tonigirl

I am one of the lucky ones or that small percentage with epithelial ovarian cancer stage 1A, grade 3 (serous & endometriod). For about 6 months the symptoms I had were: bloated/swollen stomach, feeling full quickly (loss of appetite), pressure in the lower abdomen, change of bowel habits, and less energy than normal. Went to the doctors numerous times. Was told that I was healthy, said it was menopause, IBS, and that I was probably lactose intolerant. Luckily, I also had very heavy cycles. I went for an ultra sound which showed that I had a lot of fibroids , 3 of them were 5cm large, also had what showed as a cyst. The gynecologist wanted to do an ablasion, I was uncomfortable with the procedure and asked for a hysterectomy. Five days after my hysterectomy, to my gynecologist's surprise, what he thought was just a 2cm cyst, happened to be cancer. That was Feb. 16/10. March 18th, I had a second surgery done by an oncologist, removal of the rest of my ovaries, fallopian tube, and omentum, also had the staging done. The oncologist said that the little bit of ovary that was left was attached to the wall, she said it could be from the 1st surgery or it could be from the cancer, so they are treating it as stage 2. April 12, I started Chemotherapy treatments 6 cycles of Taxol and Carboplatin. I have an IP port inserted on my right rib cage. I start the second cycle May 3. If I hadn't asked for the hysterectomy, it would not of been found so early. I listened to my body, and went with my instinct, I kept going back to the doctor's and insisted that something was not right.