Surprising Day
In January of 2021, I was working out and started having a hard time catching my breath. My first thought was that I had COVID. I had just run 6 miles the day before because I was training for a Spartan race. I went to the doctor who tested for COVID and said it was negative. He was diagnosed with pneumonia and prescribed an antibiotic.
Stage 4a ovarian cancer
That was on a Tuesday. By Saturday I was in the ER because I couldn’t breathe. Once again tested negative for COVID. I was then sent to have a chest x-ray and was told by the tech that she couldn’t see my right lung for all the fluid. I had a chest tube inserted and was admitted to the intermediate ICU.
After that, a wonderful pulmonologist came in and told me that I didn’t have pneumonia or lung cancer but was looking for a malignancy that he believed was gynecological in origin. I found that confusing at first but he turned out to be correct. 9 days after I was admitted to the hospital I have diagnosed with stage 4a ovarian cancer.
A journey
I have 4 rounds of chemo, debulking surgery, and 4 more rounds of chemo. I am currently in remission. I have an Avastin infusion once every three weeks and take Lynparza daily. In the last few months, my CA 125 has slowly crept up by my CT Scans are good. It has been quite a journey.
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