Hello,
My name is Diana and I live in Ohio. I am 69 years old.
I was diagnosed with PPC 2 years ago after an emergency surgery. I found out I had cancer after I came home from the hospital and looked at my hospital record on a Friday night to find a pathology report indicating I had gynecological cancer. I wasn’t able to find out any details until the following Monday. I kept it a secret for 3 days.
For 6 months I didn’t know if I had ovarian cancer or primary peritoneal cancer. I kept asking my oncologist which cancer I had. I jokingly said I didn’t know which cancer awareness t-shirt to buy.
My treatment was 3 rounds of chemo, surgery, 3 more rounds of chemo and now I am on a 2 year maintenance plan. I wasn’t told what stage cancer I had until 9 months after cancer was found. I actually texted my health care team to find out I am stage 3C. My maintenance treatments are Avistan and Lynparza.
I want to add the maintenance treatments leave me very fatigued and weak. About a week after the infusion I’m much better. I have two side effects that I can’t find listed anywhere. My hair doesn’t grow and neither do my finger and toenails. They grew for 2 months after chemo but stopped when I I started maintenance treatment. My hair doesn’t fall out. I have had hair 3/4 of 1 inch long since September 2023. Actually my hair doesn’t grow anywhere. Finger and toenails not growing is painful because they are so short.
My attitude was great for the first 20 months and then it wasn’t. I was sick of waiting 2 1/2 - 3 hours to get a 30 minute infusion. I was burned out on treatment. I counted my appointments on mychart online patients records and I had 70 appointments in 2 years. This does not include labs and images tests. I decided I would be positive and cheerful at my last infusion. The experience was much better.
