Tanya's Cancer Blog
February 2, 2007
Hi everyone, and thank you so much for all of your comments and support. Irvin kept me posted in the hospital, and it really made me smile.
So I’m going to write as many details as I can before I get too tired.
First off, I feel pretty good! I haven’t needed pain killers since tuesday afternoon, and the gas pains aren’t too bad this time. My incision is the same as last time (yeah!), so like 8 inches long, starting right below my belly button. 20 staples, just counted. The hospital stay was MUCH better than last time, and I really attribute it to a better state of mind than anything else. I wasn’t nervous going in, and I woke up feeling fine. The surgery was only 2 hours this time as well, which probably has a lot to do with me feeling better overall. I was completely prepared for my stay this time as well, and used at least a little bit of everything I brought. The aromatherapy mister was a hit with all of the nurses so they came in a lot which is good! MP3 player was key, and my room was pretty nice too. It even had a DVD player which we used a lot. My amazing mother spent all 3 nights with me sleeping on a hideous reclining chair next to me. What a trooper. Irvin would come in the morning and they would switch shifts, and Claudia, beloved sister-in-law came in every day as well. I had more visitors as well…American cancer society people of all kinds, 3 of my doctors, their friends/colleagues, my friends, pet therapists, massage therapists, music therapists, counselors, chaplains…etc. Of course because of my story with insurance I was a little famous there. So here’s the insurance scoop…
I didn’t even know about the article until we were checking in monday morning. Irvin ran around the hospital until he finally “borrowed” a paper from someone. We read it with huge smiles on our faces. The article is perfect! When I checked in the woman at registration gave me a hug and said she was so glad she got me! Everyone was so supportive and encouraging. She said that if the state medicaid didn’t cover me she was going to talk to the ceo, who happened to be her friend, about taking me as a charity case, which would mean the hospital would cover the expenses. Ok, long story short, I did indeed qualify for state medicaid, nothing to be proud of really, but at least we don’t have to worry about coverage from now until we move to maine. But I did have more doctors and administrators come in a say that they were personally going to try to have my bills covered as a charity case. It was really amazing how many people acted on this, I think i’ll write the hospital a letter expressing my gratitude. Health net has been silent other than a nice letter stating that my request for an expedited review was denied, which is crap, so they’ll get a call from me today. I’m still going to pursue them because I’m still going to get bills from last year.
Ok, medical mumble-jumble…
The surgery went very well, and Dr.Comerci was happy with the way things looked and didn’t even feel the need to remove any lymph nodes to check. He biopsied a few things just because, but was confident things were good. My ovaries were enlarged, and believe it or not, the borderline tumors had started to grow back! They were indeed borderline, at least that’s what we know now. He said that it’s proof that we made the right decision about the hysterectomy because borderline tumors don’t respond to chemo. I think I’ll research this a bit because it’s all still very confusing to me. Anyway, I see him on wednesday to have my staples removed and we’ll go over it all then. As far as I know right now, everything else came back as expected, that the cancer never left the ovaries. There is one little thing that I’m worried about, even though Comerci said he isn’t. When they did my chest xray last week for pre-op they found a tiny nodule, like 3 mm I think, in one of my lungs. He thinks it’s probably from a past respiratory infection of something, or possibly valley fever, which if you’ve ever lived in the desert you know about. I’m still freaked a bit, but trying to stay cool. I think when I learn more I’ll settle down a bit. My onc, Dr.Polowy said that the lungs are a very unlikely place for ovarian cancer to go, and the fact that it’s so tiny says a lot. Hopefully I’ll know more next week. From the way things have gone throughout all of this, the words “don’t worry” don’t mean a damn thing to me. All of what’s happened to me has been “unlikely”, so I’m not calmed by statistics anymore.
So I’ll probably start the hormones next week, although I don’t really have any new symptoms. Still the same night sweats, but that’s it.
Thanks again everyone!
11.07.06 
Thanks for your support - 
Tanya – so glad you are doing well. here is a link to the article in the East Valley Tribune.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=83118
Tanya: I am so happy that you were well cared for and that the bills will be taken care of. I take my hat off to you. You stood up for yourself and for the many that could not.
Love to you and yours.
Sherri
woops, I just left you a blank comment. I’m so glad you are doing well and that you had the surgery. For what it is worth, I never heard of OvCa going straight into lungs but missing everything in between.
I’m so excited to go read the article. Yay!