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Taryn’s Story

Site created on August 23, 2006

Welcome Family & Friends!

Welcome to Taryn's Web Page. Please let us know each time you visit by signing her guestbook.

This site was created to keep family and friends updated about our daughter, Taryn. Check out her story under "journal" (created by Gary & Judy), view the "photo's" (coming soon), and sign her "guestbook."

Recap:
Less than a month following Taryn's annual well woman exam and after a couple of weeks of abdominal discomfort and back pain, one doctor's diagnosis was possible constipation. At a visit to her regular doctor's office less than a week later, in a pelvic exam, the nurse practitioner felt something that she believed to be an ovarian cyst which prompted an ultrasound. Those results revealed a 12 cm mass in the left pelvic area. A MRI later that week confirmed the results of the ultrasound.

Taryn did not make it through the weekend before the pain was severe enough to require a visit to the emergency room. While in the Paradise Valley Hospital ER on Sunday, July 9, a doctor within her OB-GYN group was on-site and paid her a visit. The decision was made to operate and remove the mass. When the doctor opened her up, she saw it was beyond her capability so she took a biopsy and had to close her back up.

The next day Taryn was transferred to Scottsdale Memorial Shea, and a specialist was called in. That Friday, July 14, he operated. The now 15 cm mass was removed, along with her left ovary and several lymph nodes from her left adbominal cavity.

After a week of recovery, Taryn was released from the hospital. Since pathologists were not able to confirm the results of the biopsy, samples were sent to John Hopkins. When they were not able to release their findings, for reasoning still unclear to us, Taryn's doctor then had samples sent to Harvard. Several days later the findings confirmed it to be a rare form of small cell ovarian carcinoma.

We received news of this diagnosis at 7:00 am, Friday morning, July 28, 2006. Shortly thereafter, we were headed to the hospital for her to begin the first of seven rounds of chemo.

The good news is that there is a chemo regimen for treating this type of cancer. Taryn's doctor did not give her a choice with regards to treatment and began to administer the regimen the following day after running several baseline tests.

The regimen is an extremely brutal one. All treatments will be done inpatient. Six drugs (Vinblastin, Cisplatin, Bleomycin, Cyclophosphamide, Doxorubicin and Etoposide) will be administered, 2 per day for 3 days, with heavy duty, protective and precautionary pre and post-meds and lots of interveinous hydration.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Judy Jost — Jan 22, 2010

Today would have been our beautiful daughter, Taryn's 25th birthday. We miss her so incredibly much!

We'd like to invite you to join our team - TARYN'S TIGERS - in the unTEAL a Cure 5K walk on March 7th or make a donation to help raise money for ovarian cancer research at TGen.

Thanks to the incredible technology of TGen’s molecular profiling, which was performed after Taryn’s second surgery, they were able to come up with about 10 target treatments. If it were not for this cutting-edge technology, it is very likely that Taryn would have left us months before.

Please join us in our efforts to help TGen 'unTEAL a Cure' so no other female, her family and friends have to suffer from this horrible disease!

To join Taryn's Tigers or to make a donation, please visit: https://www.tgenfoundation.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=819&frtid=58

And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. Peter 5:10

Read More of the journal posted Jan 22, 2010

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