“We noticed that the pain was worse depending on which part of my cycle I was on. If I was menstruating or ovulating, it was much worse. Just a couple of days after returning from the trip, I was headed for surgery. It was a rough recovery because the surgery ended up being long and invasive. The mass had grown to about the size of a grapefruit, and I’m pretty petite, so you could see it protruding.”
“Following the surgery, I was kept in the dark about some things. At my follow-up appointment, the doctor said we needed to talk about the pathology report. And that’s when she said the ‘C word’; I believe it was a stage 1C carcinoma. That was probably the first panic attack I’d had. They shuffled us around the hospital to talk to several specialists that day, but it was really just my parents and doctors talking about what would happen to me while I cried. I now know my parents had some inkling that the surgery wasn’t totally normal before that day, but I was in total shock.
My case was rare, so the doctors had to have video conferences with other specialists before deciding on a treatment plan. My case was presented at grand rounds. I was on chemotherapy for 4 months, and in and out with specialists and getting scans for the better part of a year.
Without going into too much detail, the chemo was absolutely awful. The worst thing about it all was the severe anxiety and panic attacks I’d get, where I’d even experience phantom pain where I’d had it before, and convince myself they were going to find something at my next scan. This is still an abbreviated version of the story, but I’m healthy now, 10 years later.”