To Whom this may concer.

I am having my husband write this as I have no knowledge of the internet.

I have had period where they have been spotted, not there, or bleeding profusely for the last year.

My last pelvic ultrasound was July 29th, 2002 which came back normal. Since then I have had three operations regarding the above condition. By August I'll say in the middle, my condition went totally down hill. I have had severe abdominal and pelvic cramps since then. One of my operations was a D/C which was supposed to regulate my period. By September 9th, I was bundled up with severe abdominal and pelvic pain. I called my doctor who in fact gave the message to the nurse. She told me to hold on two more days when I was to receive my yearly physical. Cindy who performed my physical found something unusual in my cervical examination. She then reordered a pelvic ultrasound alond with other lab tests. Because I am a nurse, she called on Sept. 16th and wanted me to come in to the office. I refused and wanted to know what was wrong with me. She called me back and said, my left ovary was twice the size as my left cervic sonagram. She didn't want to do this do to the stress it would probably cause me without coming into the office. She also ordered a bunch of lab work and my yearly pap smear. She told me on the phone do to my persistence of feeling so lousy, my left ovary is twice the size, 5.3 (centimeters ?) that I may be facing ovarian cancer, so for 4 days I had to wait to see the doctor. Once I seen him, he gave me two options. Even though my blood tests of the CA-125 tumor marker came back ok, it still wasn't good enough. He said that he could not give me a 100% diagnosis that this would not be ovarian cancer. His second plan was to put me on 'birth control' pills which I declined, to hopefully shrink the tumor. He said either I could set up for surgery now or wait two months and repeat the pelvic ultrasound. Hopefully it would have shrunk on its own, despite the fact that I declinded the 'birth control pills'. From May 16th untill Sept. 15th of 2002, I finally received a period. Now it's over and I still have severe cramps and my abdomin is bloated.

Do I listen to him or as a nurse, seek out a second opinion? He told me that repeating the two months pelvic ultrasound would make no differnce one way or the other if it was cancer. Can you please give me any information as I am scared out of my mind ??? I am only 44 yrs. old but do have one of the signs of cancer regarding the fact that I have never had children. I also want to say that I did have an atopic pregnancy back in 1982 and I forget which tube they removed. Please help !!! What would you do if you were me ???

Sincerely,

Julie Ann

[This message has been edited by moderator2 (edited 09-26-2002).]

Hi Julie,
My name is Debbie and I'm 33. This last winter I was feeling horrible, I had never felt so tired before, my period was acting up, I had lots of gas and I had horrible pressure type pain in my left pelvic area but only at night when I laid on that side. I was miserable. I went to the doctor right away. He did an ultrasound and found a large tumor the size of a orange on my left ovary. I did lots of research and learned alot about ovarian tumors in the process. The first thing I did was I got copies of all my bloodwork, ultrasound reports. My CA125 was 66, the normal range is 1-35. Ovarian cancer is actually not that common. Ovarian tumors that are benign are common, especially in women under 50. My doctor also, wanted to treat me with birth control pills and to just watch it for a while. He also told me that I didn't have cancer - he said I didn't fit the profile even though I had many of the symptoms. Even when I said I wanted the tumor removed I didn't want to wait, he just wanted to do it by laproscopy rather than a full surgery (laparotomy). I knew that it could be dangerous to remove it by laproscope in case it was cancer and it leaked. I ended up getting a second opinion from another dr. I didn't have the opportunity to see a gynocologist oncologist but I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you do. They specialize in these cancers and would have a better idea than a regular gynocologist or your family dr. if your enlarged ovary looks suspcious. One thing I wished I had asked for before my surgery was a CT scan. You should ask you dr about having one.
My tumor did end up being a slow growing ovarian cancer called a borderline tumor. I didn't have to have chemo or radiation and they got it all in the laparotmy I had. I would recommend doing a little research on your own before your next dr appt. The JOhn Hopkins ovarain cancer website has lots of good information. I had to be my own advocate - I even had to be a little pushy which is not me. It's your life - make sure your comfortable with the options the dr is offering you - that's why it's important to be informed. But don't get too worried - I did that too - stress isn't helpful in this kind of situation.

Good luck and take care. Post back and let me know how you're doing.

Debbie