Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Although this isn't horse related I
thought I would jump on the bandwagon as there are so many women on this
list and getting to the "right" age group.
My mom died of Ovarian cancer 4 years
 ago, I would give anything to have known then what I know now because
maybe I could have saved her, the terrible thing about ovarian cancer is
that the main symptoms : weight gain and extra gas are not taken seriously
by ourselves or doctors, a year before my mom was diagnosed she kept talking
about the " 10 pounds she had gained and couldn't lose" and  how
gassy she was, she kept joking that she should buy stock in Beano ( an
anti gas pill) as she was taking so many of them!! She was diagnosed a
year later and died 2 years after that. It is one of the cancer's that
has not had any major gains in survival rates in the last 20 years- I think
a lot of that due to the fact people are diagnosed when in advanced stages.
The people that my mom and I met at the chemo clinics had stories to break
your hearts, many, many of them had been to their doctor's multiple times
and basically had been ignored until finally they were diagnosed  a
year or so later( too late in every case as they were in advanced stages).
Gas and unexplained weight gain ( and
if you are eating a bag of Oreo's as you read this the weight gain isn't
"unexplained" :-) :-)) should be taken seriously, my mom was
only 50 when she was diagnosed( so it had been growing in her 40's)- she
only had one ovary, everything else had been taken out years before and
the doctor had left the one ovary as it looked healthy at the time- she
had none of the risk factors that would have made us even think of ovarian
cancer, I learned that everyone is at risk.
One more thing- although I am not a
doctor I did a lot of research  on this cancer while my mom was sick
and although the ca-125 test can be an indicator it is not foolproof (
it was explained to me by my mom's cancer doctor that they often get readings
that are meaningless i.e someone that is perfectly healthy would have high
numbers and someone who actually had the cancer did not, which is why they
did not use it as a yearly screening tool- saying that it has been 4 years
so they may have made progress in this area, which would be wonderful))
so if you are not happy after a "clean" ca-125 test ask for an
ultrasound.
I can't even see the word ovarian cancer
without breaking into tears- it is the most devastating thing I have ever
had to go through, I think of my mom every day and hope that with education
one day it can become a thing of the past.

Chrystal