I had never given a thought to ovarian cancer, and why would I? When it comes to gynecological cancers you hear about breast cancer all the time, uterine cancer, and cervical cancer when you go for your annual Pap smear, but you never hear much at all about ovarian cancer. I think it's getting a little more noticed these days but several years ago I really didn't give it a thought.

I'm sure I probably heard the words before at some point but until I was diagnosed with stage 2 ovarian cancer I was pretty ignorant of signs and symptoms and had no idea what to look for. Not to mention I was a very healthy person - rarely even got the flu or colds - and the last thing I expected to hear from my doctor was the dreaded word, "cancer."

As it turned out, I had probably been having early warning signs for some time, possibly years, but I attributed them all as just regular old signs of getting a little older (but not that old! I was only 43) and entering that time in life where different things start to bother you or basically fall apart, kind of like a car that is reaching the end of your warranty. You know how that goes, your warranty runs out and you're in the repair shop every other week.

So I had been having very typical symptoms and had no idea, symptoms such as indigestion (never had that before), bloating, change in menstrual periods (heavier), and some pelvic pain shortly after my periods. The pelvic discomfort/painIt was really a strange symptom I thought because it wasn't right along with that time of the month but several days after. But then it would go away and I would just figure, you know, getting older, et cetera.

But then I started having this annoying leg pain. It was sort of a radiating pain, so I figured it must be something to do with a nerve. I have a little medical knowledge so I thought, could it be some sort of back issue like sciatica? No, I didn't think so, because it didn't follow the usual M.O. for that type of nerve pain. Instead of being alleviated by rest it was alleviated by getting up and walking. Maybe a muscle strain? How about fibroids? Yes, that was it, I decided, fibroids. I went online and researched all the symptoms and everything added up! A huge fibroid must be pressing on my sciatic nerve and causing this intolerably aggravating leg pain. I made an appointment with my gynecologist and she agreed, yes, that must be it. Whew, great, nothing that serious to worry about.

My gynecologist sent me for an ultrasound where a large mass was seen, so I was immediately sent to a gynecologic oncologist. This was extremely scary but I was reassured by hearing this is the best person for any type of GYN problems (not only cancer but anything abnormal) that are out of the norm because these doctors are very specialized. However, it is very scary to be sitting in the oncologist's office wondering if you may have cancer. You look around the waiting room and see all the obvious chemotherapy patients, and it's quite overwhelming.

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