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!