Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct when Trent was diagnosed and what she wasn’t a candidate for. We regret the error.
LEXINGTON, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — The words “you have cancer” can be a gut punch to the people who hear them.
While it can greatly alter someone’s life, a cancer diagnosis doesn’t have to change a person’s life completely.
Trilby Trent has always been vigilant in keeping up with her health and getting checked for things like cancer.
Read more of the latest Lexington & central Kentucky news So, when she was diagnosed with stage four peritoneal cancer in September of 2023 and told she had months to live, she didn’t let it stop her from living life to the fullest and inspiring others in the process.
It began as a normal day for Trent. After a few hours of yard work, she noticed something wasn’t right; she was having a hard time catching her breath.
With years of experience in healthcare, Trent did what she’s told others to do hundreds of times: go get checked out. It wasn’t long before nurses were able to uncover what the problem was for Trent.
“She saw that she could not see my lung, and she knew that that was very serious,” Trent recalled.
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Not long after, Trent was taken to the ER for further testing.
Not anticipating much at that time, she told her wife of more than ten years, Stephanie Moore, to go home and take care of their animals and that she would be ok. Trent, however, then heard the three words she never thought she’d hear.
“They said, you’ve got cancer,” Trent said. “I said, okay, what kind? And they told me, primary peritoneal. I had no idea what that was. It is the lining of the abdominal cavity and it’s very rare.”
Trent said despite consistent screenings, her cancer went undetected and had gotten to a point where she wasn’t a candidate for surgery due to it having spread throughout her body, including her lymph system, liver, and spleen.
Read more of the latest Kentucky news The diagnosis came with a range of emotions, but Trent said her first thought was Moore.
“We put ourselves on hold for so long, and we worked so hard to be able to get married, and we put up with some discrimination, and we finally got the life that we’ve wanted and now this has happened. So, I guess if anything drives me. I don’t want her to have to witness this,” Trent said.
All Moore could feel was heartbreak.
“Well, my first reaction was shock and how could this happen?” Moore said. “Then shortly thereafter it went to just total devastation; just broke my heart and I couldn’t do anything to help her.”
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Trent doesn’t know how much time she has left, but thanks to a support system like no other, she and Moore plan on living their lives to the fullest.
“I said, this is your bus you’re driving and whether I like the decisions you make, it is your decision because my path is different,” Moore explained. “Our family here at UK has been awesome as well as our family family.”
Even in her darkest moment, Trent continues to go to work as a Patient Relations Associate and continues to use her diagnosis to inspire others to keep fighting.
Kentucky family demands answers after organs nearly taken from living man: ‘Living nightmare’ “I knew that when I lost my hair there, I was not going to be wearing a wig or anything like that and to me, that was explain to people why I had no hair,” Trent detailed. “Patients ask me, I hope everything’s going okay. I tell them point blank, I’m stage four. They tell me I’m terminal, I said. But that’s not today. But I have had actually a couple of new patients with cancer, asked me if they could talk to me about it, and one of their boyfriends came back and he said, ‘You really made her feel better about her journey.'”
Trent said her biggest piece of advice she’ll give to anyone who asks for it is to go get checked.
For her, she was already very on top of getting screened as well as eating right and exercising and she still was diagnosed.
So she urges everyone to not put it off.
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