A MESSAGE FROM DR. LARRY MAXWELL As a gynecologic oncologist, my life is similar to others in my profession and involves clinical activities, administrative obligations, education related responsibilities and research efforts. After losing my grandmother to ovarian cancer several years ago, I recognized an opportunity to diversify my contributions to my profession further through advocacy. [...]
PHANTOMS Originally posted on ovariancancerisnothing.wordpress.com I've felt all the pinpricks in the last two weeks, piercing and throbbing from things no longer there. I keep wondering if it's the way I've been sleeping on my side or because we reinstalled the three-inch memory foam topper we haven't used in two years. When I called my oncologist's [...]
REGAINING CONTROL THROUGH KNOWLEDGE Like so many other baby boomers, I was raised by parents born in the 1920s who believed that there were certain authority figures you did not question - parents, teachers, doctors. These were experts and you accepted what they said without question. When I was five years old the doctor said [...]
THINKING BEYOND RIBBONS: HOW THIS TEAL GAL SURVIVES PINKTOBER When I returned to work in late 2004 after first-line treatment for ovarian cancer, a coworker said to me, “Welcome back! You’re wearing the wrong ribbon—it should be pink.” I remember thinking, “How presumptuous! Like women don’t get other cancers.” In retrospect, it was the first [...]
RAIDHO I’m of Scandinavian heritage and I’ve always been fascinated by old Norse mythology and the old alphabet called runes. When I was diagnosed with cancer I adopted the Norse rune “Raidho” as my personal symbol and the phrase “we can’t always choose our journey . . . . but we can choose how we [...]
MIRRORS AND WINDOWS A few weeks ago I read this quote by Rudine Sims Bishop. “Books are sometimes windows, offering views of world… When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror… Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books.” I started to [...]
CONSUMING THE DARKNESS AFTER CANCER Originally posted on ovariancancerisnothing.wordpress.com It had been a while since I’d cried that hard – that honestly. This blog post has been rolling around my mind like a marble clanking on the side of a plastic cup. I sat on the bathroom floor hugging my husband two days before the [...]
DON'T SAY YOU'RE SORRY, PLEASE JUST DO BETTER Miserable with abdominal bloating and fatigue and following an ultrasound and a CT scan, I found myself being examined by a gynecologist who stopped mid-exam and said "I am 99% confident you have ovarian cancer and women die from that." He walked out of the room without [...]
HOOKED ON RESEARCH I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2004. The first four years were pretty rough. I recurred – twice. I underwent three major surgeries, and with the last I had part of my liver removed. I went through five therapy regimens and participated in a vaccine phase I clinical trial. I have [...]
WHY ANOTHER COMMUNITY FOR WOMEN WITH OVARIAN CANCER? If you are someone whose life has been affected by ovarian cancer you are likely asking yourself: "Why another community for women with ovarian cancer?" There are already several support and advocacy groups and numerous forums on social media where women share their experiences, ask questions and [...]
