September is ovarian cancer awareness month. I am mostly aware of this because my mom died of ovarian cancer when she was 67. I remember getting the life changing call in January. I wanted to vomit. My questions came… what? When? How? Where? I remember hoping it was breast cancer. But it came back as ovarian cancer and I then learned things about Ovarian cancer in 1997. It is difficult to detect. It is a silent killer, the symptoms are vague….. When she was diagnosed, she was at stage IV.
I taught myself the warning signs: bloated, feeling of fullness, frequent urination, fatigue. I KNEW the signs and 18 years later, I HAS those signs. I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 4 years ago. Here is what I realized, that list of symptoms was not what I felt. Yes, I felt tired a lot. I made a lot of trips to the bathroom, my back hurt, I felt full. I had felt all those feelings before and each one of them I could discount. Don’t discount those symptoms. They are sneaky. If you are peeing all the time or it hurts when you poop or If you have to lay down during the day cause you are so tired or if your back has a slow dull ache that is there all the time… dont
Unfortunately, a possible side effect of ovarian and other gynecological cancers is lower body lymphedema. Diagnostics, treatment and side effects can disrupt the normal route of lymphatic fluid from the legs and/or abdomen and result in swelling to reduce you may
