My story
Everything started the end of February. I was at my sisters house and I felt like I pee'd my pants. But I knew I didn't because I had just gone to the bathroom. I thought it was strange but I thought that it would just go away on its own. I thought it was just watery discharge. Both my sister and my mom encouraged me to go see the doctor because it could've been an infection or a STD. So I made an appointment with Planned Parenthood because I didn't have any health insurance.
At Planned Parenthood, I got everything done and the doc said that my cervix was bleeding and she didn't seem too concerned about it. But she noticed the discharge that I was talking about. The test came back normal with the discharge. She said it was probably hormonal but if my boyfriend wanted to come in and get checked for an STD that could rule out an STD for me. But she told me that if I didn't hear from them my PAP came back normal.
When I asked my boyfriend to get tested to rule everything out, he completely flipped out. He accused me of cheating on him, which I never did, but his ex-wife ran around sleeping around with other guys.
The following week after my visit with Planned Parenthood, I started getting severe cramps. Kind of like period cramps but worse. I was tumbled over in the fetal position and breathing like i was in labor. My sister told me to go to the ER. But stubborn me didn't go. I thought everything would go away. I took tylenol to help with the pain, which it didn't, it didn't even touch it. But it finally went away, so i thought i was in the clear. About a week and a half later the pain came back. I had finally had enough of the pain.
On April 4th is when my world changed forever. The day I was told I had cancer. It started with going to the ER with severe lower abdominal pains. I went in there thinking that I may have had a cyst on my ovary. They did a pelvic exam and said they were going to order me a CT scan and an ultrasound of my lower abdomen. As the ultrasound tech was doing my ultrasound she asked if i have ovarian cancer in my family. That should've been the red flag that something was wrong. When I got back into the room, the doctor came in with a weird look on her face. She sat down on the bed with me, put her hand on my leg and said "U have cancer. you have a huge mass on your right ovary and its very concerning to us. This is very rare with someone your age (I'm only 29). We will be sending you to a specialist and he is willing to help you out ( I have no medical insurance). I immediately started crying hysterically and asked the doctor if i was going to die. She said "I don't know". That scared me so bad. All I could do was have my Mom hold me and cried "I don't want to die". That was the worst day of my life.
Two days later I went and saw the specialist. He talked with me about my ultrasound and said that he was really concerned about the large mass in my abdomen. He said it was the size of a football. My jaw completely dropped. I thought, "How in the world does that fit in me??" I'm not the smallest person in world but I'm definitely not too large either. But i now knew why my tummy was hard and wasn't able to lose weight. But the doc said I needed a hysterectomy. He told me he was going to start with the mass and my right ovary, Fallopian tube, and uterus and if there was cancer then they would take everything out. Also they'd be taking out the fat lining of my tummy (Tummy tuck!) and some lymph nodes. They scheduled me for surgery a week later.
After surgery, I stayed in the hospital for 6 days. It was my first over night stay in a hospital. The nurses were great! They took great care of me. But when i was released, i was released to my mom. I was to go to her house while i recovered from surgery. My boyfriend was NOT happy about this. But my mom's house was the best place for me. She has a temperpedic bed, that moves so i can be propped up. Lying flat felt like my tummy was going to split open. Her bathroom was handicap accessible due to my Grandma living here. So there are bar rails by the toilet and a walk-in shower with rails and a chair for me to sit in. All my boyfriend could say is "when are you coming home?" I felt like a broken record saying "I don't know. When i don't need the facilities here anymore." He didn't like that either. Sadly, he decided to move on from me. He couldn't wait for me to come home. He couldn't wait 6 months for me because I need 24 hour care and he can't give that to me.
The day is set to start chemo. May 24th. I was officially diagnosed with stage 2 ovarian cancer. Its high grade but it works well with chemo. I will be having another surgery May 11th to add a second port. I have one already on my side in my rib area so one chemo can go straight to my abdomen cavity. Then the other will put it through my whole body. I will be taking Taxol and Cisplatin. Found out I will be losing my hair. I had a hard time with that but came to realize that hair is just a material thing.
At Planned Parenthood, I got everything done and the doc said that my cervix was bleeding and she didn't seem too concerned about it. But she noticed the discharge that I was talking about. The test came back normal with the discharge. She said it was probably hormonal but if my boyfriend wanted to come in and get checked for an STD that could rule out an STD for me. But she told me that if I didn't hear from them my PAP came back normal.
When I asked my boyfriend to get tested to rule everything out, he completely flipped out. He accused me of cheating on him, which I never did, but his ex-wife ran around sleeping around with other guys.
The following week after my visit with Planned Parenthood, I started getting severe cramps. Kind of like period cramps but worse. I was tumbled over in the fetal position and breathing like i was in labor. My sister told me to go to the ER. But stubborn me didn't go. I thought everything would go away. I took tylenol to help with the pain, which it didn't, it didn't even touch it. But it finally went away, so i thought i was in the clear. About a week and a half later the pain came back. I had finally had enough of the pain.
On April 4th is when my world changed forever. The day I was told I had cancer. It started with going to the ER with severe lower abdominal pains. I went in there thinking that I may have had a cyst on my ovary. They did a pelvic exam and said they were going to order me a CT scan and an ultrasound of my lower abdomen. As the ultrasound tech was doing my ultrasound she asked if i have ovarian cancer in my family. That should've been the red flag that something was wrong. When I got back into the room, the doctor came in with a weird look on her face. She sat down on the bed with me, put her hand on my leg and said "U have cancer. you have a huge mass on your right ovary and its very concerning to us. This is very rare with someone your age (I'm only 29). We will be sending you to a specialist and he is willing to help you out ( I have no medical insurance). I immediately started crying hysterically and asked the doctor if i was going to die. She said "I don't know". That scared me so bad. All I could do was have my Mom hold me and cried "I don't want to die". That was the worst day of my life.
Two days later I went and saw the specialist. He talked with me about my ultrasound and said that he was really concerned about the large mass in my abdomen. He said it was the size of a football. My jaw completely dropped. I thought, "How in the world does that fit in me??" I'm not the smallest person in world but I'm definitely not too large either. But i now knew why my tummy was hard and wasn't able to lose weight. But the doc said I needed a hysterectomy. He told me he was going to start with the mass and my right ovary, Fallopian tube, and uterus and if there was cancer then they would take everything out. Also they'd be taking out the fat lining of my tummy (Tummy tuck!) and some lymph nodes. They scheduled me for surgery a week later.
After surgery, I stayed in the hospital for 6 days. It was my first over night stay in a hospital. The nurses were great! They took great care of me. But when i was released, i was released to my mom. I was to go to her house while i recovered from surgery. My boyfriend was NOT happy about this. But my mom's house was the best place for me. She has a temperpedic bed, that moves so i can be propped up. Lying flat felt like my tummy was going to split open. Her bathroom was handicap accessible due to my Grandma living here. So there are bar rails by the toilet and a walk-in shower with rails and a chair for me to sit in. All my boyfriend could say is "when are you coming home?" I felt like a broken record saying "I don't know. When i don't need the facilities here anymore." He didn't like that either. Sadly, he decided to move on from me. He couldn't wait for me to come home. He couldn't wait 6 months for me because I need 24 hour care and he can't give that to me.
The day is set to start chemo. May 24th. I was officially diagnosed with stage 2 ovarian cancer. Its high grade but it works well with chemo. I will be having another surgery May 11th to add a second port. I have one already on my side in my rib area so one chemo can go straight to my abdomen cavity. Then the other will put it through my whole body. I will be taking Taxol and Cisplatin. Found out I will be losing my hair. I had a hard time with that but came to realize that hair is just a material thing.
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