re: Scary as hell cancer story

I had it in my abdomen.
You could hit the tumor it felt like a brick.
That when I was in primo shape, serious flat stomach slight bulge on lower right side.
Yes, it is scary.
Then you life revolves around Dr appts, chemo, bone marrow transplant, and scared every time you feel even slight pain when it is nothing.

Guess what times goes by.
You get better.
You get your strength back up.
Move on.

If you let it beat you mentally you will lose.

I was required on my birthday to get a doctors exam. I told him about my bulge and had blood work. From blood work you could have seen something was wrong as I had blood related cancer.
My white blood cells were way out of wack.

A few days later the pain was so bad I couldn’t walk and my co worker brought me to the ER.

They scheduled an ultrasound and the lady doing it kept leaving the room and coming back with her supervisor. They prepped me for surgery 2 hours later and it did not sink in that this mass blocking my small intestines is cancerous.

Then 15 minutes after being off the table they sent me to the cancer ward in a wheel chair to see a surgeon. It still did not sink in.

Things do get past doctors and even the person in pain.

Last year my mom went in for what she thought was a virus. Low grade fever, nothing major but they ran some tests at the doc in a box place. They saw the results and freaked out. By the end of the day she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. Fought it bravely for 5 months but passed in August. We had no warning of what she was up against until she went in for what we thought was a routine visit.

Ovarian cancer is often similar to that. My wife's PhD adviser died of ovarian cancer after a somewhat similar story. Healthy, middle aged woman previously.

Because the ovaries are retroperitoneal the growth of abnormal tissue can go unnoticed until it gets very large.

The ovaries are not retroperitneal, but ovarian cancer has no overt symptoms, just some bloating/ vague cramps. Average stage of diagnosis is 3b, which is advanced. Can catch it early on CT scans , but there is no routine screening like a Pap smear, X-ray, or blood work that you have on other cancers.

That is one scary story. Ovarian cancer can be hidden until the proper scans show it. I just lost my mom to this. She was treated at one of the best hospitals for cancer in the Nola area but either they waited too long and wanted Chemo to do the work before removal. It also didn’t help that somehow she had a tear in her digestive tract.

She was gone in 2 months.

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Not really what I'd consider a "scary as hell cancer story."

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It's scary to learn that you have it.

She should be switching to a strict ketogenic diet immediately

Chemo just to be safe? It doesn't work that way.

“.it is typically not detected until it gets advanced enough to start fricking up other organs and causing symptoms”
—routine check up’s are a huge help. I had a post-50 prostate check up that found stage 1 cancer. If I had waited for symptoms, it might have been too late for me. All clean now.