Feel useless and depressed.

Hi there. I also have ovarian cancer, was stage 3 at diagnosis about the same age as you, and now stage 4. I have been living with this awful disease as you put it for many years. Chemo sucks but it has helped to keep me alive so I accept it, embrace it even,  as a necessary evil. I would.suggest that you live around the chemo, get things done on your good days and rest on the bad ones. The treatment will be over before you know it and then you will have to learn to live in a different way to before. I promise you it is doable.

Thank you for replying. Have you had debulking surgery?

Yes, surgery right at the start before any chemo.

Oh I am so sorry you are feeling this way. 

I am 47 and a senior nurse who has just had a hysterectomy for a much earlier stage CA. 

I can totally understand why you are feeling like this. In fact im seeing CRISIS Tomorrow due to my issues. 

Whilst I can give advice i obviously dont hear it, but one of things I probably guess your struggling with is that you are a nurse, and a young lass who is not used to being the pt and  the one who does not the one who gets it done to them. 

Well I have learnt the hard way this week, and please speak to your csn. I have now been told they could have helped if I had spoken to them. 

Sharing is caring as it is caring for you. 

Keep going with your treatment, I really hope your work are supporting you. 

Take care xx

Thank you. X

Are you on maintenance therapy drugs now? 

My cancer nurses have just rung me about my mental health and have said that they would have helped if they had known, they did tell me off for doing too much post op, - im now 4 days post op. So they are trying to get me some help, please make sure they know. 

You are not alone in this and the helping there for you. 

Don't feel helpless, you are starting your chemo and how you feel is real. 

I wont teach you to suck eggs, and say what a lot of people told me, all the stuff we have told people for years to try and encourage them as you know that and therefore you need help now to get you through the uphill battle for the next so long x

Thank you. What bothers me the most is that they are saying I wouldn't benefit from surgery because they like to get as much of the cancer out as possible. I have a lot of lymph nodes involved that are near major arteries. They said they will discuss surgery again after next scan which is after 3rd chemo. I am well and truely fed up. Feel like there is no hope.

You are entitled to a 2nd opinion. Many women with OC where surgery is refused seek one.  Dr Christina Fotopoulou in London is the go to person where "difficult" surgery for OC is concerned. For a fee, she reviews cases and sometimes takes them on under the NHS. I believe you can contact her directly but she will need your team to send your file, so could also ask them to refer you to her. 

I will see what next scan results say. Then I might contact her. Thank you.