Ovarian cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women and it will affect approximately 1 out of every 69 women born today. Ovarian cancer has the highest death rate among cancers of the female reproductive tract, mainly because there are no early symptoms of ovarian cancer and no ovarian cancer screening tests are available. Even though 95% of women survive ovarian cancer when it’s found early, only one fifth of cases are found at that stage.
Pretty intense facts huh? So even though the survival rate is SO high if it’s caught early, it’s rare for it to be caught early. I knew the first part of that fact, but definitely didn’t realize the second part. Makes me feel pretty lucky (and blessed)! But I also really want to spread the word so women will realize how common this cancer is becoming!
I want to share my journey with all of my friends, family, and even total strangers because I want everyone (women and men a like) to be more aware of this disease that is affecting so many of our loved ones.
(For those of you that may be interest in skimming, I have bolded the main points so you can read what interest you. Don’t feel obligated to read all of this, or even any part of it for that matter!)
My Journey With Ovarian Cancer
About Endometriosis and Ovarian Cancer
Endometriosis is a painful, chronic disease that occurs when tissue that lines the inside of the uterus (sorry for the yucky word boys) is found of the outside of the uterus – usually in the abdomen and on the ovaries. Endometriosis is not a life threatening condition. It is just extremely painful. However, a link between endometriosis and ovarian cancer is currently being researched. The new research found that women with endometriosis have a three times higher risk of developing clear-cell ovarian cancer. Another 10-year study found that ovarian cancer shows up in women with endometriosis about 5 1/2 years earlier than it does in women without endometriosis. So it’s unknown if endometriosis causes ovarian cancer, speeds up growth of ovarian cancer, or if they are even related.
How My Cancer Was Discovered
When I was 19, I developed extremely bad pelvic pain. No matter what pain killer I took, I couldn’t get the pain to go away or even lessen. This pain landed me in the ER several times and even in the hospital for a few days. It seemed like no matter how many doctors I saw, how many tests they ran, no one could figure out what was causing the pain. I did have a few quick fixes with medicine but the pain ALWAYS came back. After months of this, a cyst was found on my right ovary and my doctor decided to surgically go in to remove it. During the surgery, my doctor discovered that I in fact had endometriosis. He was able to clean it out (by scraping off the tissue that was growing in the incorrect places) and told me that I shouldn’t have any more trouble or pain. For the next few months, my pain seemed to be gone, more or less. Nevertheless, all the pain slowly started coming back. After trying several other pain killers, a year later I was back in surgery to clean everything out again and even destroy some nerves to help control pain. I never became pain free after the surgery. My only option I had left was to be put on a TENs unit. This is a small device, the size of a pager, that had electric pads that stuck to my pelvis and lower back and delivered electric shocks to try to control pain (like many people do during physical therapy). This really seemed to be my only slight relief that I was able to find.
Shortly after I turned 22, I had a pap come back abnormal. The doctor told me not to worry about it because women often get abnormal paps and this appeared to be a “normal abnormal” pap. However, I needed to have a biopsy done just to make sure everything was okay. So I had a biopsy done that came back normal and everything was looking up again! They then wanted to do another biopsy one month later, just as a precaution. I got my results on March 10, 2011….I had ovarian cancer. They stressed to me that it was caught extremely early (after all, none was caught a month prior) but that it was time to start treatment.
Treatment
Since my ovarian cancer was caught at such an early stage, everyone was extremely positive. I began getting chemo treatment every Thursday morning at 8:00 am for five months. Lucky, I did not have to do the drip that most cancer patients have to endure. I got mine through an injunction in the hip. I did get some sickness that comes with chemo and definitely got the fatigue for days after each treatment. My hair did slightly thin out but nothing to where anyone could notice. The worst part about chemo was that is changed my taste buds completely! Everything tasted like metal. Yes…metal! Have you ever got a taste of metal while licking a fork or spoon? Well think of your entire meal tasting like that! The only think I could taste was anything that was really sweet or really spicy. So there weren’t many options when it comes to eating full meals.
Having Ovarian Cancer
The hardest part – emotionally – is just dealing with “having cancer.” Many people, including doctors, would constantly say, “This is the best situation possible if you are going to have cancer. We caught it extremely early so everything is looking really positive.” Bottom line…cancer is cancer. Looking positive or not, it’s still cancer. I understand that they mean that when caught this early, ovarian cancer is a TREATABLE cancer. I understand that 95% of the cases that were caught as early as mine have a positive outcome and the women survive. Nevertheless, it’s still cancer…and it’s still scary.
The other hard part – sadly to say – is how others treated me. When I finally was okay with telling people that I had been diagnosed with cancer, people were very supportive. They told me that they would stand beside me no matter what. That’s exactly what I needed to hear! And maybe that’s why they said it. A couple months into treatment, things started to change. Of course there were my closest friends and family that stood by me no matter how bad it got. And I thank God every day for them! But then there was everyone else. I went from being invited places to not being invited anywhere. When I would ask them about why things changed, the answers I got were “Well we didn’t think you would be up to it”, or “We went out to eat and we knew you wouldn’t enjoy it.” So not only am I battling these thoughts in my own head and battling through chemo, but now I had others that were encouraging me to let the cancer win. Not physically…but emotionally. There were so many days I just wanted to say, “You know my cancer isn’t contagious right?” I got so tired of being treated like I had some disease that anyone could catch. Maybe it was lack of knowledge about the cancer. Maybe it was past experiences that caused them to act this way. I have forgiven those people for not handling my cancer the most positive way. There’s no book that teaches people how to deal with cancer – whether they are ones fighting the cancer or whether their close friend has cancer. I can’t be angry with them because I was in the same position of not knowing how to handle it. We all made mistakes. The positive – now they can learn from this in case someone else they know is diagnosed with cancer in the future.
My Thoughts
I’d like to think that overall, despite fears, tears, and some frustration, I’ve kept a pretty positive attitude through all of this. I know that God is in control. I knew that even though I was physically going to treatment alone, I was never really alone. God was at every single doctor’s appointment and treatment. Right beside me; holding my hand. He was always in control. I thank God every day that it was me that went through this. Why?? Because I did have that strong relationship with God to help pull me through it all. I could not imagine going through this without God – or my family, close friends, and church family for that matter. I know that I was chosen to go through this because I knew how to lean on God and trust Him daily. Now I would be lying if I said I didn’t break down at times. Of course that happened. At the end of the day, I am still a human. I still have emotions. I still get sad, scared, and worried. But even through those hard times, I knew God was in control and that He would never leave me!
As I sit here and think of everything I have been through in the past five years, I am very humbled and blessed. I know that my situation could have been worse – it always could be – but I also know that I went through a lot and it has made me the person I am today. After five years of chronic pain, three surgeries, countless number of treatments and doctor’s appointments, I am proud to say that I can sit here totally pain and cancer free!!! I am able to look at life in a positive way no matter what is going on. If God can get me through all of that, I would be very naive to think He couldn’t get me through the “easy” battles of daily life!!
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