Category: Ovaries

So here it is, the last day of September, which is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Before everything turns pink tomorrow (and I do mean everything – I saw pink tortillas the other day), I feel the need to make my annual soapbox speech.

YOU GUYS. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR OVARIES.

Did that work?

Okay, let me be a little more specific.

Here’s more.

I have an entirely different perspective on this than I did a year ago, when I wasn’t paying attention, conveniently ignoring “persistent pressure or pain in the pelvic region” I had waxed poetic about for years. Little did I know that my annual screening (which I didn’t get around to until it was nearly three months overdue) would show a cyst in my ovary and an elevation in my CA-125 level, results that led to a laparoscopic surgery the following day and, eventually, a complete hysterectomy.

The good news is, as you know, I didn’t have cancer, but it scared the living daylights out of me.

The other good news is that for the 200,000 women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year, they are making progress.

So here are the takeaways.

Know your risk.

If you are at an increased risk, take precautionary methods and have an ultrasound and a CA-125 screening each year, and do what you can to decrease the risk.

For more information, check out the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.

And for heaven’s sake, pay attention.

So… earlier this week, Angelina Jolie announced in a New York Times op-ed that she had had her ovaries removed because of her family history and BRAC1 gene mutation.

It’s about damn time.

Earlier this week, I was supposed to have my ovaries and all their accouterments removed as well, but unfortunately my surgery was postponed. It’s going to be a couple more months before it actually happens.

I am adjusting my calendar and my spreadsheets, and it’ll all work out. I’ll busy myself with the kids’ birthdays, Easter, and whatever else comes our way, and the new date will be here before we know it.

So… two weeks from now I will be uterus free and enjoying a luxurious stay in the hospital.

March 25 seemed like forever away when my surgery was scheduled in January, and now it’s approaching at light speed. I have so. much. to. do. Between work and home and everything in between, I don’t know how I am going to fit everything in.

I almost feel like I did when I was having a baby… the “it’s taking forever” and now “omg it’s almost here” feeling is the same, the instinct to have my house perfectly arranged beforehand (reverse nesting or something?)is the same, the preparation to be away from work for several weeks is the same, and the fact that it’s going to happen whether I’m ready or not is the same.

Except it’s like the complete opposite.

On the plus side, I should have much more uninterrupted sleep after the fact this time around!

I am totally rambling, I know. I am starting to feel really anxious about the whole ordeal and I don’t really know how to describe it. What’s going to happen seems very uncertain and unknown to me. I guess that’s why I constantly want to do something to prepare… I’m trying to organize the hell out of a situation I really just can’t control.

Do I sound completely crazy?