ROLLER COASTER RIDE

JOURNEY HAD BEGUN

The days that followed were really busy with tests, scans and appointments. I am so fortunate to be in Boston where we have one of the best hospitals in US. I was referred to Mass General Hospital by the surgeon who did my gall bladder surgery. Initially they thought my cancer is far more advanced than it was staged so I got the chief of gynecology oncology as my oncologist. So grateful to God for giving me such an amazing doctor!! The process of getting appointments and tests were seamless, everything was taken care of by the hospital. After the scan results came, I was diagnosed with metastatic High-grade Stage IIIc Endometrioid Ovarian Cancer[1] . Metastatic means the cancer has spread to the other parts of the body. High grade[2] means they grow and spread quickly.

CANCER SURGERY

A week later, that is 2 weeks after my gall bladder surgery on September 2nd, I had a major cytoreductive surgery including radical abdominal hysterectomy, omentectomy, diaphragm peritonectomy and resection of posterior culdesac peritoneum. woh, woh woh.... big medical terms , basically had a major surgery that took about 5 hours to remove any visible cancer. My abdomen was cut from diaphragm till the pubic bone. I had 35+ staples....Yes, I counted them!! I don't even remember the number of times I have been pricked to draw blood or was in pain. At those times I used to remember Jesus carrying the cross to Golgotha and his crucifixion that pain used to feel nothing compared to that. After the surgery I never thought I would walk again. I stayed in the hospital for 10 days, had to relearn everything like 'even to walk again'. I can't even describe the happiness I felt with every step I took. The hospital made sure that I can take care of myself before they discharged me. Was so happy that I didn't need someone to help me with things back at home.

PORT PLACEMENT PROCEDURE

On October 5th 2020, I had a procedure to implant a port[3] that connects to large vein near my chest, its better alternative to give chemo than through an IV on the arm because the port is connected to the main vein. From what heard and read, when you give IV through a vein on the hand it's very strong for those veins to handle strong chemo drugs and also the veins need to be access often for blood tests and scans so they could get damged.