Safe!

This will be a short post. Just got the call from Dr. Urban.  I won't lie, my stomach flipped a couple of times as I answered the phone. She called with fantastic news, the pathologist found no abnormal or cancerous cells! Kelly and I are so relieved and happy.  Even though I am still recovering, I may need a glass of champagne to toast the news.  You can never have enough good news, and should never miss an opportunity to celebrate!

Rest, rest, rest...

My Surgery on Friday went well.  Dr. Urban removed my right ovary and Fallopian tube laproscopically as planned. While performing the surgery she did not see anything that she felt looked suspicious.  The frozen sections evaluated during surgery looked normal. All good news.  My surgery took about 2 hours. After surgery, I felt pretty nauseated, which is to be expected.  I slept a bit and Kelly picked up my prescriptions. I stayed in recovery until about 2:30. Once I could get up, walk around, use the restroom, I was discharged. Long drive home in traffic.  Since then I have been recovering at home, lots of couch time.  The pain was pretty intense the first couple of days, 4 incisions through abdominal muscles make almost everything difficult. Each day I feel a bit better.  Today after showering and getting dressed, however, I took a step backwards. Feeling pain, dizzy and nauseated. Time to lay down again. We are still waiting for the biopsy results from the pathologist, hoping to hear soon, thinking positively of course.

Heather

A planned surgery is better

We met with a team of Doctors yesterday, led by Dr. Urban. A gynecology oncologist. After reviewing my scans, performing an exam and a lot of discussion we have a plan for surgery. Dr. Urban feels that she will probably be removing benign tissue, but thinks it prudent to do so given my medical history. Dr. Urban will be able to evaluate the nature of these tissues (benign or malignant) during the surgery. If there is any cancerous tissue we change to plan 2, which is the removal of substantially more tissue, which require a more invasive surgery. We are feeling confident and positive. We know that we are in expert hands. Surgery is scheduled today at 5:30am aat UWMC. It is now 5:04. We better get to the hospital. Heather

There's only one way to know for sure

It is ironic that as I walked the Survivor lap at the Relay for Life last Friday I started to have some abdominal pain. I thought I just had a little stomach ache, not too unusual. My discomfort, however, lasted through the weekend. By Monday, I started to realize that this was a feeling I had felt before. This was the same pain/discomfort that I had last summer that we didn't know the origin of until I ended up in the emergency room. Based on ultrasound findings, it appears that I may have another ovarian cyst, or cysts. With my history of melanoma in my left ovary, melanoma is suspected in these cysts on my remaining right ovary. We will be returning to SCCA this Thursday for another scan, a consult/pre-op, and pre-anesthesia appointments. I will, almost certainly, have surgery on Friday to have a procedure called a bilateral salpingo oophorectomy (surgery to remove my right ovary and both fallopian tubes). These will be biopsied to determine if there is melanoma present. I have no idea, at this point, how we will proceed if there is any cancer present. We are feeling optimistic. I will be in expert hands at the SCCA and UWMC. I have beaten the odds so far and I don't intend to quit anytime soon!