Mother-in-law diagnosed with ovarian CA

Welcome
Welcome to the forum. Your Mom is getting the gold standard as far as chemo goes. Are they increasing the amounts of steriods and slowing the drip down..sometimes that helps when there is a reaction. The stages are decided by where the cancer has gone to like the lymph nodes I believe will make you a stage 3. Most of us are stage 3c as this is a sneacky disease that mimics so many other diseases or illnesses that it has progressed too far by the time the Dr. start looking for cancer. I hope you Mom makes it through the next 2 cycles with better responses.~~~Joanne

WELCOME
Cali:
How wonderful of you to research this for your mother-in-law. I also had carbo/taxol my first occurrance (6 rounds). Second round of my recurrance I developed an allergic reaction to the Taxol, and it was switched to Taxotere. I don't know if they can try the reverse in this situation. I also had steroids the night before, Benadryl in IV just before chemo, more steroids, then chemo, then oral steroids again that night. Drip was extremely slow (over 7 hours) to minimize allergic reactions. With only a couple more to go, I wonder if they can try those methods to help her out.

I would be also confused about the staging. Maybe she or you can get more definitive answers. It helps for future reference.

We'd love for your MIL to visit us also. But you come back anytime, too. Till then, sending lots of luv, hugs and prayers to all of you!

Monika

my mom diagnosed with Ovarian CA
I am searching about ovarian CA, and found this site. I am extremely terrified when my mom was diagnosed with ovarian ca last friday (jan. 23) she underwent immediate debulking last wed (jan. 27) anf found out she had stage 3. It was so horrible and I am so scared that I might lose her anytime soon.

She will start her chemo in two to three weeks as soon as she recovers from the surgery. I don't know what to expect and what to think right now.

If someone could share their experienced in regards to this situation, please do so.
Thanks alot.

Izza

liez74 said:

my mom was diagnosed too last Friday, Jan 30.
Izza,

You and I are feeling the same too. I brought my mom to ER last Friday due to swelling of abdomen. We found out it's ascites (3liters) and was sent for tests in addition with her blood sample.

ER doctor initially diagnosed it as mestatasized cancer. We will meet with Oncologist tomorrow for results and plans for staging.

I was devastated. I even thought the worst possible things that could happen to her in a few days, months and years. In addition to cancer, my mom is uninsured. She is an immigrant for two years now and have been helping to take care of my 3 year old daughter. We can't afford to get her an insurance that would insure her since she is diabetic. It's like two baseball bats beat me real hard last Friday.

I want to learn if someone underwent cancer treatment without insurance but with the help of financial assistance.

I would love to hear from anyone.

Liz

New Ones
First welcome to our discussion group. You have found a great place for information and support.
Second, I would suggest you start your on thread in this group by goint to the list of topics and in the upper left top click on "start a new topic". You can click on my picture and read about my journey of 22 months...treatments and surgery. I am on Medicare+supplemental insurance and only know about that.
I am Stage IV with mestatasis to the liver, spleen, colon and other places probably. If you start your own threads we can answer better as you are on a post of several months old and it may not be checked.
Come back soon with your questions. (((Hugs and thanks for being there for your Moms.)) Saundra

liez74 said:

my mom was diagnosed too last Friday, Jan 30.
Izza,

You and I are feeling the same too. I brought my mom to ER last Friday due to swelling of abdomen. We found out it's ascites (3liters) and was sent for tests in addition with her blood sample.

ER doctor initially diagnosed it as mestatasized cancer. We will meet with Oncologist tomorrow for results and plans for staging.

I was devastated. I even thought the worst possible things that could happen to her in a few days, months and years. In addition to cancer, my mom is uninsured. She is an immigrant for two years now and have been helping to take care of my 3 year old daughter. We can't afford to get her an insurance that would insure her since she is diabetic. It's like two baseball bats beat me real hard last Friday.

I want to learn if someone underwent cancer treatment without insurance but with the help of financial assistance.

I would love to hear from anyone.

Liz

Diagnosed while uninsured
Dear Liz,

I too was diagnosed when I was uninsured. The company I had worked for closed up, ending the insurance I had through them, and I was looking for a new job. I found out that the "social safety net" works for citizens who are completely destitute.

The hospital I was in had people called "patient advocates" who had information on all the various programs that are out there. At first, I was really too ill to cope with all the various application procedures, but my sister became my advocate and handled a lot of it for me. You can probably do the same for your mom. I was helped by a charitable foundation until I could get qualified for Medicaid. I don't know if immigrants are eligible for medicaid. It might depend on what State you are in. It helps if the patient does not own a house or sny other valuable assets (stocks, 401k, etc.) Those assets would get used up first before the patient becomes eligible for charities or Medicaid.

While looking around and applying for help, we got some very scary bills from the hospital. If this happens to you, don't panic. We called the billing office, told them what we were doing about the situation and arranged to make minimum payments until we could get into a suitable program. It took months to completely resolve the situation, but the hospital was very understanding and willing to work with us and the quality of care I received did not suffer at all.

The financial aspect of this disease can be almost as hard to survive as the medical aspects, but we are fighters and we can get through it with the help of our families and friends. I can't overstate the importance of calling the people who send you bills and explaining the situation to them. Doctors and hospitals have seen it all before and they will work with you if you keep the lines of communication open. I know how embarrassing it is to get to a place where you can't take care of yourself or your loved ones after a lifetime of independence, but I had to admit that this disease was more than I could handle by myself.

I'm going to re-post this in a new thread as Saundra suggested. I'm sure there are others here who can share similar experiences and may have ideas that I didn't think of.

Best wishes to your mother and all of your family. You have what we used to call "a tough row to hoe" but there is help for you out there. It may just take a while to find it.

Edwina