11.21.2008 maintenance

I'm feeling much better now, thank you for all the good wishes!

Muffy sent email including the following: If I receive no satisfaction in this matter, I will fly out there and put my black witch shoe up your white Finnish ass. You are loved FAR too much by FAR too many to not get this sorted out, Miss Bee. Including myself. DO IT. Please.

To satisfy her, and also encourage the rest of you to attend to such matters, here is my Ovarian Maintenance Regimen:

*CA-125 blood tests four times per year, without fail.

*Pelvic aka transvaginal ultrasound, annually. When busy, at least every eighteen months, though I generally need a minder to make sure I get to the dreaded appointment.

*Reasonable attention to hints, including abdominal pain, puffiness about the abdomen (mine is both delightedly lavish and hacked up by scars so it is hard to notice new things.... but when you suddenly do not fit daily clothing options in a weird way, that is a clue), general unease.

Yeah, I know, vague. That is why they offered me an oophorectomy at age twenty-six. My rare genetic disorder includes an unknown but heightened statistical chance of developing the cancer - my history of radiation during previous cancer treatment raises the odds - and I've had significant problems with cysts since age thirteen. Whichever cancer is gonna get me in the end, ovarian is in the lead, if you are a betting person.

If you are at risk of developing this particular form of cancer, there are no reliable warning signs, until you are essentially the walking dead. At risk?

Take the tests

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