卡希尔在生下儿子以西结5周后被诊断出患有林奇综合症和癌症
“我的儿子是我们的守护天使，我的怀孕救了我的命，”加比·卡希尔说. The CMU alumna, dance instructor and dance team coach brought her first child into the world, 她战胜了癌症，并以前所未有的身份回到CMU任教. 她的韧性令人鼓舞，Mavily非常感激她的回归.
Cahill graduated from CMU in 2013 and her significant other, Esto Paniagua, who is also a CMU alum graduated in December of 2012. 这对夫妇在高中时有过短暂的相遇，在卡希尔和她的家人搬到前面的牧场之前，他们一起参加了一个舞会. “It’s funny, we have our homecoming photo framed in our home now,” Cahill said. 一次偶然的机会，他们在CMU重逢，他们的关系立刻恢复了.
这对夫妇欣喜若狂地发现他们期待着他们的第一个孩子, a son who they named Ezekiel. “I taught and coached throughout my pregnancy. 那是在大流行期间，所以我们只是尽我们所能让一切尽可能正常,” Cahill said. “About halfway through, things started to get rocky though.“卡希尔的右下腹部剧烈疼痛, which was thought by her doctor to be round ligament pain. Cahill also became anemic and required iron infusions, another common occurrence for expectant mothers.
以西结(zekiel)或“齐克”(Zeke)首次亮相，非常健康，分娩也很顺利. But soon after giving birth, Cahill’s abdominal pains returned, persisted and could no longer be attributed to pregnancy. A colonoscopy revealed a 6.4 x 9.在Cahill盲肠，也就是小肠与结肠的交汇处，发现2cm的肿块. It was presumed stage 3 colon cancer with lymph nodes affected. Cahill and Paniagua were crushed. “I was terrified and speechless. All I could think was, ‘no! How? I have a 5-week-old at home.’”
卡希尔说:“在这一切中，我真的很幸运，周围的人都围着我。. “My amazing OBGYN, Dr. 希瑟·布尔科夫斯基，打电话给她从幼儿园就认识的朋友病理学家. 雷切尔·拉肯特和几个照顾我的护士也是第一次当妈妈. 他们都聚集在我的周围，很快就开始工作，想知道发生了什么，能做些什么. It was like an out of body experience. 我不敢相信这一切发生在我刚成为母亲的时候.”
“And Esto — he is my rock, 我们的基石——他在我和儿子成长道路上的每一步都陪伴着我，他用充满爱和积极的方式做到了这一点. He’s amazing. It’s wonderful to call him my partner,” Cahill said. “当我们得知下一个消息时，他开玩笑说我是他见过的最幸运的倒霉的人.”
Cahill’s colonoscopy footage, CT图像和实验室工作在医生之间分享，最后她接到了她的护士导航的电话, Whitney, who delivered the true diagnosis. Cahill has Lynch Syndrome, 一种使人患结肠癌的可能性增加46%的遗传疾病. After reviewing the pathology, Cahill’s oncologist Dr. 苏迪·贾汉吉里注意到她的病理有些不同——一种不能正常工作的蛋白质. 林奇综合症的诊断意味着卡希尔可以用免疫疗法治疗, which changed everything.
他们说，这种类型的癌症通常是无法检测到的，直到它扩散到无法治疗的程度. If it weren’t for my pregnancy I might not even be here today,” Cahill said. “Zeke saved my life. I know it without a doubt.卡希尔的诊断促使她的妈妈和姐妹们接受了林奇综合症的检测，结果都是阳性的. Her son will have to wait until he is 18-21 to be tested, 因为标记是DNA蛋白质中的一个故障，而DNA必须完全发育才能看到它.
好消息是，对这种综合征的认识意味着对癌症进行更频繁的筛查，而且这种特定类型的癌症可以单独用免疫疗法治疗. 免疫疗法通常伴随着化疗，通过静脉注射，每次30分钟. 每次预约时，病人都必须抽血，等待两个小时才能得到结果，以确保可以安全进行. Because of COVID protocols, Cahill had to endure these treatments every three weeks for five months, all alone.
By month three, the tumor had shrunk by 50%. Six more treatments followed. 2022年4月，卡希尔接受了手术，切除了明显较小的肿块, 2/3 of her large intestine, 42个淋巴结和所有的疤痕组织阻碍了他们通过CT扫描查看是否有癌症残留. 五月份，手术后，她的病理报告显示癌症已经完全死亡.
“在腹部大手术后，三个月后马上重新开始跳舞可能不是最好的决定, I’m here teaching full-time,” Cahill said. She currently has a larger class load than any dance teacher in CMU history. “舞蹈节目一直在我心中，我非常致力于这个MAVILY. I’m overwhelmed by the support I’ve received. They could have replaced me, but they didn’t. 他们介入，帮助我的课程和舞蹈团队，并确保我可以专注于治疗. 我很高兴能和他们一起工作——不管他们是否意识到，他们都激励着我.”
Along with selected family members and very close friends, 舞蹈团队和卡希尔的同事们都在一个非常小的圈子里，他们知道她正在经历什么. “我没有宣布我的诊断结果，因为我真的想在这段旅程中保持专注和积极. 我的医疗团队认为，这种选择和严重的营养变化与我能如此迅速地战胜这种疾病有很大关系,” said Cahill. “I’ve always been a very positive person and I love to share that with others. Being in the studio with students and creating with them is so inspiring to me. 我很高兴能回来，我在舞蹈中找到了一种不同的运动方式，因为在发生了这一切之后, my body is completely different now.”
卡希尔说，她现在意识到，癌症在她怀孕之前就已经存在了，只是她没有倾听自己身体的声音. 她也不太注意她吃的食物的质量，现在一切都变了. With a newfound passion for nutrition and its healing and preventative powers, Cahill highly encourages everyone to listen to their bodies, 如果他们觉得有什么不对劲，就去看医生，让自己了解食物成分与身体和精神疾病之间的关系. 她目前正在研究不同的方法来参与支持研究，提高人们对Lynch综合征和癌症预防和治疗的认识.
As part of the Forming the Future Initiative, Colorado Mesa University has adopted Love, Dignity, Courage, Humility, Resiliency, Curiosity and Power as the foundation of values to build upon. Gabbie Cahill’s courage and resiliency are an inspiration to us all.