PSA - Ovarian Cancer

[snapdragen]

OK, I'm becoming the poster child for Ovarian Cancer. Today is World Ovarian Cancer day. I'm in the lucky 15%, I was diagnosed early at stage 1b. Share this with all the women in your lives ladies, and pay attention to your body, it just might be trying to tell you something.

Symptoms

[thekarens]

Thank you for the reminder! That's wonderful that you caught it early!

[emily_in_nc]

Snap -- I'm also very glad that they caught it early. I'm wondering how, though -- did you have symptoms or did your doc notice something amiss? You may have already discussed this in another thread I missed, and if so, feel free to direct me there. This is SO important as it seems ovarian cancer is usually only detected in stages 3 and 4. Catching it earlier is a huge advantage.

Thanks!

[snapdragen]

I had what originally was thought to be appendicitis. When that turned out to be wrong, I went to my OB/Gyn. She did an ultrasound and they found an 11 cm ovarian cyst. It was removed along with my ovaries. Much to our surprise, the pathology report came back saying there was cancer in both ovaries (but not the cyst). I had a second surgery, a hysterectomy, and the path report for that was negative. All the cancer was in the ovaries and nowhere else. I had three chemotherapy sessions, for "insurance", as my oncologist called it.

So, it really was just pure luck that I was diagnosed so early. When I look back though, I did have some symptoms, pelvic/abdominal pain and frequent peeing, back pain etc. . I didn't know those could be symptoms. I figure the more information that's out there, the more we can pay attention to our own bodies and talk to the doctor if something seems amiss. Hopefully this will help someone else.

[salsabike]

Good woman, Snap. Thank you.

[Helene2013]

Wow. Thanks for the info and am glad you're in the 15%.