jlbislove
New User
Joined: 03 Sep 2009
Posts: 1
Location: Spokane, Washington
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 Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 1:58 am Post subject: Understanding Ovarian Cancer? |
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I just have a few questions.
Basically, I am 17 years old and I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer a little over a year ago. I had the symptoms: bloated stomach, constipation, back pains, and loss of energy. I went to a local doctor who told me I was just constipated and sent me home with a bottle of Miralax. Well, a month later nothing had changed. And by this time I had gained 15 pounds and looked about 6 months pregnant, so I knew something wasn't right.
I went back to the same doctor, he ordered a CT scan and an ultrasound, and from those he found that I had a mass in my stomach. At this point the "mass" was about 15 pounds, and was about as big around as a basketball. Two weeks later I was had surgery to remove it, and discovered that I had ovarian cancer. I believe my oncologist said it was Stage 3, I don't know if that helps any and I could be mistaken, but that is what I recall her telling me and my family.
Somewhere around a week after that I was back in surgery to have a port put in, and immediately began my four months of chemotherapy that awaited.
By August of last year, I was in remission. My protein level was down to a normal level, and I went in for regular checkups. Right now I am at a 3 month interval, and I just had my last checkup last week and my protein level is still dropping in the normal level range.
Anyhow, tomorrow I have to talk about myself in English and I decided I wanted to share that, so I looked it up to read up on some information about ovarian cancer and this one bit really scared me. I may be reading it entirely wrong, but from the information I gather that victims of ovarian cancer have about a 5 year prognosis?
My question is, does this mean a 5 year lifespan for women even after being totally cured and in remission? My oncologist has told me that she does not expect it to come back, and she told me that she expects I "will lead a long and healthy life", but after reading that I am concerned. Does being in remission for over a year now have any effect on the chances that it will come back? And do I fit into that category of a 5 year life expectancy? And does having such an advanced stage of this type of cancer effect that? Am I more at risk because of how advanced it was? Or is it that since I am totally cured and doing fine now I am good to go for a long, healthy life? I don't think I understand any of this, and I have asked this question before in other places but haven't gotten any real answers.
It's so scary to think about, it doesn't seem fair. I am still so young. |
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pbj11
Site Admin
Joined: 12 May 2007
Posts: 2838
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| Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:12 am Post subject: Re: Understanding Ovarian Cancer? |
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Hi Jlb,
Welcome and I'm stunned and saddened that you have encountered cancer so young in your life. You sure seem to have it "together" though and that's a good thing for you.
The five year stats that you saw may be the generic time marker that they tend to use for all cancers. Usually they have survival rates for each stage of a particular cancer at the 5-year mark. If 5 years is achieved, in many cancers, that is huge. It all depends on the type of cancer and what stage it was at diagnosis, if I'm understanding you correctly.
It sounds like you are heading toward your first year mark in remission and that's good. I'd suggest you call the oncologist and have a sit down to ask her these specific questions. You need to be as stress free as possible, so getting clear cut answers is important.
I wish I had more to share with you, but my Mom's ovarian cancer was many years ago and I don't recall that she ever went into remission.
Let us know how you're doing and what you've found out.
Many hugs and God bless,
PBJ
_________________
Husband diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV. (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) Fought & lived 2 1/2 years with multiple lines of treatment.
Post describing our battle: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=7026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 |
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