March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and today we have a guest blog from Deb. She shares her experience of being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
There are several symptoms of ovarian cancer – bloating, feeling full quickly, needing to wee more and persistent stomach pain, but I didn’t know about them (and I didn’t have them). This blog is about how I was diagnosed.
When you’re 66, period pain isn’t what you’re expecting. So, when I started getting a weird pain to the left of my navel in October 2013, I thought I’d nip along to see my GP. I couldn’t get an appointment for a couple of weeks, and the pain disappeared three days later, so I cancelled the appointment.
Next month, same time, the pain came back. This time ‘my’ GP was on holiday. So I skipped it. The pain disappeared three days later. Weird, I thought. Possibly hormonal.
At this point, I knew nothing about ovarian cancer. I didn’t know any of the symptoms. I didn’t know there was a link with breast cancer, which my sister had had 15 years ago. I didn’t know that having an Ashkenazi Jewish parent can put you at a higher risk of getting it. I was (relatively) blissfully ignorant.
Eventually, with the pain getting worse, I finally had an ultrasound and a trans-vaginal scan one Saturday in early March 2014. The woman doing the scan asked me if I’d ever had fibroids, which, to me, sounded perfectly plausible as a diagnosis, so I Googled fibroids. Nothing much to worry about, I thought. ‘Just’ a hysterectomy and all would be well.
On the Monday post-scan, another GP from the practice phoned. Could I come in NOW for a blood test, as my scan ‘wasn’t very reassuring’. Which is one way of telling people they probably have cancer, I suppose!
But in every other respect, she was great. She organised a CA125 blood test (my markers were 3,900-ish and normal is anything under 35, although it’s not a reliable marker for everyone). And she got me into the fast-track gynae clinic at my local hospital three days later, where they confirmed that I definitely had ovarian cancer.
I had a hysterectomy in late March, followed by 13 weekly chemo sessions with carboplatin and taxol as part of a trial (my bloods were too rubbish to have the last five) and was pronounced NED (no evidence of disease) in September. All through this, I had amazing support from my lovely Macmillan CNS (Cancer Nurse Specialist) – I don’t think I could have managed without her.
Since then, I’ve had three-monthly check-ups, but I’m still OK and I’m still a Cancer Voice for Macmillan, reviewing books and booklets.
If you would like to find out more about ovarian cancer, we have more information on our website. You could also order a copy of our booklet Understanding ovarian cancer.
If you are worried about your risk of ovarian cancer, our leaflet Are you worried about ovarian cancer might be helpful.
To see what else Macmillan's cancer information team has been blogging about, please visit our blog home page! You can subscribe to receive our blogs by email or RSS too.
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