My name is Debbie Adams.
My mom was diagnosed with Ovarian cancer in May.

She has and still is going through a horrible battle of trying to save her life or at least live long enough to see her 6 grandchildren grow up.

My mom is 51.
There is no history of ovarian cancer in our family.
Mom is a registered nurse, RN, and does her normal check-ups every year. In December of 1998, she was feeling tired and bloated and had been increasing in her weight for a few months and knew she had a check-up scheduled for January, 1999.

"Normal" exam
In her check-up, she had all the normal routine of things done that is considered "normal" for all women. Her examine was completed and everything looked "normal". In April, she developed some pressure in her lower abdominal area and the pressure persisted and turned to extreme pain. She contacted the doctor.

They did a TVU (transvaginal ultrasound) on a Wednesday and told her she had a benign cyst that looked as though it had wrapped itself around her ovary. If the pain persisted, they may have to do emergency surgery and remove the cyst. My mom is very intelligent and just felt that something was not right so at that moment, she asked them to take a CA 125 blood test to reassure her. Now just for reference, ovarian cancer is not in our history that we know of, and she had no reason to feel that this was cancer at this point, but the type of pain that she was feeling, she knew that it was not going to go away and it was more serious than the doctors would admit. By Friday, she had not heard her results and went to work on Saturday at the hospital. She was in such pain that she couldn't stand it and was going to leave but thought she would look up her results at the hospital.

The CA 125 normal range is 0.00 to 35.0.
Her test results were 1709.
My mother was couldn't believe what she was reading and knew she had cancer. She called her doctor immediately and wanted to know why she had not been informed of her results. The doctor said that it was because the score was so high that they wanted to redo the test to make sure of the results. This was Saturday and by Tuesday, my mother was in a 6- hour surgery to have a total abdominal hysterectomy with staging and remove both ovaries. They later staged her cancer as stage 3 which means the cancer had not spread to other organs. They had to leave some of the cancer because some of it was too close to the aorta and there were microscopic cancer cells that they were not able to get because of other reasons.

Now the cancer has spread to her lungs
and it is difficult for her to breath. She can't do much because it is in her lungs and just breathing is hard for her. It has been a very difficult 7 months. In December, she was in the hospital for 9 days for a pulmonary emboli and then was out for 7 days and then back in again for another 2 days. We just thank God that she was able to come home for Christmas.

Ovarian cancer is a horrible disease
and is so silent that by the time you have symptoms
it is too late.

Unfortunately, we found out about all of this when it was too late. Since it is my mom who has this, I wanted to make sure that I was checked thoroughly to make sure that I did not have any cancer starting. I first went to my own doctor and the nurses were trying to tell me that it was not necessary for a CA125 and ultrasound because I was so young and also there was no other history other than my mom. I wouldn't take that as an answer and went to my mother's doctor. She, of course, had done the surgery and knew how bad the cancer had spread and felt that all of those tests were essential to my piece of mind and health. I had them done and so far things check out but I am on the high end of the CA125 at 24.0.

The only thing that I think my mom and I can stress,
is that no matter what a physician says, if you feel that is something wrong but just can't pin point it, don't take the doctor's word. Go to another doctor or go to specialist who knows more about the female body. My mom also has notice that when she does go to her gynecologist, there are no pamphlets warning women of ovarian cancer, the symptoms or preventive care to protect them. Also as she has reflected on her life and her check-ups, they never informed her of ovarian cancer. The only way I found out about it was because my mother is now battling it and may die.

It is a horrible way to find out how I can save my life by having to see my mom go through so much and possibly die from this. If there is anything my mom or I can do to help in this battle of ovarian cancer, please call on us.
Thank you.

Deborah Adams
Seattle, Washington

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Ovarian Cancer Facts
Signs & Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer
by Sue Spataro, RN, BSN
Ovarian cancer is our most deadliest gynecologic cancer. It ranks number 4 in the cause of cancer deaths in women. Most of us have a less that 2% lifetime chance of developing ovarian cancer. But, every year over 25,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. But once diagnosed with ovarian cancer 75% of women will die within 5 years of their diagnosis. Early detection is the key. How can you tell if you have it?

No Time to Die
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Liz Tilberis, the editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar magazine, was at the pinnacle of her career when diagnosed with ovarian cancer, one of the disease's deadliest forms. ("When ovarian cancer is detected early, the cure rate is high: at least a 90 percent five-year survival rate for Stage I diagnosis. At Stage IV, they tell you to go home and get your affairs in order," she writes.) In 1993, the day after holding a gala holiday dinner for the likes of Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan, Tilberis underwent exploratory surgery that revealed her cancer was at Stage III. Since then, she has survived three recurrences, massive doses of chemotherapy, and a bone marrow transplant.

Tilberis's book is notable not only for the sanguine humor which she injects throughout, but also for her honesty regarding what she suspects was the cause of her cancer: fertility treatments with the hormone-stimulating drugs Clomid and Pergonal, which she points out are still widely used. (She never conceived a child, but is the mother of two adopted sons.) Tilberis is especially cutting with her descriptions of her coworkers' chilliness and lack of empathy when she first returned to work. It seems that AIDS causes notwithstanding, the world of fashion is still incapable of admitting there is suffering in the world. Tilberis also deserves praise for confessing that her infertility is due to fallopian tube scarring from pelvic inflammatory disease--often caused by sexually transmitted diseases.

No Time to Die and Liz Tilberis are inspiring. While her cancer is in no certain way vanquished, Tilberis chooses to treat it as a chronic condition, not a killer. She's made it her mission to use her magazine platform and her position as president of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund to raise awareness of a complicated and frightening--but possibly preventable--disease. This book is as much a tale of survival and sang-froid as it is an excoriation of the cruelties of the two-faced world of fashion.

Breast Cancer Facts
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by Sue Spataro, RN, BSN
There is so much in the media that scares the living life out of us. Breast   cancer is one topic that manages to catch all of our attention. The media report all the bad news and statistics but neglect to tell us what they really mean.

I'm Too Young to Get Old:
Health Care for Women After Forty
by Judith Reichman

Reichman has practiced obstetrics and gynecology for more than 20 years. From that extensive background, she addresses the most problematic aspects of health and aging for women over 40 in this reader-friendly book. She details the facts of contraception and fertility for midlife women and the risks and complications involved in later-life pregnancy and delivery in the book's first section, and in the second, she examines menopause, providing an unusually thorough discussion of how hormones work and their varying levels during perimenopause as well as detailed scrutiny of hormone replacement therapy and its alternatives.