Amber Took the Reins to Improve Her Health

After an unexpected diagnosis, Amber Dillard teamed up with her care team and loved ones to conquer cancer.

Last year, Amber Dillard was trying to find the source of her severe back pain. She sought help from a chiropractor and also visited a urologist, thinking a urinary tract infection could be causing the discomfort. To add to the confusion, she was suddenly unable to have a bowel movement for several days. After her primary care physician ordered diagnostic tests, including an MRI and a colonoscopy, she learned that she had a tumor in her large intestine.

“I was completely in shock,” the Visalia resident says. “There is no history of cancer in my family, so I really didn’t think it would happen to me.”

Dillard’s care team recommended that she speak to Adventist Health general surgeon Kyle Ota, MD, a foremost expert on the gastrointestinal tract. Luckily, he was visiting patients in the hospital the day she got the news, and Dillard requested a consultation. “He was really on top of things,” she recalls. “He said, ‘I have a cancellation in three days. Let’s do surgery and try to take it out then.’”

Dillard says that support from Dr. Ota, her care team, her family and the community got her through 10 months of rigorous cancer treatment and multiple surgeries.

One step at a time

During Dillard’s first operation, Dr. Ota had hoped to remove the tumor, but unfortunately he discovered that the cancer had spread to several neighboring organs. Before it could be fully removed, Dillard would need to undergo chemotherapy to shrink the tumors. Four months later, Dr. Ota and urologist Joseph Ford, DO, did a joint procedure to remove the cancer in Dillard’s large and small intestines and her uterus. Dr. Ota removed about 18 inches of Dillard’s colon and placed a temporary ileostomy, a bag to collect waste while her body healed.

“When you’ve been healthy your whole life, to suddenly be taken down and need so much medical treatment is hard to handle physically, mentally and emotionally,” says Dillard, who was 45 at the time of her treatment. “But I had an amazing nurse who told me to just focus on one thing at a time. She’d say, ‘You got through that, so what’s next?’ I tried not to get too worried about what was going to happen. I just got through each moment.”

Positively better

Dillard is now cancer-free and says she has a lot of people to thank. “I know not everyone survives,” she says. “I was lucky — I had the right doctors, support system and outlook.”

Dr. Ota recommended walking, so Dillard and her husband went out regularly, even if their walks were short or slow on days when she wasn’t feeling well. And now that she’s in good health, she is back in the saddle — literally. “We have four horses, and when I got the go-ahead to ride, we went camping and I trail rode three days in a row,” she says. “It felt so good to be back to normal.”

Dillard says she is aware that the cancer could return, so she’s being screened often — and she refuses to stress about it. “I just take it one day at a time,” she says. “None of us are guaranteed tomorrow, so I’m going to live for today.”

Schedule your screening

Work with your primary care provider to create a personalized colorectal cancer screening plan.