On March 29, 2017, my dad passed away. That weekend, I got very sick. I was vomiting, had diarrhea and severe abdominal pain. I thought it was just stress and maybe some bad potato salad. After several days of saltines and ginger ale, I got better or so it seemed.
On April 21, I got very sick again with same symptoms. Around 2am on the 24th, I couldn't take the pain anymore and called 911. They gave me a saline IV with Zofran for the nausea and vomiting and morphine for the pain. They did an EKG, CT scan and blood tests. The CT scan showed masses on my ovaries and a spot on my liver. The ER doctor told me that I have ovarian cancer and that it had spread to my liver. She gave me a referral to get a MRI and told me to follow up with my doctor.
May 1 was my next doctor's appointment. Dr. Moody looked at the results of the CT and MRI. The MRI showed that the spot on my liver was benign. She took blood to do a CA125, which can indicate certain types of cancer.
Since I hadn't heard from our doctor, I waited until my husband's appointment on May 30th to talk to her. I was hoping no news was good news. Apparently the doctor's office called an old phone number, so I didn't get the results. My CA125 was more than twice the normal level. She gave me referrals to a couple of gynecologic oncologists.
June 19, we went to Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis to the gynecologic oncologist. Dr. Ducie did a full exam including a pap smear. She said that all indicaters were that it was cancer, but only a biopsy can say for certain.
On July 6, my sister-in-law drove us up to AAMC for my biopsy. I assumed that they would biopsy one or both of my ovaries, but they did part of the lining around my stomach and intestines.
July 11, Dr. Ducie called me to tell me it is cancer and she wanted to do surgery then chemo. She said we could wait to do the surgery until after our wedding.
On the morning of August 11, we had to be at Mercy in Baltimore at 7:30am for my 9am surgery. They did some pre-op testing and introduced the whole surgical team. Once they took me into the operating room, I don't remember anything else until about 6pm. I have some vague memories of a woman telling me to wake up. I think she was an ICU nurse named Jenny. I was wheeled upstairs on a gurney to a regular room. They wanted me to slide over on to the bed, but I couldn't do it. They had to use a bed board to transfer me. I was still really out of it for a while. I kept trying to figure out why my husband and sister-in-law took everything home with them including my glasses and cellphone. I finally remember the locker that my stuff was put in before surgery and was able to get everything brought up. They made me get up and go to therapy the next day. I was in the hospital until August 15.
August 29, we went to AAMC to get my 37 staples out. Dr. Ducie made arrangements for me to see Dr. Ryu because he works out of Calvert. It's a 2 mile commute instead of a hour long one.
September 12, Dr Ryu did quick exam of my abdomen and then said yes to me going back to substitute teaching. He said Dr. Abbott's office would call me soon.
September 27, Dr. Abbott talked to us about the chemo and said that they could give me a port so I don't have to get stuck with an needle each time.
