A TikTok star whose doctor removed her womb without her permission during colon surgery has revealed that she and her husband separated amid her battle with stage-three cancer.
Devlynn Cyr, from Alberta, Canada, first made headlines when she shared that she came out of surgery and found that doctors had discovered a baseball-sized tumor on her uterus and decided to perform a full hysterectomy without her consent.
When the 39-year-old former paramedic woke up, she was shocked to learn that not only did she have stage-three colon cancer, but she was also now infertile.
Viewers have since been following her journey as she fights cancer, but after eagle-eyed supporters spotted Devlynn wasn’t wearing her wedding ring, the social media star confessed that she and husband Greg had since split, but insisted that he wasn’t ‘abandoning her’ – before adding that she had ‘shut down’ after her diagnosis.
Devlynn Cyr, 39, from Canada, has revealed that she and her husband have decided to separate after she ‘lost herself’ during her battle with stage-three colon cancer
She first made headlines when she shared that she came out of surgery and found that doctors had discovered a baseball-sized tumor on her uterus and performed a full hysterectomy
Eagle-eyed supporters realized Devlynn wasn’t wearing her wedding ring, the social media star confessed that she and Greg (seen) had since split
She took to the video-sharing platform alongside her now ex-spouse to share the news with her fans.
‘We have mutually made the decision that we’re going to separate. Now before anybody gets their feathers ruffled, Greg is not abandoning me, I’m not abandoning him,’ she explained.
‘We just need to take a few steps back before we can take three steps forward.’
The 39-year-old noted that both the diagnosis and the treatment had taken a huge toll on her as well as her relationship.
She explained that since her shock illness, she has lost her ability to ‘live life’ and ‘smile.’
‘Cancer hasn’t been easy. I’ve lost myself and who I am, and my ability to do things. I’m unfortunately not like most people where I’m like, “I’ve got to live my best life right now in case something happens.”
‘I am a person that shuts down, and I don’t want to get sick and I don’t want to do anything that could make it so I’m not here for an extended period of time.
‘I’ve lost my ability to smile or do things that I love and just be fun, because everything is about cancer.’
She took to the video-sharing platform alongside her now ex-spouse to share the news with her fans
The 39-year-old noted that both the diagnosis and the treatment had taken a huge toll on her as well as her relationship
She said that the couple wanted to find themselves and take a few steps back before moving forward.
Greg chimed in to share that it wasn’t a ‘physical separation’ – adding that he would still be there for her mentally and still be accompanying her to appointments.
Devlynn added: ‘We haven’t exactly been the most intimate couple because that’s been really hard especially with this diagnosis.
‘Given my state, and how I’ve handled things between fear and shutting down and dissociating, because that’s what I do. Space is what’s needed for us. We’re hoping that we can become friends again.’
The 39-year-old also made sure to make it clear that Greg wasn’t leaving her side during this difficult time.
She said: ‘He’s not abandoning me while going through chemo. He’s still going to stay and help. Given a separation, somebody’s still willing to stay and help when that’s got to be hard on them is pretty commendable.’
The couple tied the knot last March after just four months of dating because they were so madly in love.
Eight months after getting married, Devlynn was diagnosed with cancer and it immediately impacted their relationship.
Devlynn’s operation, which was to repair a ruptured colon, led to the discovery of stage-three colon cancer and a baseball-sized tumor on her uterus.
Doctors made the call to remove her womb and cervix — rendering the 39-year-old infertile.
Devlynn said: ‘I couldn’t process the hysterectomy because I’m like, “I now don’t have an option of children?”‘
She said that the couple wanted to find themselves and take a few steps back before moving forward
Eight months after getting married, Devlynn was diagnosed with cancer and it immediately impacted their relationship
She went to her area hospital for an ostomy, which would see doctors create an opening in the abdomen that allows bodily waste to drain from the intestines.
When she awoke from the surgery, she learned that doctors had to remove her uterus and cervix in a total hysterectomy after finding a baseball-sized tumor ‘cemented’ to her womb.
She said her heart sank when she learned the news from Greg.
In the lead-up to the surgery, she had been experiencing abdominal pain and constipation that doctors had first chalked up to something else such as Crohn’s disease.
In the middle of the procedure to surgically repair a hole in the lining of her colon, doctors discovered she had stage-three colon cancer.
Doctors later said her uterus and fallopian tubes were ‘like cement’ because of the cancer and they had to be removed.
She was under anesthesia when the cancer was discovered and her husband, Greg, received the news that damage done to her reproductive organs was irreversible.
‘Okay, so this is happening and this just got a lot more real,’ Devlynn said, adding that he was afraid his wife of six months would ‘be mad at me and resent me for having to make that decision. We had talked about having children.’
She was also upset to learn that doctors failed to retrieve healthy eggs from her ovaries before removing her uterus.
She said: ‘Did they retrieve some eggs for me to be able to have children in the future? Like, do they even think of these things?’
She said in a TikTok video that now has 1.5 million views that she underwent a ‘full hysterectomy,’ which involves the removal of the uterus and the cervix involuntarily
She will need to undergo chemotherapy long-term to beat her cancer. She will also need to undergo radiation treatment
The pain of losing the ability to give birth naturally was worsened with the knowledge that Devlynn would need to undergo chemotherapy for her cancer in the long term.
She told her followers on TikTok: ‘There is no hope for me getting out of chemo unless I do not want to survive this cancer.
‘They told me radiation is now something that I need to do given my family history, my dad having cancer twice, his mother having colon cancer.’
A person with a family history of colon cancer has about double the risk of getting it. People over 50 are also more vulnerable to the disease.
Colorectal cancer is the third-most common type of cancer diagnosed in men and women in the US.
An estimated 107,000 new cases of colon cancer will be diagnosed in 2023, along with 46,000 new cases of rectal cancer.
Rates of colon cancer are skyrocketing among younger adults and scientists are still grappling with possible causes, which could include unhealthy lifestyle practices.
The American Cancer Society reported in March that the rate of colon cancer in people aged 50 nationwide was now nearly 60 per 100,000.
For comparison, between 1975 to 1979 the rate was about 40 per 100,000 – indicating a 50 per cent increase in about 45 years.
About 43 per cent of diagnoses were in people aged 45 to 49 years old.
Part of what makes colorectal cancer difficult to diagnose is its symptoms, which can often be attributed to other conditions.
Many younger patients are often misdiagnosed because symptoms can look like other disorders, which delays treatment and decreases the odds of survival.
A survey conducted by the American Cancer Society (ACS) in 2019 reported that more than two-thirds of colon cancer patients saw at least two doctors before getting an accurate diagnosis and some had to go to as many as four doctors.
The ACS, an influential body that sets guidelines for appropriate care, decided just five years ago that it would revise its colon cancer screening recommendation, lowering the age from 50 to 45.
If detected early before spreading to other parts of the body – stages one and two – colon cancer has a five-year survival rate of about 91 per cent.
Stage three cancer means cancer cells have been found in lymph nodes in surrounding tissues, a diagnosis with a 72 per cent five-year survival rate.
Once the cancer has spread further throughout the body, such as to the bones, liver, or lungs, the odds of survival plummet to 14 per cent.
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