Happy Cancerversary To Me

Seeing as my 2 year "cancer-versary" just passed on February 7th, I figured I would start to blog about my situation in case anyone wants to know what is going on with me health-wise. Plus it will be good for me to keep a record of everything because I feel like I am all over the place trying to keep track of things between doctors visits in Boston and in Poland.

In February 2014 I was diagnosed with Stage 1 ovarian cancer. Probably a year before my diagnosis, I had noticed that my menstrual cycle was getting longer and longer. I considered for a bit that maybe I was approaching menopause, but I was only 42 at the time so I wasn't sure it was possible. Every visit back to Boston I would have a check-up with my ob/gyn, Dr. K, so I had mentioned it to her and she assured me it was nothing to worry about. When I asked about the possibility of early menopause, she ordered a blood test for me and sent me on my way. I got the results right before I went back to Krakow, and everything appeared to be normal. The next few months after returning to Poland my cycles were even longer. One month it completely disappeared. Being the Nervous Nelly that I am, I started searching the internet and while I never saw that my symptoms were directly related to ovarian cancer, my searches kept bringing me to ovarian cancer webpages. I didn't have any of the symptoms that were described though - bloating, felling full quickly after eating, increase in the urge to urinate, abdominal pain. I mean, I never really had a washboard stomach and who didn't have to pee all the time after they had a kid?? I decided to find a doctor anyway just to be safe and ease my worries. I got a recommendation from a friend here and made an appointment for a few weeks later. When I told Dr. Paulina my symptoms she thought it sounded like I might be suffering from a case of premature ovarian failure. Nothing to worry about she told me, and started to examine me. As luck would have it, and the reason we caught it so early, is that she actually had an ultrasound machine in her office. If I had been in Boston, this never would have happened.  I could tell by the way she was looking around on the screen that something was wrong - she told me she saw something and her English wasn't great so when she was explaining it to me she first said she saw a mass, then said it could be a big cyst, then when she called it a tumor I slowly started to panic.  She reassured me by telling me it didn't look suspicious because it was perfectly round and squishy, not hard like a cancerous tumor. But to be safe, she sent me next door to have blood tests done to rule out cancer (I found out later that her mother had died of ovarian cancer so this is why she was especially cautious). I went right next door to get my blood drawn and I just sat there in shock in the waiting room. I tried not to freak out but my head was spinning. Of course it was a Wednesday and they told me the results would not be ready until Monday - were they serious??  I had no idea how I was going to get through the next few days wondering if I had ovarian cancer, a cancer that I happened to know had a terrible prognosis.  I got into my car and immediately drove to Mike's office, calling him in tears on the way there. We sat in the car and he tried to reassure me that everything would be okay, and he suggested I call Dr. Ted, our primary care physician here. Some of you may know that I am quite the hypochondriac, so I was Dr. Ted's best customer and he had gotten to know me pretty well. I called him and he told me to come in on Friday with the ultrasound images. When I went on Friday he agreed that the mass did not look malignant, and because he knew that I was going to freak out the entire weekend waiting for my blood test results,  he called the blood lab while I was sitting there and was able to get one of the results for me - the CA-125 (the standard ovarian cancer test) which was completely normal. Phew! Mike and I breathed a sigh of relief, albeit a small one. Dr. Ted suggested I go to see another doctor for a second opinion, and he knew one who spoke perfect English. Thanks to Dr. Ted I was able to get an appointment with him on Monday. In the meantime, Dr. Ted was able to call a different blood lab where he found out my other results were ready but I had to go to the lab to pick them up.  Mike and I got in the car and drove there and the nurse just handed me the slip, no explanations or anything. My heart was pounding out of my chest as I tried to decipher the results, but thankfully they were both in the normal range. Phew, another sigh of relief! And thank God for Dr. Ted for sparing me the agony of waiting for the test results over the weekend. I called Dr. Paulina that afternoon and told her the results and while she thought it was good news, she said she had consulted with her boss and they both thought it best that I have the mass removed just to be safe, since it was on the large side. I never really considered having the surgery done in Poland, not because I didn't trust her (because, hello, she was the one who had caught this!) - but I knew that none of the nurses would speak English and she told me I would have to stay in the hospital for about 3 days. And, I have been inside a few Polish hospitals and they look like they have not even had a new coat of paint since WWII. Besides, Mike was flying back to Boston that following week so it made total sense to go with him. I decided to keep my appointment for the second opinion on Monday anyway, and the new doctor, Dr. P, assured me immediately that it was just a benign cyst and that my body would probably rid itself of it on it's own. However, because of the size of it, I should come back in a month to have it re-measured.

Mike and I went home feeling relieved, but I was still uneasy knowing that I had a big mass growing inside me. When I thought more about it, if it had been growing as long as I had been having problems with my cycle, I didn't really think my body would be able to rid itself of it in a month, if it hadn't been able to in over a year. All I kept thinking about was that one doctor thought I should have surgery, and I just knew that that was going to be the only way I would be able to truly relax.  I was leaning more and more towards the option of going to Boston with Mike.

I emailed Dr. K in Boston as soon as I could - I tried calling her but of course they moved to a new building and she could no longer make international phone calls to call me back. I sent her the ultrasound images and the blood test results through email and told her that my Polish doctor was recommending surgery so I would come back with Mike if she would agree to operate. She told me to relax, not worry, and that I should just wait to see her when we were back in April. Huh?? No way. I couldn't relax for four more months! I called Mike that day and apologized because I knew booking last minute flights were going to be really expensive, but this was really the only way I could get peace of mind. We both kind of laughed thinking how Dr. K was going to react when I showed up in her office after she had told me not to come (she is really a nice lady, and she too is familiar with my worrying!). I said I totally did not care if I was flying all the way back there for no reason but I just had to do it to make myself feel better. I was able to schedule an appointment with Dr. K for that next Monday, but of course they needed an ultrasound done in Boston first, and I needed a doctor's referral to get one. I begged and pleaded my case and after a few phone calls I was able to get an appointment for an ultrasound the morning before my appointment.

We flew back to Boston and I had my ultrasound. The doctor came in to see me after reading the results and she said that while it did not look malignant, she would recommend surgery to have it taken out just to be safe. Yes! I was so happy to be able to tell Dr. K that I actually did need surgery after all, and I was relieved that our trip back to Boston wasn't a total waste. When I saw Dr. K she was shocked, but she sent me out to the scheduling coordinator and told me that a  Dr. Reilly in their practice handles all of these surgeries and that he would be performing it. I went to the office and the assistant got me in for that Friday (February 7th). Then it hit me - Oh my God I have to have surgery! It never even dawned on me to ask to have an oncologist perform the surgery, just in case....