I remember having my first symptoms back in July of last year (2004). Well, back then, I didn't know they were symptoms of Ovarian Cancer. I noticed I was getting frequent heart burn, acid indigestion, acid reflux, bloating, and my stomach felt hard (but not 6pack hard). I remember mentioning it to a few people about how uncomfortable my stomach was feeling. I took Pepcid to treat these symptoms. I figured it was my diet. So I cut down on my food intake and started trying to eat healthier, cut down on the fried foods, I exercised and swam twice a week. Each month, my discomforts were there but I ignored them. I tried different medicines like Mylanta, Gas-x, Tums. At the same time, I noticed my periods were becoming irregular. I started getting them twice a month. Some times just for a few days, then the regular 7 days. Around this time, I was going through some stuff in my life that was stressing me out. I thought my symptoms were related to stress. By November, I did consider getting it checked out but it was so close to the holidays that I didn't want to ruin my holiday if there was something wrong. By December I lost some inches to my body. People noticed that I was losing weight and I dropped a pant size. But, my stomach was still pudgy. I started doing more exercises to target the abs. I told myself after the holidays,I'd go see a doctor.

In December, I got an opportunity to move up in my job and they sent me to Anaheim for training in January. I again, postponed my trip to the doctors. At this time, I was having a hard time walking without holding my stomach and eating was hard because i'd get full really fast.

I decided to wait until February to get myself checked out because February was our open enrollment at work for our benefits. I wanted to change my co-pays from $25 to $10. I finally made an appointment to get myself checked out. Because I don't have a regular doctor, I saw a nurse practitioner. I told her my symptoms. First thing she asked me about was stress. I told her I had been undergoing a bit of stress in my life. She listened to my stomach, ordered some blood work and prescribed me Pepcid to take 2xs a day and started talking about ways to relieve stress. She also suggested taking a mind body class which teaches ways to relieve stress. I went home, started the Pepcid, joined that class, and continued on my diet. This nurse told me that I should notice a change within a few days. My blood work came back normal. Feb. 27 I had my 29th birthday. By the next week, I was still in a lot of discomfort; actually I noticed it was getting worse. My clothes weren't fitting any more. My stomach got bigger. And I hadn't had a period since December. I called and made another appointment, this time it was a different nurse. At the same time, I made an appointment with an OB/GYN to check out why I wasn't getting my periods. I saw the nurse first. I told her that this was my second time coming in and it was getting worse. This time I told her that my stomach was distended and firm. This nurse took me more serious. She laid me down and felt my stomach. She then got concerned because she said she could definitely feel something wrong. She ordered more blood work and a stool sample (I never want to do that again) and told me I needed a CT scan. I told her that I was seeing a ob/gyn the next day for my missed periods. So she told me to take my lab slip to him incase he wants more blood work done. The next day, I saw the ob/gyn. I told him my symptoms and told him I had already seen 2 nurses and the reason why I came to see him was for my missed periods. He felt my stomach and knew right away I needed an ultrasound. That's when it was discovered; mutli-cyst on my ovary. He couldn't really see a lot, there was so much fluid around everything was black. He also did a vaginal sonogram but couldn't see my ovary. He got me the CT scan the next day and ordered more blood work. I have never had so much blood taken out of me. The people at the laboratory were surprised to see practically every kind of test was checked off on the list.
I went back the next day to get the CT scan. They make you drink 2 bottles of banana flavored barium smoothie. One of the worst tasting things you can imagine. I could bearly get it down. I got there at about 10:30AM. There were 3 other people ahead of me. By my 2nd bottle I was ready to gag. And it gave me diarrhea. It was about 12PM already. They were having problems with the CT machine. Since I already drank my barium, they sent me to the Fremont Kaiser. They laid me on a bed, with this big circular thing by my feet. I was scared, I didn't know what to expect. They hooked me up to an IV line with what looked like a big glass syringe. The bed passes back and forth through the tube. I'm looking up, and there's this red laser with a sign next to it that says "Do not look directly at light." So I'm trying not to look. At the same time, there's a man's voice telling me to "breathe in… hold your breath" with a little animated face that lights up with his cheeks puffed out like he's holding his breath. The machine passes through my chest a few times, telling me to exhale and breathe in. The technician comes back and tells me he's now going to inject this contrast into me through the IV and it's going to feel warm. It felt really weird. I felt this warm sensation run through my body straight down to my toes and unusually between my legs. Again, the guy tells me to hold my breathe and breath out. This only took about 10 mins, but it felt longer. A few days later, I got the results of my CT scan, and my ob/gyn tells me I will need surgery to remove the tumor. It took almost 2 weeks to schedule my surgery. I actually ended up in the ER before they schedule the surgery because I was having a hard time breathing. After another CT scan and chest x-ray, they found the tumor fluid was filling up around my lungs. I believe it was because of this that I got them to schedule my surgery sooner. My tumor was 22x20x11cm large. That's about the size of a large grape fruit. This tumor was so large it pushed my stomach up and intestines back which resulted in all those stomach problems. Who would have known all these stomach symptoms was the results of my ovary.