Within 30 minutes of her CT scan a month ago, Trina Gregory says, doctors flooded her hospital room.
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“We found a tumor in your colon,” they said.
She was floored. She’d been there for the same scan a month earlier when a stomachache prompted a visit. Gregory admits she’s not one for the ER, but it felt serious. They told her it was colitis and constipation and sent her home.
“‘Drink more fluids,’ they said.”
Now, they were calling a colorectal surgeon. Telling her it might be cancer.
It was.
Gregory never left the hospital. They removed “Albert” the next day (Gregory named the grapefruit-sized mass), along with 71 lymph nodes and most of her colon.
When state erased a rainbow, Trina Gregory responded with a big, colorful idea
“They left me with 18 inches.”
She is grateful for them.
Gregory’s grandmother had colon cancer, a case that required a colostomy. And though the road ahead will be fraught with both chemo and immunotherapy, and a continuing series of discomforts, Gregory’s colon, now mini and mighty, is still functioning as it should.
She is candid, but it’s not because it comes naturally, she says.
“I might be out in the community a lot, but I’m actually a pretty private person. It’s a lot to share, but it felt like if I didn’t, it wouldn’t be authentic. People know I haven’t been [at the restaurant as much]. And when I am there, I’m walking slow.”
She also wants her story to serve as a message, which is one of the reasons she took to Instagram earlier this week to tell people the news.
“I didn’t listen to my body,” she admits, “and colonoscopies are easy to put off because the idea of getting one isn’t great … but the message is probably more for fellow restaurant owners, honestly, because we don’t take care of ourselves. We’re too busy taking care of everything else.”
Leading up to the diagnosis, Gregory, though loaded down with the usual stressors, was riding rather high. She’d been a finalist in the Sentinel’s recent Central Floridian of the Year Awards. She was among Orlando Magazine’s Women of the Year honorees. She had found love; she and her significant other, Evan Coutts, got engaged in March.
“I’ve never been happier in my entire life,” she says, crumpling into tears, leaning into the cruelest aspects of this disruption. “I’m just so angry. It’s just one more thing to be worried about when I already have so much stress, when I want to be sure I keep my 22 people employed.”
She trails off, considering that.
“And I have no choice, either. I need all of them to be there. Because I can’t.”
Gregory, who has Lynch Syndrome, has a pretty good prognosis. Though it’s a genetic condition that increases the risk of developing certain cancers (“all the women on my mother’s side of the family had ovarian cancer by the time they were 45,” she says), Lynch patients’ tumors respond incredibly well to immunotherapy, as the mutated proteins within make them look “foreign” to the body.
“This is the part that makes me lucky,” she says, though chemo will likely be as well.
The post-op row, however, is proving tough to hoe for a small business owner used to putting in hours well beyond overtime.
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“Everything hurts. It hurts to stand. It hurts to poop. It hurts to pee. Everything’s all healing on the inside. I was cut open from hip to hip. Two days ago, I went to empty the dishwasher, and I couldn’t even get out of bed after.”
Gregory will have a little more downtime than usual, but she’s still plenty up — “I did too much yesterday. Today I’m taking it easy” — though time on the couch means time to do what she’s always done best: bring the community together.
Starting this week through the end of the summer, Se7enbites will have weekly Blue Ribbon Specials every day. One dollar from every meal sold will go directly to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance (colorectalcancer.org).
“They help fund colonoscopies for people who can’t afford them,” says Gregory.
It’s a vital tool, in fact. Colorectal cancer, when caught early, is highly treatable.
“I want people to get checked. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. No one wants to talk about their bowel movements or if they’re having trouble or if they’ve noticed they’ve lost a lot of weight.”
Gregory herself lost 40 pounds in five months. Many around her simply thought she was working on it.
“I should have paid more attention to that,” she admits.
Now, much like journalist Katie Couric, whose Today Show colonoscopy in 2000 sparked what was known as “The Couric Effect”, a 20 percent uptick in nationwide screening rates — Couric’s husband lost his own battle with colon cancer at just 42 — Gregory is shooting a spike in awareness, if only local. She’s planning a Relay for Life later in the summer, as well.
“It’s a real thing,” she says. “It’s uncomfortable, but if you humanize it, you can make a difference.”
She may have less colon to work with, but her trademark cheekiness is as robust as ever as she embarks on this new community mission, complete with a statement that mirrors the restaurant’s original: Come let us feed your pie hole.
“Get your other pie hole checked,” she says.
Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: [email protected], For more foodie fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.
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