Having Ovarian Cancer

My name is Kathryn and I am an ovarian cancer survivor. I have been cancer free for three years. This is my story. I had felt kind of bad for a few weeks, but thought nothing about it. I also noticed that I had seemed to have gain some weight. None of these things registered as being "wrong". In October of 2004, I was at work and my co-workers told me that I was not looking well. I fact, I appeared to be, literally, "green around the gills". I went and laid down (I work in a hotel) and slept for about two hours. MY boss and my daughter (Head Housekeeper) came in, woke me up and said they were going to take me to the emergency room at the near-by hospital. I protested, but the insisted, so off we went. The doctor that saw me, thumped, poked, prodded and drew blood. when all was said and done, I was told I had bronchitis and was given an inhaler and prescription for an antibiotic. I went home, happy they found out what was wrong.

I got home around five in the evening. Around eight p.m., I was very uncomfortable. It felt like I had a very bad case of indigestion. I took something to try and relieve the gas pains. By around eleven p.m. I was feeling no better and in fact felt even worse. I decided that I would drive to the ER at the hospital in my town and see if they could give me something to relieve the gas pains. The doctor did the same poking, prodding and even drew some blood. I waited to hear from the doctor why I had the gas pains. It was a long wait until the doctor came back and told me they wanted to run some additional tests. I thought, "Oh crap. I will be here all night at this rate." I was a bit ticked off as I did not want to spend a lot of time in the ER.

The doctor sent a nurse in with some barium for me to drink. Since I was complaining of indigestion/gas, they decided to check for any gastrointestinal issues that could be present. I held my nose and swallowed the nasty liquid. I was then taken for a ride down to the x-ray station had a bunch of pictures taken. I was given a return ride to the ER room to await the results of the pictures.

About an hour or so later the doctor returns and has me lay down and he begins some very hard poking and prodding my abdomen area. When he finishes, he has me sit up and tells me that there is some sort of growth in my abdomen. The growth is about the size of a grapefruit and the doctor tells me he thinks it may be cancer. I just sat there and stared at him for a minute as the words he spoke sunk in. CANCER......CANCER.....CANCER

With my mind still racing, the doctor told me he had already made an appointment for me, at the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center the next day, to have additional tests performed. I got home I just sat and cried. So may questions came to my mind, but I tried to put them aside until I knew for sure what I was facing.

I called my daughter and told her what the doctor told me. She stood up, gave me a hug and said, "Mom, I am here for you." We both cried. She took me to the appointment the next day. I got there at eight a.m. and was given a whole battery of tests. I had both a regular sonigram and a trans vaginal sonigram, more x-rays, lots of blood taken and many different doctors poking, prodding and looking into any number of body cavities. When all the tests were done, I was allowed to go home and was told they would want me back in two days for the results.

My daughter and I returned in two days and waited in silence for the doctor to come in. In walked a woman who introduced herself as Dr. Sara Crowder. She told me that I had Stage Ill ovarian cancer. She told me I would have surgery to undergo a complete hysterectomy and the go through eight chemotherapy treatments. These treatments would be spaced three weeks apart. She did not feel that radiation would be called for, but it would always be an option if needed. I would be treated with two powerful drugs. Taxol and Carboplatin. These drugs are given intravenously and its a very slow process.

Two days later, I was having the operation, during which they drained over five liters of liquid (my mystery weight gain) out of my body and I required a blood transfusion also. I spent about a week in the hospital before I was able to go home. It took about a month for me to be recovered enough to begin preparation for chemotherapy.

The first step towards chemo was to have a port-a-cath inserted. This is small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin and catheter connects the port to a vein. This is how they would give me my chemo drugs. it was a quick operation and recovery was also quick.

It is now November, the day before Thanksgiving and i was going to have my first chemo treatment. I was scared. All I could think about was the way chemo treatments were portrayed on TV. I did not know what to expect except for what I had been told by my doctor. The treatment began around eight in the morning with some oral medication that was supposed to help ease any side effects during treatment. An hour later, I got hooked up to an IV bag of steroids to be administered before the chemo drugs could be given. Around ten or ten thirty, they switched out the IV bags and I began receiving the first chemo drug. It was a very slow process that lasted until around two PM. Then, another switch, and the second drug began its slow drip into my body. By the time everything was done, it was around five in the evening. I was surprised that the treatment was as "painless" as it was. I even managed to sleep through several hours of the whole thing.

After I got unhooked from the IV set up, the nurse came in and gave me an RX for some pills that would help easy any nausea and help me to sleep at night. I was able to get these pills right at the cancer centers pharmacy, which was quite handy. Then my daughter and I headed out for the hour drive back home. I would have to return in three weeks for a second treatment and every three weeks thereafter until six treatments were given.

About two weeks after my first treatment, I began to lose my hair. I knew this time would come, but it is still a shock when it actually begins. At this point, I had my daughter take the clippers to my head and "buzz cut" my hair. I wanted to cry as I saw my hair fall to the ground, but it was making a big mess as it was just falling out on its own. By the end OD the second treatment, I was completely bald. I had decided that I would not wear a wig and chose instead to wear a bandanna or head scarf of some sort. At the cancer center they have lady who donate head wear that they have sewn so any woman can have a free head covering, which was so nice to have available. My Mom also made me a few coverings too.

March 26, 2005 was my last chemo treatment. I was so glad they were over, yet scared to hear what the final blood tests would show. Would they show that I could move on or would they show I needed additional treatments? I crossed my fingers until I got the news that the tests they ran showed that I was cancer free. I was so happy I began to cry, right there in the doctors office. The doctor did tell me that, although I was now cancer free, women who go through the same treatment for ovarian cancer, as I did, have a five year survival rate. If a woman can remain cancerfree for five years, the chances of a relapse a greatly reduced, but not eliminated. I am in year three of being cancer free. The fear that the cancer may return is always in my mind, though I do my best to keep it backed into the back of my mind. I now go to have a checkup every six months and have a blood test done.

The blood test I have done is called a CA-125 test. CA 125 is a protein that is a so-called tumor marker, which is a substance that is found in greater concentration in tumor cells than in other cells of the body. In particular, CA 125 is present in greater concentration in ovarian cancer cells than in other cells. Its function is not currently understood. CA stands for cancer antigen. When the doctors did my first CA-125 right before my operation, it was 875. After my last chemo treatment, my CA-125 was down to 9. My last few check ups had the number at 27. Any number that would be over 37-37 would, for mean, mean the possible return of my cancer.

Here are the symptoms of ovarian cancer:

According to the statement, the following symptoms are much more likely to occur in women with ovarian cancer than in women in the general population:

Bloating
Pelvic or abdominal pain
Difficulty eating or feeling full quickly
Urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency)

Women who have these symptoms almost daily for more than a few weeks should see their doctor, preferably a gynecologist. However, those symptoms don't always mean ovarian cancer. Only doctors can diagnose ovarian cancer.

This link from Web MD has a lot of good information concerning ovarian cancer: http://www.webmd.com/ovarian-cancer/news/20021119/ovarian-cancer-test-spots-tumors-earlier

I pray that women with these symptoms will talk with their doctor to be sure that it is not ovarian cancer. I had all of the above symptoms and ignored them. They almost killed me because I chose to ignore them until it was almost too late.