Wendy Bosari

Hi Everyone!

My name is Britni Bosari, and I created this site to keep friends and family updated on my mom's battle with stage 4 ovarian cancer. I know I'm a little late in starting this site, but I just recently found out about it.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been there for my mom and my entire family throughout everything! I love you all!!!

xoxoxo,
BritI don't know where to begin... (I'll try to make this as short as I can - which is easier said than done for me... haha)
It all started in October 2004. My mom was having really strange stomach pains. Thankfully, she decided to go to the doctor's. It turned out to be stage 4 ovarian cancer. The stomach pains where caused by the cancerous fluid that had began to build in her abdomin. The cancer had spread to her lungs, liver, stomach... and basically everywhere in between. Before her surgery, she had 3 liters of fluid drained from her abdomin TWICE. She eventually had surgery (I believe it was 5 or 6 hours) where she had a complete hysterectomy, part of her stomach removed, and had many other tumors removed. Luckily the cancer had only spread into her stomach. The tumors on her other organs could be "peeled off", as her oncologist put it. She was in the hospital for about 9 days. She was home for about a month before she had to start chemotherapy. While at home, she slept a lot (in her hospital bed in the living room). She just needed to get her strength back up in order for the chemo. She did chemo for a total of 1 & 1/2 years. The first 6 months was to kill the rest of the cancer that they couldn't get in surgery. The last year of chemo was just a preventative chemo... to keep the cancer from coming back. Her surgery and chemo were a success. She went almost 2 years with no chemo... and no cancer.
In the meantime, she decided to go for genetic testing, since she was so young when she was diagnosed. She tested positive for the BRCA 1 gene mutation. This means that she has an 87% chance of getting breast cancer and a 49% chance of getting ovarian cancer. She decided that she wanted to be as proactive as possible towards the breast cancer. She didn't need anything else to worry about... on top of her ovarian cancer. She decided to have preventative double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery. She had her surgery scheduled and was ready to go.
I also decided to get tested, and I also tested BRCA 1+. I have the same chance of getting breast and ovarian cancer as my mom. This means that I will go to my gynecologist every 6 months and have a series of tests done. I eventually want to have a double mastectomy and my ovaries removed. If it wasn't for wanting to be able to breast-feed once I have children, I would have the surgery tomorrow. My mom took the news about me pretty hard at first because she felt guilty for "giving" me the gene mutation. But she has since decided that it is almost a "blessing in disguise" because we will be able to catch anything that happens, and I won't have to go through what my mom has gone through. Knowledge is power.
So, right before my mom's surgery her doctor wanted her to have a CAT scan because her CA-125 (this measures your ovarian cancer risk) was a little higher than normal. They just wanted to make sure that everything was ok. Her CAT scan showed that her cancer was back. Her original surgery was canceled and another debulking (surgery to remove her cancer) was scheduled. She had her second surgery (this one was about 7 hours). They removed her spleen, part of her rectum, and other tumors that had spread. The surgery went very well. She was in the hospital for another 9 days. She is currently doing chemo again. This chemo regimen is harder than her last one (she handled her last chemo very well). It is actually the first time her doctor has done this combination of chemo together. Hopefully, she will do as well with these as she did last time.
And this is where we are today.....