Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Eight years ago this summer, I was diagnosed with
stage-3 C ovarian cancer.
It obviously was devastating to myself and to my husband,
but we were not unfamiliar with it since my mother
had already been diagnosed with it.
Pretty scary time for us and we did not have a tremendous
amount of hope
only because we knew how bad ovarian cancer can be.
After you've been diagnosed, you want to try to figure out
what the rest of your life is, even if it is short.
And I didn't think I was going to go through chemo.
I just figured it wasn't worth it.
So I remember visiting with my surgeon, Dr. Mahavni
in Sacramento.
He was so supportive.
He just said, "Now look, it isn't good
but there's some hope here. You need to fight it."
So I did. I started chemo in July eight years ago
and finished in December.
Fortunately because I was with Kaiser,
they watched me very carefully because one of the
ovarian cancer's wicked sister is breast cancer,
or vice versa.
They watched for breast cancer.
Three years ago I was diagnosed with DCIS breast cancer
but stage zero.
It was found very early.
I had a double mastectomy.
Did not need to go through chemo or radiation
and I have been cancer-free for the last three years.
I truly believe that we'd be dealing with a lot worse
situation if it wasn't for being with a member of Kaiser.
I think there's a more proactive approach to watching people,
monitoring people.
Eight years and I'm still living
and I'm feeling pretty good about that.