Vitals

Name:
Tanya (tanya)

Member Since:
October 31, 2006

Location:
Portland, Maine

Birthday:
April 7, 1975

Type of Cancer:
Ovarian Cancer

Medical Term for the Type of Cancer:
Right Ovary: Atypical proliferative (borderline) serous tumor with multiple foci of invasive low grade serous carcinoma. Left Ovary: Same thing, just micro-invasive.

Diagnosis Date:
September 2006

Stage of Cancer:
Stage 1

Tumor Size:
07

Grade of Tumor:
Grade 1

Lymph Node Involvement:
No

Chemotherapy:
Taxol (chemical name: paclitaxel)

Profile:
Cancer Survivor

What I Hate Most About Cancer:
Waiting for test results!!

Cancer Symptoms:

None really, maybe a little bloating and abdominal pain. This is the scary thing about ovarian cancer; few women have any symptoms at all.

Surgery Description, Dates & Side Effects:

I’ve had 3 surgeries total. The 1st was laproscopic when they discovered I didn’t have endometriosis, what they originally thought I had. That’s when they discovered that the 2 huge tumors were either cancerous or pre-cancerous. On the 2nd surgery they removed the 2 tumors and managed to save my ovaries, but the patholgy sent to Johns Hopkins came back showing a 6 mm invasive carcinoma in my right ovary, and the left ovary had a micro-invasive tumor. On January 29th, 2007, I had a total ovarian hysterectomy.

Chemotherapy Description, Dates & Side Effects:

Paclitaxel(Taxol)/Carboplatin(Paraplatin) combination, intravenous, 4 treatments total, 3 weeks apart. My first treatment was Oct. 17th. The side effects weren’t been too horrible. Days 3-6 I felt really bad, but I never vomited! I just felt VERY weak, and VERY sick. I was so pale I scared myself in the mirror, and sometimes I felt so bad I couldn’t even talk. I had HORRIBLE constipation like never before, and I still have heartburn, which I never got before.

Hormone Therapy Description, Dates & Side Effects:

Bio-identical HRT in the form of transdermal creams: includes Bi-estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone…started March 2007.

No side effects to speak of so far! I highly recommend seeing a HRT specialist to look into bio-identical HRT. After reading “What your doctor may not tell you about menopause” I refuse to go on the “conventional” synthetic hormones most doctors prescribe.

Tanya's Stats

Tanya's Cancer Blog (34)

  Wow...

  "Health insurance hell" stories?

  Run/Walk (crawl) For a Cure!

  Oy!

  When it rains it pours!

  BRCA test...ask your doctor about it!!!

  It's valley fever! Yeah!!

  Biopsy a breeze.

  Lesson learned...listen carefully and take notes when talking to doctors!!

  Good news???

  CT scan results on doctor's desk...waiting is so hard.

  Night SWEATS, HRT, appointment tomorrow, lung nodule...

  On the radio!

  I'm back!!!

  Tomorrow is the big day.

Tanya's Photos (6)

Tanya's Calendar (1)

  11.07.06 - More info...

Community Blog (217)

  Cancer's Unexpected Blessings By Tony Snow

Community Calendar (43)

  06.22.08 - Treatment Started May 28th Rituxan