Woman Fights Colon Cancer: ‘I Can’t Believe This Happened to Me’

It all started with a long-overdue colonoscopy. Amy Dittmar knew from her family doctor that people in their 50s should have one, but she didn’t see the need. 

Anything I ate hurt me. Salads, meats, anything. Deep-fried or healthy stuff. Everything seemed to mess me up.- Amy Dittmar

“My husband always says, ‘You come from a sturdy, healthy family.’” says Dittmar, 53. “Nobody really had cancer or any heart problems or things like that.”

So, like a lot of busy, healthy Americans, Dittmar put things off. After growing up in a close-knit family in Buffalo, Dittmar and her husband, Bradley, had moved to Oviedo and she settled into her new life as a part-time housewife, part-time office assistant.

She missed her initial appointment for a colonoscopy in April 2024 because of bad cold symptoms, then didn’t call to reschedule until her body gave her a not-so-gentle reminder.

‘Anything I Ate Hurt Me’

Sometime around November that year, Dittmar’s “stomach of steel” gradually got tender. She began to experience cramping and other issues with bowel movements that couldn’t be explained by changes in her diet.

“Anything I ate hurt me,” she explains. “Salads, meats, anything. Deep-fried or healthy stuff. Everything seemed to mess me up.”

By the time she scheduled a colonoscopy in February 2025, she was seeing blood in her stool and it was harder for her to have a bowel movement. So even though she had been a diehard football fan most of her life, Dittmar spent Super Bowl Sunday fasting in preparation for her procedure the following day.

It wasn’t a moment too soon. Woozy from her anesthesia, Dittmar awakened at an Orlando clinic and was told by doctors that a large mass in her colon had prevented them from doing a full colonoscopy. Two days later she got a diagnosis that stunned her: Cancer of the sigmoid colon.

‘I Was Scared’

The news prompted Dittmar and her husband to seek out a specialist they could trust. After reading several patient reviews, they found themselves in the office of Dr. Paul Williamson, a senior faculty member attending in colon and rectal surgery at Orlando Health Colon and Rectal Institute.

“He was very direct but warm,” Dittmar says. “I didn’t feel rushed. You could tell he really cared. I explained I had never had surgery before, never been sick before like this. I was scared, which he probably sees all the time.”

Dr. Williamson had been practicing surgery in Orlando for more than 30 years, and he had long ago learned how to handle difficult conversations.

“When the ‘C-word’ is put in front of you, it brings up a whole host of fears, anxieties and contemplation,” says Dr. Williamson. “They just had a plethora of questions: ‘Am I going to live, how am I going to treat this, who’s going to treat it, how is it going to be treated?’”

Dittmar needed good news, and it didn’t take her long to get some. Dr. Williamson’s team thought her cancer could be tackled head-on with surgery, but first they’d need to do an endoscopic exam to finish the exploratory work her colonoscopy started. 

Dittmar had to remain awake for the grueling procedure, but it was worth it. The results revealed a stage two tumor on the left side of her colon. They determined it could potentially be removed without chemotherapy – but first, she would need to have surgery.

Camaraderie in Recovery

She spent her birthday in April on the operating table, less than a month after her initial diagnosis. Dittmar recalls it as a terrible way to spend a milestone, but her husband was there through it all.

“My husband’s my rock. He really is,” she says. “He didn’t leave the hospital room. He slept there all night. He was my biggest advocate.”

Dittmar’s full recovery would take months, but she spent the first six days of it at Orlando Health Orlando Regional Medical Center. 

“You just feel so helpless laying there for almost a week,” she remembers. “But the nurses were great, and Dr. Williamson came in and checked on me and everything, so he really made a difference.” 

Kindness Repaid

Dittmar’s sister is a nurse, so she had an inkling of what a hospital staff goes through – but she hadn’t seen it firsthand. As she began to get her strength back, she felt the gratitude that comes with a new lease on life. She and her husband brought deli platters and laid them out in the break room for the nurses at ORMC. And Dr. Williamson? He got desserts from an Italian bakery.

“Take care of your doctors and your nurses, because they don’t hear it enough,” Dittmar says. “It goes a long way to show up after the process is over and they’re on to the next patient. Just to show up and say, ‘Hey, remember me? You never saw me looking normal. Thanks for caring for me; I’m all better.’”

Today, Dittmar is back to her routine of biking, fishing and walking the dog. She’s still cancer-free and has managed to do it without chemotherapy. She’s looking forward to a happier Super Bowl party – and birthday -- this year.

For Dr. Williamson, it was a pleasant reminder of why he got into medicine to begin with. “Personalized care of the patient reaps a lot of rewards,” he says.