Dr. Judith Cooney is a psychiatrist at the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at UConn Health. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cIt has been wonderful to work with Carlos and to help him through this very difficult process. He was able to use many of the tools to help him relax, manage worry and negative emotions associated with cancer and treatment,\u201d says Cooney.<\/p>\n
Cooney not only works with patients, but their families as well incorporating his wife into treatment as an essential caregiver and part of the solution for his coping and improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarlos\u2019 cancer has been very stressful for his wife, and our treatments have also helped her to cope with this difficult ordeal,\u201d says Cooney.<\/p>\n
He looked forward to the day of his operation but was scared. The eight-hour operation ended up taking 11 hours due to complications with the colon. \u00a0His spleen was also enlarged and removed during surgery.<\/p>\n
Ten days after the surgery he had a blockage in his bowel and ended up in the hospital with a tube that went down his nose to his stomach for eight days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in a bad state, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic and we couldn\u2019t have visitors, which made it more difficult,\u201d says Cabrera.\u00a0 \u201cThe nurses were amazing during this time, knowing how hard it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the tube was removed, he was sent home and started to feel better, looking at life more positively.<\/p>\n
However, another complication of fluid backed up in his rectum left from the surgery requiring a drain from his rectum to his buttocks which remains open as an abscess to keep the fluid draining. \u00a0While not painful it\u2019s a bit uncomfortable and he has to change bandages to keep it clean.<\/p>\n
The entire year of his treatment, he was out of work, but now he is cancer-free and back to normal. He doesn\u2019t think about cancer 24\/7 and is living life to the fullest and spending time enjoying his family.<\/p>\n
Since he completed acute treatment he and Cooney have been working on his returning to his life and responsibilities at work and home, living a healthy lifestyle by optimizing his eating and exercise behaviors, and spending more time with his family, which he realized is his most important goal. He is now optimistic, happy, healthy, living the life he most values and thriving as a cancer survivor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do with myself and Dr. Cooney was remarkable in helping me work through my emotions, providing support and tools,\u201d says Cabrera. \u201cI am so grateful for her help.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to know that there is hope, that I had a horrible experience and was miserable and crying all the time, but in the end, the cancer is gone and life gets better,\u201d says Cabrera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The diagnosis of any type of cancer is devastating and for Carlos Cabrera, the day he was diagnosed with rectal cancer totally changed his life and shattered his wife.\u00a0 With treatment, surgery, and mental health care, he has come out on the other side, cancer-free and with a change of outlook on life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":187389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2230,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2209],"class_list":["post-187237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancer","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 10:20:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187237"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187448,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187237\/revisions\/187448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/187389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187237"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=187237"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=187237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/girard-eric-20171002-encarnacion-4837-800x1000-1-240x300.jpg\")
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