Getting on My Ovarian Cancer Awareness Soap Box Again Because I Love My Daughter

Why I Keep Raising Awareness Every September

Ovarian cancer is one of several cancers that we spotlight for awareness campaigns in September. This is the tenth year I’ve worn teal and T-shirts with ovarian cancer awareness slogans on them. Some years I’ve had ink pens made with slogans printed on them to hand out. Sometimes I write blogs like this one. Why? Because I know too many women who don’t take the message seriously. Or they think their annual pelvic exam and pap smear takes care of it (it doesn’t).

My Daughter Doesn’t Have Time—But I Wish She Would Make It

Like my daughter, they insist they don’t have time. Another summer has passed and she hasn’t made an appointment to see her gynecologist. She’s a schoolteacher with three kids, one in competitive dance, one in travel baseball, and one just getting started in rec baseball. She also has a history of ovarian cancer in her family and needs to get genetic testing done. Now, rather than later.

The Phone Call That Changed Everything

You might be thinking that it’s harsh to call her out about it here. Why keep harping on it? Here’s why: Because there is no way to express in words how it feels to pick up the phone after a lovely, long Christmas vacation to listen to a voice mail in which a doctor is saying that a CT scan done before the holidays, meant to be a baseline scan, has revealed masses in the pleural lining of my lungs.

Unless you’ve experienced it, you cannot imagine how my stomach dropped, how I froze, and then hurriedly called the doctor—who’d left her cell phone number which couldn’t be a good sign. She told me a biopsy would be required because “we don’t know what it is, no one does.”

I’m sure I said yes, of course, yes, yes, but the denial began immediately after I hung up. CT scans can be wrong. WebMD says so. It could be a shadow. Then my brain latched onto “masses.” Not mass. Not singular.

When “Masses” Became a Cancer Diagnosis

Unless you’ve been on the receiving end of such a call, you can’t imagine how the world comes crashing down. How time divides into “before the call” and “after the call.”

Within the hour of having the biopsy, the surgeon came into the recovery room and confirmed the cancer diagnosis. The panic set in. I hung onto my sanity by the skin of my teeth. I was sure I had lung cancer. But no. The uncertainty continued. A PET scan was needed to determine the origin of those masses.

More waiting. And more waiting. And then the verdict: Stage 4 ovarian cancer. So now my life is divided into before cancer and after cancer. For the past ten years I’ve been in treatment and living in three-month increments between CT scans. Four rounds of different types of chemotherapy, a PARP inhibitor, radiation, and three clinical trials.

What I Want Every Woman to Know About Ovarian Cancer

I don’t want my daughter, my granddaughter, my daughter-in-law, my sisters, my sisters-in-law, my loved ones, my relatives, or my friends to go through this. I don’t want women I don’t know to endure it. That’s why I get on my soap box each September (and during the rest of the year) to pound the pulpit and hammer home the following points:

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are frequently diagnosed as something else. Bloating, feeling full after eating very little, changes in bladder and bowel habits, unusual weight loss, fatigue, lower backache in varying combination. If the doctor’s diagnosis and treatment don’t help your symptoms, go back and keep going back until you get the right diagnosis.

A Pap Smear Does Not Detect Ovarian Cancer

There is no diagnostic tool for ovarian cancer, which is why only 17 percent of women with the disease are diagnosed at stage one. Pap smears detect cervical cancer. They do not detect ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, or endometrial cancer. The tools used include ultrasounds and a lab test that only works for some women and may not always be accurate.

Listen to Your Body and Advocate for Yourself

I don’t want my daughter or my granddaughter or my daughter-in-law or my sisters or sisters-in-laws or any of my female relatives to go through this. Or my friends or neighbors or Sunday school friends. I’m just asking, if you’re reading this, that you take the time, make the time, to get your regular gynecological appointments. Talk with your doctor about any symptoms that concern you.

Early Detection Can Make a Difference

As with any cancer, early detection is everything. According to the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA) 91 to 93 percent of women diagnosed with Stage 1 ovarian cancer survive at least five years.

Stage 2 drops to 74 percent. Stage 3 to 41 percent—that’s less than half live five years after diagnosis. For stage 4, the number is 31 percent. Dismal, but better than 10 years ago when it was 19 percent.

Women, pay attention to your bodies, make time for routine checkups, and advocate for yourself. Your loved ones will thank you.

For more news on cancer updates, research and education, don’t forget to subscribe to CURE®’s newsletters here.