Intro

Hello Friends and Family!
Many of you are visiting this blog to follow along as I go through chemotherapy. For those of you who I haven't shared much with yet, this is how I got here:
I had a benign cyst called a mature teratoma or dermoid removed from my right ovary when I was 11 years old. That surgery also took my right ovary. I had been living my life like any other normal female over the past 16 years. I stopped using birth control medications in December 2009 secondary to the headaches. I then went approximately 3 months without having a period. Compounded with have diffuse GI symptoms concerned me. So, I went to see the doctor. I had some tests done. And...they found another teratoma on my left ovary. (I thought that was my good ovary??) My original thought (after the tears ended) was concern as to whether or not I would be able to keep my only left ovary. I need it to have children. So, all the fertility questions quickly went through Jonathan and my minds. We met with a gynecologist and a gynecology oncologist to see who would be the best to do the surgery. Both doctors agreed that the tumor could be removed and leave my ovary behind. Yeah!! So, I had surgery on May 11th and my surgeon was optimistic that everything was "A OK". During surgery that take a small sample of the tumor and look at it under a microscope- called a frozen section. My frozen section looked benign. So we all thought this was the same thing I had 16years ago-rare. Then I got a phone call from the doctor saying I needed to see the gynecology oncologist. Turns out that when the doctors looked at all of my tumor under the microscope, it was an immature teratoma which is malignant- even rarer.

To clarify, I had a immature teratoma removed from my left ovary that is a rare type of malignant ovarian cancer. It has been removed. However, this type of malignancy is very aggressive when it recurs. But, it is highly susceptible to chemotherapy.

So, the next step is to start chemotherapy. At this point, I'm scheduled to start chemo on June 1st. I will be receiving 3 different medications via infusions. The schedule is to receive the medications over 3 days and then off for 3 weeks. The multiply that x3 (for 3 cycles). Then I'll be finished.

Join me here for my thoughts as I go through this process.