Summary

This is my conversation with Jenessa Schwartz. She’s 37 years old, and she’s living with stage 4 colon cancer. She’s also my niece, my sister Cyndi’s daughter. Jenessa has two kids under 10. She was the Womb For Hire (her words) for two adorable surrogate kids, which is one of the menschiest things a person can do in this life. She’s a middle school language arts teacher, a musical theater aficionado, a giant nerd, and beloved to her huge, dear circle of friends and family. And she’ll be on chemo or some form of treatment for her cancer for the rest of her life. 

Major themes:

Living with stage 4 colon cancer; colorectal cancer and metastatic cancer; HIPEC surgery; surrogacy; parenting and talking to children about cancer; Jewish culture, teaching, and family life; life with a terminal illness; crisis points and how we make choices to change our lives because of them; relationship changes in the context of a crisis; the epidemic of young people with late-stage colorectal cancer; favorite podcasts; why you should get a colonoscopy right now. 

References:

The Major-General’s Song from The Pirates of Penzance (Gilbert and Sullivan, 1879)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major-General%27s_Song

The Jewish festival of Purimhttps://www.theweek.co.uk/91775/purim-2018-what-is-purim-and-how-is-it-celebrated

Bill’s Café in San Jose’s Rose Gardenhttp://www.billscafe.com/locations/the-rose-garden

What’s a peritoneum?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peritoneum

HIPEC surgery procedure https://hipectreatment.com/the-hipec-procedure/

Ileostomy https://www.ostomy.org/ileostomy/

NED means No Evidence of Disease.

Living with a chemo porthttps://www.webmd.com/colorectal-cancer/features/advanced-colon-cancer-port#1

On younger people with late-stage colon cancerhttps://www.webmd.com/colorectal-cancer/news/20190607/more-young-adults-getting-dying-from-colon-cancerandhttps://www.ascopost.com/issues/june-25-2019/solving-the-mystery-of-why-colorectal-cancer-is-on-the-rise-in-young-adults

What does a spleen do? (Turns out, it’s part of a mammal’s immune system and recycles red blood cells, stores fresh blood, and recycles iron into the bloodstream.)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spleen

A siddur is a Jewish prayer book used for Shabbat (Sabbath) and daily prayer. https://www.britannica.com/topic/siddur

Shout out to Guy Raz and Mindy Thomas.

Jenessa’s fave podcasts to listen to with the kids: Wow in the World,