Day: October 5, 2025

• Amber Kissell, 45, experienced several symptoms of colon cancer in her mid-30s.
• After being dismissed by multiple doctors, she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.
• She is now in remission, but said she never stops worrying about it coming back.

Right before Amber Kissell had her second child, she noticed some troubling changes. At 35, she’d alternate between constipation and diarrhea — symptoms she chalked up to pregnancy.

After giving birth, she found blood in her stool, one of the most common signs of colon cancer. She immediately started booking doctors’ appointments. A primary care physician told her she just had a fissure, even though she’d lost 10 pounds with no explanation. Then she saw a colorectal surgeon, who gave her a similar answer after a physical exam: she had hemorrhoids.

“In the back of my head, I was thinking ‘something isn’t right,'” Kissell, 45, told Business Insider. She went back to him two more times, explicitly asking if she might have colon cancer. He reassured her that she was “too young” and that her insurance wouldn’t cover a colonoscopy because she was under the recommended screening age (then 50, now 45).

Shortly after, Kissell started feeling lightheaded every time she stood up. “I started to wake up in the morning and feel like I had the flu,” she said. She relied more on her husband to take care of their 1-year-old because she would wake up exhausted.

After a particularly bad dizzy spell, Kissell was on her way to the ER when she called her colorectal doctor. He advised her to go home, wait a few days, and come in for a colonoscopy instead.

She still remembers the hallway she stood in when she got the call about her lab results and learned she had stage 4 colon cancer. The cancer had spread from her colon to her liver and lymph nodes.

“My children were 8 and 16 months,” she said. “Your whole life flashes before your eyes.”

Kissell began treatment immediately and asked not to know details of her timeline because she didn’t want to “dwell” on it. Then, a surprising turn of events: her chemotherapy completely shrank her tumors. Kissell has now been in remission for close to a decade.

Seeking other opinions

When she was first diagnosed, Kissell sought out multiple opinions for treatment.

The first doctor she met with was warm and told her he’d treat her like family: he suggested starting with aggressive chemotherapy before performing any surgery on her colon or liver. The second one wanted to begin with surgery and “cut as much out as possible.” She claims a third looked at her and flatly asked why she wasn’t crying. “You know you’re going to die, right?” she remembers him saying.

Kissell chose the first doctor because he seemed the most compassionate.

Because her cancer was so advanced, Kissell was put on palliative care, which was focused on shrinking her tumors with the goal of improving her quality of life rather than curing her cancer. The plan was to perform six rounds of chemotherapy, followed by surgery on her colon and liver, then finish with another six rounds of chemo.

Kissell’s main concern was her family. “When you tell a mom she has stage 4 cancer, the only thing she worries about is her children,” she said. Not knowing how soon things might progress, she filled two buckets with gifts, journals, and blankets for her kids.

Striving for normality

As Kissell underwent treatment, she sought to “keep life as normal as possible” for her family — something she felt was easier given her young age.

She continued to work as a hospital nurse, bringing her chemo pump bag with her and occasionally taking breaks in her car when nausea set in. “I wouldn’t say it was the easiest thing in the world,” she said, but she preferred it to being alone with her thoughts.

After work, she and her husband would try to stay active with their kids. “We would ride bikes and take walks, we’d do everything we could,” she said.

Kissell, who lives in the Indiana town she grew up in, had a strong community of friends and family to help her focus on her well-being. “When I was first diagnosed, I was scared out of my mind about bills,” she said. She was worried about losing their house or cars, or that she’d eventually be unable to afford treatment.

Everyone stepped in. A local nonprofit organization held a concert to fundraise for Kissell and coworkers started a GoFundMe for her. Friends brought dinners.

“I will never be able to repay everyone who was so kind,” Kissell said.

Rare, encouraging results

After her fourth round of chemo, Kissell’s scans revealed unexpected results: all seven small tumors in her liver were gone, as were the ones in her lymph nodes. The primary tumor in her colon also shrank significantly.

Her doctor adjusted her treatment plan: she’d now finish all her rounds of chemotherapy before surgery on her colon. After that, all signs of cancer disappeared.

Dr. Pashtoon Kasi, the Medical Director of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at City of Hope in Irvine, California, told Business Insider that neoadjuvant chemotherapy — chemotherapy before any surgery to kill off any cancer cells that have spread — can sometimes effectively lead to remission. While Kasi didn’t treat Kissell, he said that if even a small tumor is near an important blood vessel, surgery can be more successful if the tumor can shrink first.

Full remission after neoadjuvant chemotherapy is still rare. In Kasi’s experience, performing all chemotherapy before other treatments only “really pushed the envelope” for about a third of eligible colorectal cancer patients. Kissell said even her doctor was surprised by her results, telling her that she was his first patient to respond like this.

Almost nine years later, Kissell is still in remission and has just reached the point where she only needs an annual checkup from her oncologist.

Still, she said it was difficult to adjust to life after treatment.

“It was so bad at the beginning — my finger could hurt and I was calling my oncologist,” she said. “It took forever to get over that.”

The experience taught her to embrace time with her family. While she used to hate taking photos, that changed with cancer.

“Thankfully, I’ve been able to create lots of memories over the past eight years,” she said. “I pray I get many more.”

Damascus – Syria is conducting its first parliamentary elections on Sunday, ten months after insurgent groups, led by Ahmed al-Shara—the current president—defeated Bashar al-Assad, ending a brutal civil war, reports 24brussels.

Experts view the elections as a significant step toward democracy following decades of authoritarian rule by the Assad family, which has maintained strict control over the country for over fifty years.

How are Syria’s first elections after the war being conducted?

The government established an electoral committee to oversee the election process, appointing regional bodies responsible for selecting members of local electoral councils that vetted candidates.

Approximately 6,000 members will select from 1,578 candidates at regional electoral colleges, with polling stations closing at 5 PM local time. While two-thirds of the representatives will be elected through this process, the remaining seats will be filled by Syria’s interim President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who will appoint a third of the 210 members of Parliament directly.

The election will not be conducted nationwide, as the government cites significant administrative challenges following the end of the civil war. A considerable number of citizens lack identification and remain displaced from their homes.

The northeastern regions of Raqqa and Hasakah, controlled by a Kurdish-led administration, will be excluded from the voting. Additionally, the entire southern province of Sweida will not participate in the elections.

Why are many former Assad allies disqualified from running?

The electoral committee has disqualified several individuals from running for Parliament, including former supporters of the Assad regime unless they had resigned or defected. This includes many former parliamentarians.

The disqualification list extends to individuals with criminal records, those under 25 years old, those involved with terrorist organizations, and individuals who have promoted separatism or foreign intervention. Candidates who did not have Syrian citizenship prior to 2011, the year the civil war began, have also been excluded.

When were the last parliamentary elections held?

The last legislative elections in Syria took place on April 13, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing conflict, with only a 33.17% voter turnout among eligible voters in approximately 70% of Syrian territory. The pro-government National Progressive Front and its allied parties maintained a legislative majority, with the Ba’ath Party continuing its control of the People’s Council.

In that election, the National Progressive Front captured 183 of the 250 parliamentary seats, with the Ba’ath Party securing 66.8% of the seats and thus retaining its dominant influence. Independent candidates won 67 seats.

The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.

Affiliate links for the products on this page are from partners that compensate us and terms apply to offers listed (see our advertiser disclosure with our list of partners for more details). However, our opinions are our own. See how we rate products and services to help you make smart decisions with your money.

• For Love & Money is a column from Business Insider answering your relationship and money questions.
• This week, a reader is having roommate problems after moving in with a close friend.
• Our columnist suggests scheduling regular roommate meetings rather than relying on reminders.
• Have a question for our columnist? Write to For Love & Money using this Google form.

Dear For Love & Money,

I just moved into an apartment with two college friends. We’re all on the lease. One of them is my close friend, and the other is her good friend whom I don’t know as well.

I knew going in that my friend and I have very different styles. I like things tidy, and I don’t like other people touching my stuff. Messes don’t bother her at all, and she’s very generous and always assumes it goes both ways. I knew we needed some boundaries, so I made a chore chart and labeled my food, and we had a meeting the first week to go over expectations.

Our third roommate and I have followed our agreements respectfully, but my friend uses my stuff constantly and never does her chores. When I ask her about it or remind her to do her chores, she either promises to do them or says I can borrow her stuff anytime, too.

I don’t want to use her stuff. I just want her to stop using mine. I know our third roommate agrees with me because we’ve had long conversations, but when I need her to back me up, she acts like I’m overreacting and says she doesn’t have a problem. We are a month into a year lease, and I already want out. How can I fix this?

Sincerely,

Disgusted Roomie

Dear Disgusted,

Eighteen years ago, I made the classic mistake of being roommates with my best friend. We were freshmen in college, and neither of us had any sense of boundaries, and very different cleaning styles.

She was comfortable living with a moderate level of mess and doing small chores to keep our room from devolving into anything too gross. I wanted to keep things museum-level clean because I knew that if anything were out of place, I’d let the whole thing spiral into chaos until I finally had the willpower to spend five straight hours cleaning the place back to perfection.

She never helped, and seemed to like to return to my masterpiece, toss her coat over the back of her chair, and leave her book bag in the middle of the floor.

The rage we felt toward one another but refused to express eventually came out in a showdown over winter break travel plans that terrified our suitemates to the point of tears. We only salvaged our friendship by taking an extended break from one another and never living together again. It’s an event I still count among my greatest regrets.

I share this story because I made the two major mistakes it’s essential you — and anyone with roommate problems — avoid: not saying enough, and then saying entirely too much, much too aggressively.

While I know you want to fix this and don’t plan to take the nuclear option, your mention of “long conversations” with your other roommate makes me worry that you’re on your way to a showdown of your own. Having long conversations about conflicts like these with anyone other than the person you’re having issues with fuels the fires of resentment.

And while I’m sure your reminders to your friend have been reasonable, they seem a tad weak in comparison to your frustration. Reminders are for people who understand their responsibilities but get off track occasionally. They aren’t for people who’ve never been on track. I’m not suggesting you express the full extent of your rage. Rather, think through what you need from your friend and gauge how well she’s meeting those expectations. Once you have a stronger sense of the situation, you can address it with her more effectively.

Also, consider areas where you can flex to meet her needs. Sure, all these years later, I still think my way of cleaning was superior, but in hindsight, I recognize how my approach wasn’t working for my friend either. She didn’t share my all-or-nothing mindset, and I’m sure she found my anxiety around housekeeping obnoxious. Now that I have my own house, I can run it with a slightly obsessive emphasis on routine upkeep because that method works for me. But when you live with other people, you have to recognize that your version of “the best way” isn’t theirs, and any frustration over these differences is likely mutual.

This is why I suggest swapping out your “reminders” with weekly roommate meetings. In a meeting format, you can ask her what would help her keep up with chores. Maybe the ones she agreed to aren’t a good fit, and she could trade them for ones you or the other roommate want to give up. Or, perhaps money is easier for her to give than time, and she could hire a cleaning service to cover her share. This way, you can treat her neglected chores as a matter of business, not a passing gripe, and reset expectations.

A standing roommate meeting will also create space to directly discuss her habit of borrowing your things without permission. You didn’t mention if you have any financial concerns about her doing so, but it would be valid if you do. Her generosity makes me wonder if she can afford it and assumes everyone else can, too. To show how this affects you, lay out the costs. Perhaps you run a tight budget, and her borrowing your food has thrown it off; explain that.

Just like cleaning differences, her openhanded mentality isn’t superior or inferior to your preference for clear boundaries — it’s just a difference. Disrespecting another person’s style by using their things without permission, though, isn’t OK. Sharing the underlying reasons for your preferences, which could come from a personal approach to money rather than stinginess, will hopefully soften her passive-aggressive attitude.

If I could go back and tell my freshman year self one thing when I was having roommate problems, it would be this: Assertive, honest, ongoing communication is the best prevention for melodramatic blowups. And it will likely save your friendship.

Rooting for you,

For Love & Money

Looking for advice on how your savings, debt, or another financial challenge is affecting your relationships? Write to For Love & Money using this Google form.