diagnosed at 25

I can't say our siruation is similar but I can tell what thing have been helping me. I was diagnosed with stage 4 terminal ovarian cancer that spread to my liver and spleen. I am 44 years old. The doctor did not seem to think I had much time to live at all. After discussing the options with my husband, we decided that I would not get surgery, chemo, or radiation. I have been here for more than 7 months since being diagnosed. I have felt great overall. Hospice comes to see me once a week (which means that the doctor that diagnosed me thought I had 6 months or less left to live). There are 2 main problems I have had. First, I had a blood clot in my leg. I gave myself injections for 15 days instead of the 30 days the doctor wanted me too. Plus, while I used the injections, the blood clot moved to one lung. The injections were more painful than the blood clots. I have read that Vitamin E dissolves blood clots so I took (2) 400 IU tablets a day. My blood clot thankfully went away. The other problem has been fluid buildup in my stomach. Because I did not get it drained enough, the fluid went into my legs also. This made it hard to walk most of the time. At first, I had to go to the hospital to have fluid drained every time. I then found out about the PluerX catheter. I was awake during that surgery and the pain was horrible for the first 48-72 hours. Thankfully that pain was only that bad when I sat up (using my abdomen muscles). Since getting the PluerX, my husband and I drain the fluid at home. Now that we got it under control, there is no more fluid in my legs and the fluid in my stomach is kept to a minimum. I am feeling great now. I can walk up and down stairs again. Recently, my hospice nurse and several other people have mentioned that my healthy color is back. I see my mom usually once a week and she said I look better every time she sees me. One thing that really seemed to helped in my healing was eating a vegan diet for several months. I had to go back to eating meat and poultry because I could not get enough protein otherwise. I hope some of this information helps in your decision making. Getting things removed is permant, where as making changes to your diet is not. A couple of things that I realized were that only God knows how long any of us will live and if He wants to take us Home, He will whether we get treatment or surgery or not. We will be praying for you.

Lostinthefog,

I am sorry. I did not have to let go of the cherished dream of natural motherhood as early as you might be doing, but can only say that due to cancer and other health problems and circumstances, I can relate to the extreme disappointment of life serving up something entirely different, unexpected and all-around traumatic.

I'm hoping that your husband is able to be a loving and supportive soulmate at this difficult time, and that you let yourself grieve. Everything NoTimeForCancer has suggested is wonderful advice.

sweetest_jewels said:

my situation is similar...

I recently just turned 26 and I feel as if to connect would mean that I also need to give a little back history. So... over the last 6 months I have been going to doctors. I have been losing blood and they don't know exaclty where is has been going. Well, my last doctors appointment didn't go so well at all. They realized that some of the missing blood had been pooling in my uterus for a while. I got married last year in August. My husband has two wonderful girls but I have none of my own. I want nothing more than to be a mother. Well, back in January I had what they thought was a miscarriage. I was shocked because I never once even realized that I was even pregnant. I felt like the world was taken from me then. When I went to see my doctor in March about my results of the blood work my doctor told me that he didn't think it was a true miscarriage. What my doctor referred to it as was a "natural abortion" (if he had to make his best guess because the results weren't clear) the difference in this and a miscarriage is this... a miscarriage usually results in a defect in the baby and the body rids it. A "natural abortion" is when there is something wrong with the mothers body and she is not going to be able to carry it. This is when the questions started coming... Why wasn't my body able to carry a baby? Why was my blood work messed up? With all this being said, what I thought was just a regular check-up turned into more. My white blood cell count is extremely high and has been for the last few months. The doctors are worried about it. A little back history of me would show that I have other medical issues as well. I have Poly-Cystis Ovarian Syndrome and a Liver Disease. My doctos said that mixed with me having PCOS, being overweight, having abnormal periods, a high white blood cell count, and a bleeding problem, all signs are pointing to pre-uterine cancer. I haven't been officially diagnosed with this yet but without any changes happening he has told me that I more than likely will develop it.

I know our situations are similar in some ways.. I am young and recently married. My husband didn't sign up for not having kids with me. My mom tries to help but she is always talking about how nice it would be if I could just have at least one kid. No one really understands the pain of knowing that you may never be able to hold a child that is your own. I literally cry at the fact it may never happen. I often ask why it had to happen to me. I see friends with their kids and I try to isolate myself from them because it hurts too bad to see others happy. I try not to be that way but it is just easier sometimes. 

sweetest, I am so sorry to hear your story.  I am glad to hear your doctors are concerned with a high white blood count and hope they can help you with getting that under control in the near future.  It does sound like you have some good doctors in your corner, and that is such a plus.

I also hope you can find someone to talk to to work things out - a neutral party who can listen to you and help you find your way.  In the meantime, maybe you can gently remind your mother that being healthy is your goal first. 

Hugs.  Please be kind to yourself.

sweetest_jewels said:

my situation is similar...

I recently just turned 26 and I feel as if to connect would mean that I also need to give a little back history. So... over the last 6 months I have been going to doctors. I have been losing blood and they don't know exaclty where is has been going. Well, my last doctors appointment didn't go so well at all. They realized that some of the missing blood had been pooling in my uterus for a while. I got married last year in August. My husband has two wonderful girls but I have none of my own. I want nothing more than to be a mother. Well, back in January I had what they thought was a miscarriage. I was shocked because I never once even realized that I was even pregnant. I felt like the world was taken from me then. When I went to see my doctor in March about my results of the blood work my doctor told me that he didn't think it was a true miscarriage. What my doctor referred to it as was a "natural abortion" (if he had to make his best guess because the results weren't clear) the difference in this and a miscarriage is this... a miscarriage usually results in a defect in the baby and the body rids it. A "natural abortion" is when there is something wrong with the mothers body and she is not going to be able to carry it. This is when the questions started coming... Why wasn't my body able to carry a baby? Why was my blood work messed up? With all this being said, what I thought was just a regular check-up turned into more. My white blood cell count is extremely high and has been for the last few months. The doctors are worried about it. A little back history of me would show that I have other medical issues as well. I have Poly-Cystis Ovarian Syndrome and a Liver Disease. My doctos said that mixed with me having PCOS, being overweight, having abnormal periods, a high white blood cell count, and a bleeding problem, all signs are pointing to pre-uterine cancer. I haven't been officially diagnosed with this yet but without any changes happening he has told me that I more than likely will develop it.

I know our situations are similar in some ways.. I am young and recently married. My husband didn't sign up for not having kids with me. My mom tries to help but she is always talking about how nice it would be if I could just have at least one kid. No one really understands the pain of knowing that you may never be able to hold a child that is your own. I literally cry at the fact it may never happen. I often ask why it had to happen to me. I see friends with their kids and I try to isolate myself from them because it hurts too bad to see others happy. I try not to be that way but it is just easier sometimes. 

sweetest_jewels

and yet another heart breaking story, but i agree with above suggestion, keep healthy. Having your own kids is great, but your number one goal is to be healthy and i feel like you have so much love to give. And yes there are kids out there that need to be loved. If you dont stop dwelling on the idea of never becoming a mom, eventually it will hurt you even more on other levels...

be thankful for what is now, until you have full diagnoses dont try to imagine things, that doesnt help much. I cried a lot when i found out about my mom cancer, plus recently we saw a genetic counsler and it might be even hereditary, very scary, going to do tests myself and my moms tumor is being tested out for dna ... Anyways, find support, lots of it, the only thing that helps in those crazy situations...

Hello lost in the fog

You are the first one ive read is younger than I. How are you doing? I think you may have odds on your side for recovery. Your a young girl. I must say i was quite surprised at my diagnoses as well. I was stage 3 and have had total hysterectomy with tubes and ovaries removed in may. Three of thirty lymph nodes came back positive (in my pelvis, not distant) and no metastasis. Im in day 3 post my first chemo treatment. I must say less scary than ive read or heard it can be. 

Lostinthefog,   I'm so sorry. I can't relate to being so young, but I know there are many on this site that know exactly what you are going through.  May God bless you and give you a wonderful future.