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Brennan Elliott’s wife, Camilla Row, was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, the Hallmark actor recently revealed on social media. Cami, as Brennan refers to her, shared details on April 4 about her diagnosis and treatment, revealing a long-fought battle that has lasted for years. She said she’s sharing her story to try to provide hope to other Stage 4 patients, because she’s thriving even in the midst of her battle.
Her First Symptom Was Stabbing Pain & She Was Initially Told It Was Just Heartburn
Cami shared her story on the Hope for Stomach Cancer website, revealing how she was first diagnosed and the initial steps they took to get her into remission before her cancer returned.
She said her first symptom was heartburn in December 2015 when she was 37. But she said the heartburn pain was different because it was a stabbing pain that sometimes was so severe, she’d be left crying. Concerned she was having a heart attack, she visited a cardiologist and a gastroenterologist. She was told that she simply had heartburn and to take Prilosec. But by March 2018 the pain simply wasn’t tolerable, so she asked for an endoscopy. She had to wait two months, and the biopsy came back as malignant.
She Had 8 Rounds of Chemo & Her Stomach Removed in 2018
Cami wrote on Hope for Stomach Cancer, “It was a very aggressive form of diffuse stomach cancer known as signet ring cell carcinoma… Luckily my clinical stage was 1A.”
She wrote that she had a “total gastrectomy” which involved removing her stomach along with 47 lymph nodes. Two lymph nodes were cancerous, and so she had eight rounds of chemo from August through November 2018. After that, she was declared cancer-free.
“It was during this process I also had genetic testing done and I discovered that I had a germline CDH1 VUS mutation,” she said.
She Had a Double Mastectomy in 2021
She revealed that even though she was in remission, she still had battles to fight. After being diagnosed with atypical hyperplasia following a breast exam, she opted for a double mastectomy with reconstruction in May 2021, Cami shared.
Then in July 2021, she had a Signatera, which is a sensitive assay used to detect tumor DNA and predict a relapse earlier than conventional tests, according to Natera’s website. Unfortunately, she registered a very weak positive, followed by a higher-level positive in August 2021.
“Needless to say I was freaking out,” she wrote. “I had convinced myself I was going to die from a full-blown recurrence.”
A Late-December 2021 CT Scan Revealed Tumors
After a CT scan in late December 2021, her doctors told her in early January that she had Krukenberg tumors.
“Giving up is just not an option,” she wrote on Hope for Stomach Cancer. “It doesn’t exist.”
According to Radiopaedia, a Krukenberg tumor is a metastatic tumor found in the ovary.
She had surgery on February 12 to remove the tumors, she shared, and learned that the cancer had not spread past her ovaries. Another Signatera test after her surgery came up negative.
“I started my first round of FLOT and Opdivo on March 14, 2022,” she wrote. “It was tough and I was miserable for a week but I got through it unscathed.”
She said her treatment plan includes up to eight rounds of chemotherapy, along with looking into possible immunotherapy clinical trials or cancer vaccines.
She Wants Other Stage 4 Patients To Be Encouraged & Know That She’s Thriving
“I consider myself very blessed,” she wrote. “I have an incredibly supportive family who will move mountains to help me. As a psychologist, I have an arsenal of tools, tips, and tricks I use daily. But honestly at the end of the day, we are all human and I have my good days and bad days.”
Still, she said, she’s thriving and wants to encourage others with Stage 4 cancer.
“Initially, I was secretive of my stage 4 status because I didn’t want people to look at me as a sickly cancer patient,” she wrote on Hope for Stomach Cancer. “But now I feel like I am on a mission to spread awareness and hopefully be an example of a stage 4 patient who is thriving.”
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