New here

Hi my name is Kim and I'm looking to connect with other ovarian cancer folks. I'm 33 and was diagnosed Nov 20.

My whole story, it is rather long: I moved to thailand in Jan of 2009. I started having dizziness and lightheadedness. Sudden constipation followed by chronic diarrhea. Very fatigued. I came home in summer of 2009 and was hospitalized for anemia. I decided to go back to thailand for treatment as my husband was there and it was close to the time for my son's new school year to start. I saw many doctors over the next 6 months. I still had chronic diarrhea and my hemoglobin was still struggling. After being told I had food poisoning over and over, I finally saw the best GI doc in thailand and was diagnosed with colon cancer in Feb 2010. I came back to ohio for surgery at osu. Stage 2. I chose not to do chemo and went back to thailand. July of 2010, I was diagnosed with lynch syndrome. I never really recovered from my colon resection. In oct of 2010, I had a colonoscopy which showed the internal anastamosis was not healing. By March of 2011, I could no longer get out of bed. I had another colon resection in thailand in March 2011. I finally started to feel better. At the time of my resection CA 125 was checked as part of my annual bloodwork recommended by my geneticist. It was 125. I debated having a hysterectomy at the same time but my gyn oncologist felt it was likely due to the inflammation in my abdomen. So I declined to have the hysterectomy. By July 2011, I'm having trouble pooping again. I start freaking about reoccurence of colon cancer. We were moving back so I waited until we got back to the US to seek treatment. In Sept 2011, I made an appointment for my annual gyn checkup. Pap smear, uterine biopsy, and vaginal ultrasound as recommended by the geneticist. And another CA125. Vaginal ultrasound revealed a cyst on the right ovary and CA 125 was now 210. I scheduled the hysterectomy. And had a ct to take another look at right ovary. Saw my new oncologist who wasn't impressed but agreed a hysterectomy was the way to go. I had my hysterectomy on Nov 16. The plan was to send the ovary to pathology while I was in surgery. If malignent, they would proceed to take more samples and the nodes. It came back benign. My surgeons found endometriosis everywhere. It had adhered my bladder to my uterus and was wrapped around my colon. My gyn felt it was a good explanation for all my symptoms. 3 days later, the final pathology report reveals there was cancer in that right ovary. Clear cell. I was devestated, especially because we didn't have the nodes. Peritoneal washings were done and were negative but the cyst burst when taking it out. So I am staged clinically 1C. We didn't go back for the nodes. I started Carbo/taxol dec 7. I get carbo/taxol one week followed by two weeks of just taxol and then start over again. I am scheduled for 6 cycles. I missed dec 21 because my neutrophils were too low and now I'm on neupogen 3 days a week following chemo.

The chemo is killing me. I hate it. I literally feel like I am being brought to the brink of death every week. Anyone else been on this regimen of carbo/taxol? I'm thinking of asking for just the carbo/taxol every 3 weeks. The weekly regimen gives me hardly any time to recover.

Thanks for reading and I hope to find some new friends. I joined a colon cancer survivor site when I was diagnosed the first time and it was very helpful. I'm hoping to find some support and comraderie in my new journey.