The Scottish Saltire

The Scottish Saltire

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Girl Meets Doctor

When I walked into the Gynocologic Oncology clinic at Magee Women's Hospital this morning the first person I saw was a woman wearing a scarf to conceal her lack of hair. That made my stomach tighten a little but I pushed on in. After I checked in and filled out the registration paperwork I took a seat in the waiting room. It was very strange to be there. I half expected Ashton Kutcher to jump out and tell me I had been Punk'd. No such luck, though. Ashton never showed his cute little face. My name was finally called and I followed a nice nurse even further into this little adventure of mine. After taking my vitals she showed me to an office where I waited to meet one Dr. Thomas Krivak.

You know how you get a feeling about people when you first meet them? Good or bad, there is always a gut feeling. Well, I got a good one. He is very down to earth and relaxed and when we talked it was more like just having a conversation not 'my first consultation with the cancer surgeon'. It felt a little surreal, though, when he said that if I did need chemo that he would have to go back in after the initial surgery and do another procedure to put a port into my abdomen. I guess they fill your belly with chemo and then let you sort of marinade in it for a while until your system absorbs it. But that all depends on the treatment plan and IF they find cancer. He also wants to remove my appendix while he's in there, as well as both ovaries and my little invader, who is about the size of a small grapefruit now (aren't you glad you asked?). He scheduled my surgery for May 7th which is about three weeks from now but if there is a cancellation he will try to get me in sooner.

So I had all my pre-op stuff done today before I left the hospital. I had an EKG and a chest Xray done along with bloodwork. I hate getting blood drawn. My veins are so small that I always seem to end up getting poked three or four times before they finally hit the vein. It was no different this time. The nurse tried my left inner arm at the elbow first and got nothing, then tried the back of my left hand. That vein blew so she called the IV team and they sent someone else in to try. The second woman managed to snag a vein in my right arm but barely got all that she needed before it just went dry. All totaled she took about 20cc in 5 different tubes.

So there it is. (I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille.) It's just a waiting game now. I'm kind of suprised at how calm I feel about all of this. Most of us know someone who is dealing with cancer and think to ourselves "Geez, if that was me I'd just freak." Maybe I'll react differently if the diagnosis doesn't come back in my favor but I don't think so. Ovarian cancer is (to me) the scariest kind of cancer. They call it the Whisper because there are no symptoms until the disease is pretty well spread. So most cases are not even diagnosed until it's too late. But I truly don't feel like I'm in peril of dying. If it is cancer I think we've caught it early and the doctor will stage it at 1 or 2, in which case, the chance of survival is very good. Stats show that only about 20% of ovarian cancer cases are caught at the stage 1 level but the chances of survival after 5 years are almost 90%. Stage 2 cases have a 60-80% survival rate afer 5 years. Stage 3 drops to 20% and stage 4 is only 10%. BUT I personally know someone who survived stage 4 ovarian cancer! Someone has to be in that 10%! But if Dr. Krivak does find cancer when we get up close and personal I just don't feel like it's going to be advanced. And it may not even be cancer! It could just be a benign cyst. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I think it's here that I'm supposed to say something about this being the longest three weeks of my life coming up but at this point that would be a little melodramatic. I'm just going to stay busy and pass the time by getting out and enjoying this beautiful Spring weather that is breaking. So no more talk of cancer or surgery or chemo until next month!

P.S. If you don't get the joke in the title of this post you haven't been reading Nikki's blog and if you are not reading Nikki's blog you are missing out on some really great writing!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi - you don't know me, but I stumbled across your blog searching 'ovarian cancer'.
Hystersisters.com is a great website for women who are having hysterectomies, and there is even a 'cancer concerns' discussion group as well. I hope you join us!

Good luck with everything!

Anonymous said...

Shop Rat here. We were talking about you and your situation when a client mentioned that growths on the ovaries are benign 90% of the time regardless of size(fingers crossed) Which lead us to believe that in three weeks you will be a middle aged women going through menopause just like the rest of us only you are doing it with Connie flare. Hilarious.

Connie said...

Diane, is that you?

Shauna said...

So that's where we get it! Nik and I are also impossible to get small blood samples from; I end up jabbed 4 or 5 times and feel like a pin cushion. I actually have some nice, decorative track marks from my blood donation days (before they decided that mad cow was not good for their donees)!

I wonder if there's an Abdominal Surgery competition you can enter. :) You should at least get some kind of certificate or points for all your instances!

Connie said...

Oh yeah, just the title I want! I'm well on my way though. I think I'll try to stop after this one. 5 is enough, don't you think?

Anonymous said...

Hi,
My name is Chuck Burns. I have a website about cervical cancer. I learned that One of the main problems women have is finding a "good" doctor that they feel comfortable with. Your post describes that quite well. I would like to use your post on my cervical cancer website. I am also just starting a new website about Ovarian Cancer. I would like to use your post there as well. I will give credit and a link to the original post at your website. Please check
www.Cervical-Cancer-Advice.com
and also use the same website address but substitute Ovarian for Cervical in the url. The Ovarian-Cancer-Advice website is just starting and has no posts as yet.

Chuck
cebur19 at gmail.com

Connie said...

Chuck,
Be my guest! Use whatever you want.
Connie

Anonymous said...

Here is a friend's blog. She is amazing and you will benefit from her story.

http://www.poetry-courage-cancer.blogspot.com/

Amy said...

I hadn't heard Shop Rat's stat before, but that's encouraging if so. J said his ex had an ovarian cyst removed that was the size of a grapefruit, and it was just a cyst... so we'll see.

Also, my paranoid side can't help but wonder... isn't it just more to heal from if you have your appendix out too, if it hasn't ruptured? Could the doc be just ringing up charges for extra procedures? I don't mean to cast aspersions on your doctor at all (I sincerely hope he's really good at what he does!), but it's quite common for professionals to add extra "it might be good" kind of services to charge extra.

Anonymous said...

Amy,
I agree. I have not found anything that makes a reference to taking out ones appendix during a surgery. I would question this for sure. I would say that a second opinion is in order here.
ovarian cancer friend

Connie said...

Dr. Krivak's thinking is that it's pretty simple to just take the appendix while he's right there (we don't need it). No more extra healing required. He said something about considering all of the abdominal surgeries I've had (this will be #5!) this would just eliminate the possible need for an appendectomy in the future. Sherry's cousin is a gyn nurse here in Pittsburgh and knows a lot of other medical people. She asked about Dr. Krivak and another doctor she knows says that if the need ever arose, Krivak is who he would send his own wife to. That's a pretty good recommendation. Truly, if he wants to take my appendix, I'm just fine with it. Thank you, though, Amy. I love you, kid.

Connie said...

BTW, Leanne is Sherry's cousin the nurse. She also called down to the gyn oncology clinic at Magee (she knows people there) and told them who I am and to take good care of me. How cool is that?