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| Cousin Heather and her quilt. |
I would have never thought in a million years that there would be another family member diagnosed with the same disease - but it happened to my cousin Heather in almost the same manner as it came about with mom. She experienced the same subtle [KEYWORD SUBTLE] symptoms pretty much....however by the time she was diagnosed she had a very large tumor formed on her ovary and spread to other areas. It had gotten that far.
Ovarian Cancer is not just for older women - young women are diagnosed more frequently. Heather is in her early 40's and younger than me. She is now finishing up a hard-core round of chemo.
I read a story a couple of days ago about a 17-year old, Caitlyn, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 dysgerminoma ovarian cancer (there are even many different types of ovarian cancer - more about that in another blog post) and her story is like many others - she had abdominal pain and bloating. She had been to the doctor and they gave her some painkillers. They thought that because she was so young there couldn't possibly be anything seriously wrong. Caitlyn and her mom persisted and long story short she can call herself an Ovarian Cancer survivor.
Why worry about Ovarian Cancer when your family has no history of cancer? Because of stories like my mom's and my cousin Heather's as well as Caitlyn's. And there are hundreds of stories just like theirs. It can happen to anyone. All women, no matter what the age need to listen to their bodies and keep going back to the doctor until you have an answer.
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