All Eyes On: Rachel Anderson

Most graduating seniors mindlessly scratch days off the calendar as they eagerly approach graduation, but for senior Rachel Anderson, each day off the calendar is an accomplishment of life itself. For many cancer patients like Anderson, each day is a celebration.

Anderson began experiencing stomach pains when she was a sophomore at Truman. During a doctor's appointment in February 2009, they recommended she have an ultrasound. Her results indicated there was something in her stomach. Doctors performed a PET test, which is designed to detect cancer present anywhere in the body. It confirmed that whatever was wrong was cancerous.

Anderson received a call in April 2009 letting her know she has a rare form of cancer named gastrointestinal stromal tumors, commonly referred to as GIST. She said she remembers receiving the call at school while with friends and feeling freaked out because she never thought she had something as serious as cancer. In her case, the cancer had spread from her stomach to the peritoneum, the layer of fat in the stomach, and to a small portion of her liver.

This form of cancer typically is only found in the elderly. Anderson found out the medical field knew very little about the disease, and that chemotherapy is considered ineffective in fighting the cancer.

"Technically, it's incurable and it's something I'm probably going to have my entire life," Anderson said.

She said she altered her life-style to make her disease manageable. She has to take all her medication on an empty stomach, so that means scheduling meals with friends around her medication, and feeling tired all the time means she has to drink a lot of coffee to keep her energy up throughout the day, she said.

Another obstacle is learning how to talk to people about it.

"I think one of the biggest problems I have is feeling that I can't talk about it because it's going to upset someone else," Anderson said.

Even with these struggles, Anderson manages to live a normal life. She currently is working, living off-campus by herself and is taking her last semester of classes.

"I'm lucky that I'm healthy enough to live on my own and do the stuff I'm doing on my own right now," Anderson said.

But her disease wasn't always this manageable.

At first, her doctors started her on two separate medications, making her incredibly sick. Anderson's hair turned gray, she lost 15 pounds, constantly was exhausted and eventually her health got so bad she was hospitalized and had to withdraw from school.

After two weeks in the University of Kansas Medical Center, Anderson's doctors put her on a new medication that typically is used for leukemia patients. With this medication, Anderson returned to school the next semester and has been stable for almost a year.

One of the classes she had to drop when she withdrew from Truman was Creative Writing with professor Ed Rogers. Rogers said he remembers first having her in a theology class.

"I always got a nice vibe from her," Rogers said. "She's a sweet person and I know that sometimes it's probably hard for her to be sweet because there were some times when she was uncomfortable."

Anderson used to come visit Rogers, place his big chair in the corner of his office and do what Rogers referred to as "unburdening herself."

Even when her illness progressed to the point where she had to withdraw from school, Rogers knew she had support and strength when she needed it.

"She has good family support from what she tells me," Rogers said. "I just was amazed at her strength."

Anderson's father Vernon was a big part of her family support group. He said the hardest part of watching his daughter struggle with cancer is feeling like he can't do anything.

"We just tried to be there for her but there's really not a lot we could do," Vernon said. "Just knowing that there was nothing that I could do for her was the hardest part."

Vernon said he remembers when his daughter was put in the hospital. There was an informal meeting with eight or nine of her doctors.

"I told them I wasn't going to sit there and watch her die and that I was going to do whatever I had to do," Vernon said.

Anderson and her father took a trip to Boston to meet with one of the leading doctors in the field at Harvard. They made a vacation out of the week, by staying at the Hope Lodge, with free lodging provided by AstraZeneca, a global biopharmaceutical company. Last summer, their entire family went on vacation to the Padre Islands.

"I want to take full advantage of all the time she does have," Vernon said.