The initial story.....

Good morning all,

Well, I guess things didn't quite turn out the way I thought they would. For those of you who don't already know yet, I have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Blood clots don't just spontaneously form in your arms and especially bilaterally and in a young (ahem) and healthy woman. They can be a sign of cancer. I'm thankful my body did this because I think they may have found it earlier than they would have if I were not clotting. They won't know what stage I'm at or exactly what kind of ovarian cancer it is until I have it taken out. The good thing is they were screening for cancer when they did the CT scan of my chest, abs and pelvis and looked for anything unusual in my lymph nodes. The radiologist said my lymph looked ok. It was just my ovaries and cervix that he was concerned about. My cervix is swollen because they say I have about a quart of fluid hanging around in my pelvis and it is just getting bathed in it. Yuck! Bob and I go see the oncologist in Billings today at 10:30. I did some research on him this weekend and he is really good. I am a problem case as I'm on coumadin and it takes 4-5 days to come off it and then 24 hours to come off the Lovenox shots so my blood will be thick enough for surgery. Then there is the risk of blood clotting more because that is how my body is deciding to deal with this shit. They said they may try to do some chemo first, then operate then more chemo. Or just take me off the blood thinners and operate soon, my method of choice. We'll see. Too bad I just paid $120 for a cut and color of my hair 'cuz I'm probably going to lose it! (gotta keep the sense of humor through this whole thing) Bob's mom is coming down on Monday to be here with Fischer while we go to Billings. We expect to be back Tuesday night.

Of course I am running the gammut of emotions but for the most part I'm just ready to fight this battle and I know I'm going to win it. I really just want it out of my body NOW! Everybody has been asking how they can help and right now we just need support in talking about it and accepting it. We will need more help in days to come. Believe me I will let you all know. (the huge thing is Ziggi needs exercise now, can anyone run 10 miles a day with her? Just kidding!, how about 5? Needless to say Bob's trip to Nepal is off for now. We will go together when I am strong enough again.

Fischer does not know and we are trying to be upbeat and positive around him. We are also not talking about it in front of him. He still just knows that mommy has arm problems and I'm going to doctors to figure out what is going on. We will tell him when I have to go for surgery. Then it will still be vague and I want to let him know that they are just going to take out some "girl" parts so he won't freak that it could happen to him or Daddy. It's a tough one and the problem is he is a smart little kid. He has been upset at TCP last week. We had a really good weekend and hopefully he will be better this week.

I'll post more when we get back from Billings, probably tomorrow.

Thanks all,
Katie O