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Showing posts from March, 2017

Chemotherapy - Week 1

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Now that I am sufficiently healed from my surgery, I get to start my 6 months of Chemotherapy. Apparently there are lots of chemo medicines...a little fact that I didn't know.  I will be using Taxol and Carboplatin with the following schedule:  Week 1 - Taxol and Carbo combined; Weeks 2 & 3 - Taxol only; Week 4 - Off! I do expect to lose my hair somewhere between day 14-17.  A sweet friend who just finished chemotherapy for breast cancer threw me a hat/scarf party to help prepare for that.  It was such a great time to talk with friends and learn ways to cover my soon-to-be bald head!  I'm surprisingly ok with losing my hair. Of course, I haven't seen my bald head yet, so I imagine that might change.  The good news is that I'll be nice and cool this summer and, for the first time, I will get to experiment with hair styles of all lengths this fall! I just finished my first infusion on Thursday, March 23. I was more nervous for chemo than I was for my surgery.  The

Ovarian Cancer - The Surgery

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As soon as my mom learned of my diagnosis, she booked a flight and was here the very next morning.  That meant that she and my dad drove most of the night to get to the airport so that she could fly out and be in SLC by 8 AM that morning.  What a blessing to have her with me!  She was truly my rock.  I was still processing my diagnosis and trying to come to terms with it.  I'm sure she was, too, but she was strong and optimistic the whole time she was with me. My doctor referred me to one of the best surgeons in the state of Utah.  However, it would be a week before I would have a consult with him.  We decided to use that week to get a lot done around the house and to have some fun.  While I finished a few projects for work, my mom tackled my house. She painted my room, hall, bathroom, kitchen, and living room in that first week.  She also set out to make my room look pretty.  If I was going to have to spend a lot of time in it, it was going to be nice to look at! My belly was

Ovarian Cancer - The Diagnosis

The bummer about Ovarian Cancer is that it has no symptoms...or at least, it doesn't have symptoms that are easy to recognize.  I have known for a few years that something wasn't right.  In fact, I went to three different doctors over the last 3-4 years to express just that, but it was hard to put a finger on exactly what was wrong.  I was more tired than I should be. Mainly, my stomach kept getting bigger, despite eating well and exercising regularly.  Every time I mentioned this to a doctor they simply told me to exercise more and eat better.  It was frustrating, but what did I know?  I simply chalked it up to my lack of a thyroid and brushed it off. At the beginning of the year, my stomach began to grow even more.  It got to the point that my stomach actually hurt when I bent over to tie my shoes.  I thought I had finally gotten so fat that I couldn't tie my shoes. So I tried to work out harder, but I was so tired!  I continued to play volleyball a few times a week.  I