On Friday, February 13, 2015, I was an active 39 year old mom with an 8 year old son and 10 year old daughter when I was blindsided by a diagnosis of high grade serous ovarian cancer. I had no risk factors or family history of the disease and as such, my OB-GYN describes me as “every Doctor’s worst nightmare.
I was recently diagnosed with stage IC ovarian cancer and would love to share my story. My story is rare in the fact that I found the cancer at stage IC and I am a firm believer that having things checked and listening to your body saved my life. Thank you for listening.
In March 2017, my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and my life inevitably changed from that point onwards. Looking back, I can almost draw a line and split my life into two parts: the first part, where I never really knew much about cancer and how it can affect your life, and the second part, where a completely different lifestyle consumed me, with the impact of cancer on relationships, work, and finances.
At 36 years old, a part-time single mom of two young children, the last thing Randalynn saw coming was a cancer diagnosis, let alone one with “ovarian” in front of it. Knowing she would have been doing women a lot of injustice if she didn’t use her voice to tell her story and create awareness around this deadly disease that whispers, she has used social media and her blog as a platform to do both things, along with creating a sense of community for ovarian cancer survivors around the globe.
I still remember the conversation I had with my mother Marguerite in January 2009 as if it was yesterday. At that time I lived in Dallas, Texas and my mother was at our home in Queens, New York.
My hope in sharing my story is to encourage women to trust their intuition and act on it when something doesn’t seem right with their body--even when symptoms might be brushed off by the medical experts, like physicians assistants & even some physicians.
On June 8, 2013, SHARE's Ovarian Cancer Helpline Coordinator, Andrea Herzberg, presented her story with the featured expert and survivor panelists at a free educational course offered by The Foundation for Women's Cancer's. The transcript of her speech is below.
I always knew that someday I would hear the words "you have cancer." My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 44 in 1973, and was treated by having a radical mastectomy. She looked like the famous NY Times magazine cover. The following year she had a reoccurrence in the remaining breast tissue and at that time went through radiation.
On the morning of my birthday in December 2003, I looked into the mirror and thought to myself, "Damn, forty looks good on me!" Six months later I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
I had symptoms for nine months and never thought that it could be cancer.
Something was definitely wrong. In April 1998, I began experiencing recurring bouts of fever, diarrhea, and fatigue. I made repeated calls to my internist to report my symptoms. Each time, I was told I was sick again because I was a teacher and was around a lot of students with germs.
