I am in the middle of the fourth out of six sycles of treatment for Stage 2 Ovarian Cancer. I am 43 years old and very thankful this was caught quite early. Surgery included a total hystorectomy and an appondectomy as there was a secondary canccerous carcinoid found as well. (Thank God for that because I am sure that would have gone on ignored for a dangerous length of time and could have easily invaded my bowel area!)
Here's my story: (I decided to share it- I appreciate reading other's stories too- seems to make me feel more like we are in this together.)
I was feeling wiped out and exhausted for easily 18 months before I recieved this diagnosis. I had been going in and out of Urgent Care off and on complaining of muscle tightness, nerves hurting, hip pain and towards the end of August last year, I started to stop being able to pee normally. I initially chalked this up to the side effect of a muscle relaxer I was taking occasionally and then finally decided it wasn't the muscle relaxer- it had to be more because the incidence of being unable to use the restroom without resorting to contortion movements couldn't be ignored. (Anyone who wants to say "What the heck were you thinking waiting so long!" go ahead, my mom already did!).
I had numerous x-rays done over that time period but no CT scan because the symptomes I was presernting were all isolated to whatever it was I was complaining about and I never presented them all together. Since I was on birth control to manage severe mentsrual cramping, I didn't present any abnormalities there. In January, I finally got a refferal to a bladder gyno and was all set to see her in a month and half (you know how those refferals go- "The next available date we have open is twelve weeks from now...blah, blah, blah) when not two weeks later, I am laying down feeling exhausted as usual and I happen to look down and see that one side of my abdominal area looks a bit swollen. Sure enough, it feels like a lump. I think it must just be my ovary getting ready for my cycle and I carry on as normal until the next day I feel it again and it has at lease DOUBLED in size. I finally get the message and go to Urgent Care who sends me to ER.
Here's where I pitch a fit. It is a Sunday. I am exhausted. I do not want to use a nice day off to sit in a stinky ER for 4 hours. I hem, haw and finally decide to at least show up. I am adamant that if it ends up being a 4 hour wait wiht a million people puking and bleeding all over the place I will just head home and enjoy my Sunday before I have start the work week. No such luck- I am the one and only patient- on a Sunday- at an inner city ER where the next nearest ER is 30 min away. I'm pretty sure God was telling me to stay put because they took me in right away.
So right now, I have had all the CT scans, the PET scans, etc prior to treatment and looked nice and clean. However, my tumor markers are not going down. Last week I had a second CT scan and apparently a mass in my throat has appeared since my last set of scans. I will be getting a consultation and probably a test done sometime this week but I am wondering if anyone has heard of that kind of thing happening? Can ovarian cancer or carcinoids grow that quickly? It's been less than 10 weeks? Or is it possible this is a tissue reaction to the carboplatin and taxol? Anyway, thanks for any feedback. I just wanted to touch base with others who are dealing with this. Believe it or not, I haven't had a lot of opportunity to talk with but one other ovarian cancer survior face to face.