April 6, 2015
Its time to jump into the Way Back Machine! In my early posts I've talked more about my present day experiences since my diagnosis with ovarian cancer. Maybe now's a good time to tell the rest of the story!
It began a little over 2 years ago, in 2013. I found out that, at the age of 44, I was pregnant! The shocked quickly turned into sheer delight for both myself and Terry. Who would've thought we would receive such a blessing at this stage in our lives?? I am one of those women who THRIVE during pregnancy...I love every little thing about being pregnant. My pregnancy was confirmed some time later and I shared the news with Terry on March 6th. We laughed and started dreaming and planning. Sadly though, our dreams turned to heartache when I began miscarrying the baby the day after I told Terry of my pregnancy. Totally crushed, I decided to go to the ER just to be certain that's what was going on. While there, I was given an ultrasound to rule out an ectopic pregnancy. It was then that a small mass was found in the area of the fallopian tube and ovary. It was confirmed that I was definitely losing the baby, though, and that we would take a "watchful, waiting" approach with regard to the mass, which in this instance meant that I would have another ultrasound in a couple of months. If it was "just a cyst" it was figured it would just dissolve and go away. If it grew, then we'd go from there.
A couple of months later I had another ultrasound done. The "cyst" had grown from the original 2 cm to about 5 cm. I wish my alarm bells went off at this point but they didn't. My doctor seemed...concerned but not overly concerned. The word cancer came up in discussion but she didn't feel it looked like cancer. She felt that it would be fine to wait 6 more months and check it again. That seemed reasonable to us at the time, given that I didn't seem to have any major symptoms accompanying the "cyst". (Of course, knowing what I know NOW about ovarian cancer symptoms, I actually DID have them but dismissed them as other things.) So my next ultrasound would have been in November 2013. I say "would have been" because it in fact never happened. My doctor was out on medical leave and it never got scheduled. I'd forgotten about it since my grandson had recently been born and we were relishing being first time grandparents! Had I not lost our baby, our child and our grandson would've been 1 month apart in age, lol! So November and December came and went with no ultrasound.
In January(2014) a crazy weird and ironic thing happened that threw us into another tailspin. My 19 year old daughter came home early one day and complained about an unrelenting pain in her side and abdomen. She had taken some tylenol but felt no relief. You ever get a gut feeling that something is....not just not right...but just WRONG? That was me at that moment. I remained calm but inside was in total panic mode. You see, just a few years earlier my 19 year old niece had been diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer (which she valiantly fought and beat!) and she immediately came to my mind. I KNEW this was what the doctors were going to say before we even got to the ER. When the ER doctor came in, she prodded my daughters stomach gently and muttered to herself as she turned and walked out "oh my god....its HUGE!" Face....meet brick wall! My heart just stopped in my chest! Everything, every thought, every feeling I had just whirled and whirled in my brain. She had some blood tests, ultrasound exam and a CT scan. Within hours, they told us to choose a hospital...she needs to be at a major hospital...we were told that she will be transported immediately. We chose the hospital and after conferring with the gynecologic oncologist there, it was decided that she didn't need to be transported by ambulance but would have to be brought in within a few hours. We could drive in together. We made hasty arrangements, grabbed together an overnight bag and hit the road. My daughter had her surgery. It went very very well but it seemed like an endless wait during her surgery. She was diagnosed with a low malignant potential tumor...a rare and not malignant form of ovarian cancer. Her tumor weighed 25 pounds and they drained it of just shy of 5 liters of fluid! She did not need any chemo or radiation and went on the have a great recovery. She has passed her first year follow up with flying colors...with no evidence of disease!
It was during her recovery when it occured to me to contact my local gynecologist and get that follow up ultrasound on my "cyst" since we missed that one in November. I had told my doctor about what had happened with my daughter and all of a sudden she was a lot more concerned. She got me in pretty quickly, in mid-February. The US showed that the mass had grown another 2 cm...now around 7 cm. At this point, I was also feeling some more symptoms too. Terrible low back pain and feeling full quickly....things like that. Given my nieces' and my daughters' ovarian cancer diagnoses, my doctor referred me quickly to the same gynecologic oncologist my daughter had. This was Dr. Gawd, whom you've read of in my previous posts. Dr. Gawd reviewed my tests and scans and felt that what we were looking at was "just a cyst". It was part fluid filled and partly solid. She didn't seem alarmed but given the fact that it was growing that we should definitely take it out. I agreed. Since it wasn't considered an emergency and since Dr. Gawd is the Director of the oncology department and very busy, the surgery date was set for early May (2014)....a full 2+ months away. Feeling no more concern that this was cancer, we left the office and waited for surgery day.
Within a week of that appointment with the gyn/oncologist I began having outrageous pain in my right side and I could now feel the weight and size of the mass in my abdomen. We live in the country with lots of dirt roads and driveways and pot holes everywhere and I could feel that mass BOUNCE. It was like feeling pregnant but only on one side. Weird indeed! I kept feeling this pain off and on for weeks, until one night it became so bad I could not breathe. My son and husband got me down the stairs and out to the car and took me to the ER as I was afraid the cyst had become so huge that it was literally torting (twisting) the fallopian tube which can be extremely dangerous. They did another ultrasound, said it looked fine, gave me pain meds and sent me home. This same event happened again a couple weeks later and they gave me another pain pill, with one extra, and sent me packing again. This time, we called in the troops and went to the hospital ER where my oncologist is, 2 hours away. I was admitted and the next morning had the surgery to remove the mass, the ovary and the fallopian tube. The mass had grown from 7 cm. to the size of a large grapefruit in a few weeks! After a couple of days in the hospital we were sent home. SO relieved to have that behind us. Now I could just focus on healing up and be good to go! This happened April 17th to the 19th, 2013.
I had my post-op follow up appointment scheduled for 6 weeks later with my oncologist. On that day, we went in expecting a quick exam to make sure I'd healed up well and be sent on our way. We were NOT expecting to get the news we got. Like my niece and my daughter, I also had ovarian cancer. Unlike my daughter though, mine was malignant. I was stunned. Why hadn't someone called me to tell me this before now??? I was pretty livid! But, can't go back. What do we do now? Basically, given my age and the fact that I was in my mid-forties a total hysterectomy was recommended...so that meant that I'd lose the other ovary (hello medically induced menopause!), fallopian tube, uterus, the omentum, the cervix and lymph nodes. At the same time she'd "stage" me, meaning how far had the cancer grown. This surgery was set for July 15th. So we waited and prepared for the next surgery.
To be continued.....
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