Choose Joy – Long Term Thriver, Jenny Wyman
5/23/26
Jenny Wyman’s story is one of transformation.
In 2015, Jenny’s gut told her something wasn’t right. She had excessive bleeding, lost weight and was feeling tired. A sonogram showed a uterine fibroid. Being a teacher and raising five of her own children, she elected to wait until summer to have a hysterectomy.
Jenny read a story warning of the dangers of uterine morcellation. She explicitly told her surgeon that she did not want the power morcellator used. Determined to take out the uterus laparoscopically, the doctor cut up the fibroid and uterus by knife. It turned out that the fibroid was actually a 7.5 cm high grade, high mitotic leiomyosarcoma tumor. The morcellation by knife upstaged her cancer to stage 4.
Initially, Jenny was mad at God… “Why me?” Her first visit to the infusion room to start chemo was humbling. She looked around and thought, “who am I? I’m no better than any of these other people.”
Jenny found herself incapacitated with the chemo combination of gemcitabine and taxotere (gem/tax). It burned her hands, feet, mouth and nose. Jenny couldn’t run after her children or take care of the household. She felt she had no control. “I had to relinquish everything and just exist,” she shared.
Terrified, Jenny’s first thoughts when she woke up and her last thought at night were about her cancer. She wanted facts. Jenny went to the internet and found the LMSDR support group. “It was so helpful,” Jenny explained. “There was no nonsense or sugarcoating. It was real stories with real people.”
Then in 2018, another tragedy hit. Jenny’s husband was diagnosed with cancer and passed within a few months.
That was a turning point for Jenny. She made a list of 25 things that gave her joy. She made a point to do one thing a day, instead of putting joy off.
Jenny made her health her job, five days a week. She changed to a high protein diet, low in carbohydrates and processed foods.
She started to exercise. At first her goal was to just sit on a bike and not fall off. Last year in 2025, she put on 1400 miles on her bike. She swam three hours a day. This year she works out at the YMCA with weights and does Pilates five days a week. Jenny lost a total of 140 pounds.
Today, Jenny never felt more alive. She takes responsibility for her body, puts herself first and has learned to love herself.
Jenny’s motto is, “today’s a great day to have a great day!” She tells other LMS patients to set goals and not waste a minute. Instead of living in fear, choose joy.
