Air Force sergeant soldiers on through Crohn’s disease, cancer, pregnancy

Air Force Staff Sgt. Jacquelyn Combs, 21st Force Support Squadron noncommissioned officer-in-charge of customer support at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, has learned how to push through some of the most difficult adversity she has faced while a member of the armed forces.

While in the armed forces, Combs has been a victim of Crohn’s disease, cancer and began a pregnancy while trying to seek cancer treatment, an article on the Defense Department's website said.

"(Crohn’s disease) can be a difficult thing to live with. It’s a chronic illness for a reason. I may have a smile on my face, but the majority of the time, my body is in pain,” Combs said in the article. She was diagnosed with the disease at a young age of 21.

Later, Combs began feeling ill and a biopsy revealed what the doctors called desmoid fibromatosis tumors, the article said. Doctors found four tumors were causing her organs and body to begin shutting down.

Doctors removed two of the tumors and Combs said she then expected to be treated with chemotherapy and radiation, the article said.

While she was weighing her options on cancer treatment, she found out she was pregnant, the article said.

Combs said that once she got pregnant, all her symptoms stopped, the article said. “All my organs were shutting down, my hair was falling out, but once I got pregnant with (my daughter), everything stopped. …It was my miracle child.”

Her symptoms of cancer went away, and Combs began to feel better, the article said. Her daughter was born in November 2015.

Combs gets up everyday and chooses to be an active member of the armed forces and push through the negative situations she has been dealt.