I want to share with you the early symptoms of ovarian cancer which I experienced in case you want to send these to family members or friends. I recognize those symptoms may be different than yours, but at least this is something.

A regular check-up in July 1991, just six months prior to the initial surgery (3 Feb 1992) and discovery of the cancer, did not reveal an enlarged ovary or anything unusual. About three months later after the check-up (October 1991), I found myself needing to urinate again several minutes after I thought I had emptied my bladder (urinary frequency and urgency). but we had just been to the Gulf coast and I believed that I had picked up a little bladder irritation from the water down there. Also I was dealing with an allergic sinus drainage by drinking large amounts of fluids and thought that was contributing to the urination problems. A test for an infection in the urine was negative. The rest of my symptoms I put down to simple stress and a hectic schedule.

I had a minor back ache. My back below my waist line was tense and tired after a long day at work, but weekends and resting at night along with an occasional aspirin seemed to relieve the mild muscle pain. After the diagnosis of the basketball-size tumor, I remembered how much like pregnancy the backache was. I also had a bloated feeling, a feeling of gaining weight, particularly around the middle, during the late fall (4-5 months after the normal check-up). The expanding waist line was making it difficult to button some of my skirts. In response to that feeling, I began to eat less of the fattening holiday goodies. In mid-January 1992 (6 months after the check-up), still feeling fat, I found, much to my surprise that I had a sudden weight loss of ten pounds. That kind of weight loss is very unusual for me even on a diet, but I didn't take it as a negative happening. For once a diet had worked. Later I realized I had decreased appetite, but again I believed that meant my diet had worked and I had shrunk my stomach.

My major symptom was growing fatigue. All through the fall I was working long hours and just could not get enough rest. Even with long naps over long weekends, I was still exhausted. The weekend before the cancer was discovered, I only had energy to do something for about 1-2 hours and then I would have to rest for 30-45 minutes. But again I thought I was just stressed from being a mother, wife, volunteer, and employee. There was no change in bowel habits, no change in menstrual periods or flow, and no real pain of any kind. In late January 1992 (7 months after the normal check-up), I finally felt a small knot in the umbilical (belly button) area, but only when I coughed.

This is not the usual way for someone to discover this cancer. At the point of discovery, the cancer had spread from one ovary to the uterus, the other ovary, a 12 inch long portion of large bowel, a portion of the bladder, and possibly the lymph nodes. And yet this ovarian cancer was considered to have been discovered in the early stages! When it is discovered in later stages, the symptoms are usually severe abdominal pain or severe digestive disorders. This cancer can occur at any age from teenage years onward, but the chances increase with age. It can run in families or as an isolated case.

Believe it or not, when the doctor first asked me if I had any problems or symptoms, I honestly said no. In my mind at that time there were no unusual symptoms that could possibly be related to the mass in my abdomen. After all, stress and fatigue are a normal part of a busy woman's life. It tool me 3 or 4 days after the diagnosis before I realized that all of the above feelings were related and had been building/getting worse since early fall. All of the symptoms had some physical basis related to the cancer. If there is to be some good in this story, it will hopefully alert you to listen to your body and not to attribute too much to "simple stress."

Please feel free to copy this and send to everyone you think could benefit from the reading of it. It is my hope to help someone find the cancer earlier and for them to benefit from my experience. Then this will have given some meaning to all of this emotional and physical pain.