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Thank you, you're so lovely! It's a whole lot easier to not freak out when something like this happens if you just stay positive. Also if anyone is bad at staying in touch with people, it's me! There are a lot of people who I've missed for ages so I'd love you to say hi :)
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Is it Orchid? If it's Orchid do I win a prize? If it's not Orchid do I get thrown into the cardboard compactor thingy or something equally funsies? :o
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Gosh I have no idea. Yeah probably. Part of me gets all broody and would like to have biological kids and the other part is like "it's okay, there are plenty of ways to have kids without directly involving your ovaries and stuff". So yeah, I'm still kinda okay with all that. And much love to you at HBS, you are all fab :)
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I can be grumpy or I can be happy, it's fairly clear to me which one of those sounds like more fun. Simples! And thank you :)
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I am an Ellie! You are amazing for leaving me nice things in my Formspring <3
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Thank you, and that is exactly how I'm dealing with this, 12 weeks of do-not-want that will be over very soon! Race for Life is awesome, I hope I'll be up to doing it myself. Hope you have an amazing time!
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Don't you go calling yourself "just a number"!
Facebook is doing a great job of making people worry about me recently, going off to uni means I've fallen out of touch with way too many people and fb has vanished me off people's feeds. Then I pop up all like "oh hai chemo sucks" and people are going "wait WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?!". Silly facebook...
Anyway, thank you very much for lovely lovely words :) -
The optimistic answer to that is "maybe". I'm having injections that shut my ovaries down, to protect the actual healthy tissue from getting wapped by the chemo. I have no idea how this works but apparently it does. No ovary activity = no hormones = menopausal at the age of 19 which is barrels of fun.
Anyway, if things go according to plan, the chemo sees the cancer off, then they take me off the injections and my ovaries miraculously grow back and maybe I can have babies, or at least not be stuck on HRT for the rest of my life. And if that doesn't work, it's not great but it's not the end of the world I guess.
BTW, apologies to anyone who feels like they are getting spammed by my constant formspringing, I'm just posting these up everywhere because these are anons and I cannae tell where to direct my responses! -
Thank you m'dear. I wouldn't say I'm being particularly courageous, I'm just rolling with the punches? Anyway, HELL YES I'M GONNA. :D
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I've never been an ill person. Ever. And then I got to uni and came down with a water infection. I thought "oops, probably overdid it on the alcohol, sorry kidneys!", took a course of antibiotics and got on with my life. Then it happened again, and again, and by the 4th time I was like "body, wtf!". I'd also been getting tired. But unfortunately if you go to the GP when you are a student and you tell them you are tired you pretty much get told to go get more sleep. Bugger off and come back when you have real health problems...
Even though I've had a bit of a track record for being a lazy ass, finding myself unable to make the 20 minute bike ride home some days was...worrying.
On water infection number 4 or something I decided to get a proper doctor's appointment (because until now I'd been going to nurses cos that got me antibiotics quicker). And I told her about being tired and the water infections and she felt my tummy and said "I think you have a bit of a lump in your tummy". Wasn't given any more information than that, but came out with an urgent gynae checkup appointment for the next week. The gynaecologist told me that this "lump" that I'd assumed to be like...the size of a big grape or something was more like the size of a 16 week pregnancy. Or a mango. And two ultrasounds and an MRI later, I was sat in her office with my mum being told that I have a thing called germ cell tumour. After that there was a bit of confusion because they couldn't tell whether I had germ cell or lymphoma, but that was solved with a biopsy (they're not fun, very big needles involved).
Just as a side thing, I have been very lucky with all this. Ovarian cancer is very hard to spot because the symptoms are so incredibly vague. I am very thankful that GP took me seriously.
TL;DR: Got ill, GP found a lump, mucho scans and bam I'm getting chemo. -
Somewhere between 80-90% so long as things go well :)
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Thank you m'dear :) Stages indicate where the cancer has spread. Stage four means that it has spread to an area or system away from where it originated. In my case my lymph nodes. I know of one tumour in my neck, and I have trace amounts all over my lymphatic system. The chemo should work on those tumours too though :)
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Glad that you're glad! This is one thing that keeps me happy. The chemo to see it off isn't the most awesome thing in the world but at least there are nice things like that to keep in mind :)
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I have something called Germ Cell tumour of the ovary, specifically dysgerminoma, and it's stage IV because it has spread to my lymph nodes. About 500 women a year get diagnosed with dysgerminoma in the UK. And yeah, it clearly shouldn't have picked me :P
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Mayfairs followed by B+H silvers mostly for about a year or 2. Wasn't ever a big smoker, only had about 3 a day at the most and maybe a pack on a night out. Switched to rolling with Drum in uni to save money.
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Stopped, pretty much the day I found out I was ill. I guess it's an ideal time as any to quit really?
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Ellie Cohen
Nottingham
Ellie Cohen’s Bio
Hello thar.
