Angie Rundle lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and her son, Chris, is a student at the University of Missouri. Their family shares a rare inherited genetic condition, called familial adenomatous polyposis, which causes cancer.
They spoke about Angie’s own experiences with colorectal cancer and about how this condition impacted them as Chris was growing up.
Missouri Health Talks gathers Missourians’ stories of access to healthcare in their own words.
Chris Rundle: Can you tell me about when your, kind of, illnesses start?
Angie Rundle: Yeah, well, when I was 21, my dad had been having stomach pain for like a decade, but didn't go to the doctor, and then when he finally went to the doctor – 44 years old and got a colonoscopy – and was immediately diagnosed with stage four cancer in his colon that had already metastasized to his liver.
His dad had also died of colon cancer at a young age.
Because this was 2002, they were just starting to figure out the genetic component to that. So, when my dad met with his oncologist, the first thing he said was, “How old are your kids?”
At the time, my brothers were much – they are much younger than me – so, they were like 7 and 10, and then I was 21, and the oncologist said, “We need to get her in right away.”
So, I went in for my colonoscopy, and I remember when I woke up, that what my mom said to me was, “They found some stuff.”
Chris: You had me when you were 20. So, pretty much all my life I've known.
"He didn't have that many words because you were only like a year old, but one of the words that he knew was “medicine” because Mommy always had medicine.Angie Rundle
Angie: That's right.
Chris: It's just something that I've grown up with. So, yeah.
Angie: So, this specific type of cancer we have is called familial adenomatous, polyposis coli, and it's a 50-50 chance every time, it's like flipping a penny every single time, you may or may not get it.
So, with my brothers, they knew from the time they were really young. So, that's very different than my life, which is like, I had no idea and then it just was thrust upon me.
Chris: Yeah, especially raising a kid at the same time.
Angie: Yeah, it was back-to-back-to-back: my Dad's dying, you have stage one colon cancer. Also, you may have given it to your child not knowing.
Chris: Yeah.
Angie: That was tough because my parents couldn't really help me because my dad was busy dying of cancer, my mom couldn't really help because she was busy caring for my dad and her two young children.
But thankfully, my Godmother, who is my dad's cousin helped a lot, and she said, “I'll take care of him,” and so, she came and got him like the day before I had my surgery. And then I didn't see him for weeks.
So, it was very hard. I was scared that he wouldn't remember who I was, which is silly.
But another weird thing – I just remembered this – he didn't have that many words because you were only like a year old, but one of the words that he knew was “medicine” because Mommy always had medicine.
So, I'd be like, “go get me the pills over there,” and I would have him shake the bottle, so I knew which pill it was that I needed – because they sounded different, of the rattling, like a capsule or a tablet.
So, yeah, he didn't even know that many words, but he knew “medicine” because it was important. It was something that he had to deal with all the time.
Chris: That's pretty impressive. That's a lot ,to say, for a young mother to really be able to do that. I don't know, it just seems pretty impressive.
