Hi, all, new to this unfortunately, currently sat heartbroken racking my brain and scouring the internet for hope I suppose more than anything. My partner was in for surgery today for Tubular Ovarian Cancer today, she’s had 6 rounds of chemo with her cancer markers starting off at 9500 roughly to 235 at her last bloods. We were overjoyed with this news and were full of positivity. That was until today, when the surgical team opened her up, didn’t like the look of what they saw, removed some of the omentum and stitched her back up, no hysterectomy, no nothing. So we’re now waiting to see the consultant as to discuss the nexts steps which don’t look promising. Has anyone had anything similar made a recovery or otherwise?
is there any other medicines, anything that’s worth trying?? Suppose I’m really here looking for a miracle. Anyway thanks for reading
Hi Calvo and welcome to the group.
I’m sorry your wife’s surgery couldn’t go ahead-exactly the same thing happened to me so I understand how devastating it is. I too was opened up for a hysterectomy including removal of ovaries, but once my surgeon had a look she decided not to go ahead. She did get a second opinion while I was on the operating table, and the other surgeon agreed. So I was stapled up and put back to the ward.
My issue was different to your wife in that the surgery couldn’t go ahead because of damage done to my internal organs by my previous radiotherapy treatment-everything was stuck together in there. But I can still remember exactly how I felt when I woke up in recovery to be told the surgery hadn’t happened. It was devastating for both me and my partner because we had been so sure it would be a success and remove my cancer.
I can understand your despair at this point, but you need to wait for a discussion with the consultant to advise on the next steps. You’ve already imagined that these will not be promising-however, please don’t lose hope. There are treatments other than surgery which will be discussed.
Please try not to search the internet for miracle “cures”. What you should focus on is proven treatments to manage the disease rather than unproven “treatments” or medicines which could be useless, cost a great deal and fail to work. Trust the doctors taking care of your wife to make the best evidence- based decisions for her. I’ll put a link here to verified information from Macmillan which I hope will be helpful if you haven’t already seen it.
You are looking for hope-although my cancer was cervical and not ovarian, I am more than 6 years out from my failed attempt at a hysterectomy, and I’m well. Best wishes for your wife in her recovery, and do remember to try and take care of yourself too.
Sarah xx
Thank you for your very informative replies, they were so so helpful, as was looking through other forums. The surgeon spoke us through why surgery could not be done and it was down to the fact that from the last chemo 7 weeks ago, the picture had changed and to have carried out the surgery it would have put her at more risk. In particular cancer near/around the liver, near where a vital artery or vein runs and removing the cancer would have caused damage to this.
the surgeon was very compassionate and seemed genuinely gutted that this was the case but couldn’t give any real further options as he explained that would be down to her team at the beatson to discuss what happens next.
What I did do was email Christina Fotopoulou, didn’t really expect a direct reply, but she did, and she agreed that after a period of recuperation from the surgery, my partner should have a further chemo and another scan to reassess the situation, and that she would look at the results to offer a second opinion. Coincidentally our consultant had so reached out to Christina and she was more than happy that I had reached out to her also.
so just now, it’s about recovery, and building up her strength at home in preparation for what lies ahead.
but thank you to yous for the replies as it shows that there are other options available
