the room.

The doctor said to me: We found cancer.

Cancer does not work in my family and I didn’t understand how it could happen to me at 31.

Stage four Cancer changed everything

I was diagnosed with cancer at stage 4. The oncologist said they couldn’t see cancer so well at CT because I had so many muscles and so little fat.

It didn’t make sense and I closed. My husband and mom were more emotional than I am.

After this meeting we gathered my son from day care and I just held it. He was just about one: how can I process the thought that he might not know me?

Life quickly became full of the appointments of doctors and scans, and my employer took my bigger projects so I could focus on my health. I had worked hard to take them, so I felt unfair, but in the background they were right.

I started chemo on August 9th. It took eight hours every other week in the hospital, then a 46-hour drip at home with a portable package. I had insomnia, hallucinations and anxiety. I would look at the baby’s monitor and see one of my colleagues in my son’s crib, or tarantulas crawling on my hands.

I had 11 months of chemo, stopped for a few months, after which I was told that it spread to my colon, liver and lungs, so I started another 11 months of treatment and surgery.

By 2021, I was at a lower chemo dose “Maintenance” to maintain cancer. Every day I would take six chemo pills, along with various others, who got me a lot and kept me at home when I wanted to attend my son.

One day I decided I just didn’t want to do it anymore and the doctor told me I could stop for a while. But by Christmas 2022 the cancer was in my lymph nodes. I waited until the New Year to start treatment so I could get my story book.

Even with insurance medical accounts were a nightmare

I had to pay a lot of my pocket the first year before my insurance provider reimbursed me, including $ 500 in advance for colonoscopy. It was a lot of costs like our mortgage costs and daily care.

My husband’s insurance plan was really good, but I started to have problems for a few years when the meetings were in the back and I collected bills of about $ 3,000 a month. The hospital continued to call me for payments and we were considering selling our house and moving with our parents.

In the end, my husband’s friends encouraged him to create a Gofundme page, which raised $ 17,000 in just a few hours while I was dealing with surgery and $ 30,000 in 17 days. At first, I felt betrayed, but my mother helped me see him as a blessing.

My son is looking at me

Seeing my son grow up, he keeps me together all this time. For years, I have been reading Cameron’s Cancer Children’s Books and he is beginning to understand what is happening.

After asking me, “Mom, can you die of cancer?” I froze too. I didn’t know what to say. He cries at night for it, holds me and tells me that he doesn’t want to leave. But he takes good care of me. When my hair was longer, he put it in horsetail for me and put a shaft on my lips.

Today, my cancer status is “undisclosed”. I have chemo every four weeks and I expect to be in this maintenance mode for an indefinite period of time, an idea that I was struggling to deal with at the beginning.

I work full -time, which is difficult as I had many side effects. I fell up several times, my body overheats so badly that I have to take off all my clothes, I have the feeling that I have to vomit, but my body will not do it and I can barely sleep for days during. This is my life now.

I try to be busy to tear my mind from difficult treatments. When I have a chemo on Friday and Cameron, which is nine, has a baseball game on Saturday morning, I am there with my portable package, I just do everything I can, even though I feel tired and nasty and vomit a lot.

And I am so grateful to our family and friends who still come to cook and clean for us in eight years. But since the side effects of cancer treatment are cumulative, a happy life is really difficult.

I hope to have a long life in front of me, but I do not want to be on this treatment forever and constantly cross my fingers that science can find new treatments.

I realized that the things I emphasized for were completely manageable and I have so many blessings. I tell everyone that life is good, just how you look at it.

I want young people to understand that they are not untouchable. You need to receive regular examinations and advocate for yourself.

Correction: June 23, 2025 – A more version of this story is the age of Cameron. He is nine years old.

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