My Ovarian Cancer Journey

People keep asking if my hair was curly before... Or if it was a different color.  The straight hair was last year when I cut it before it fell out from chemo. The curly hair is today...  Safe to say my hair wasn't curly before 🤣 It might have had a little wave, but not like the curls I have now...  The color is basically the same. I didn't color it before, and I don't color it now. I might do some purple soon, especially if it seems like we will have to buzz it again.

So this isn't really the post I wanted to make, but it is what it is...  The ovarian cancer has returned (or it never fully went away). We had a little warning before I went on my Taiwan/Japan trip, but the numbers now confirm it. The CA 125 number from this past Friday was 229...  Since the result came back Saturday morning, I had to wait until Monday to find out what the oncologist and surgeon wanted to do. They decided to start with chemo and see how it responds. We will do 3 different drugs - 1 is the same as before, with 2 new ones now. It will be a 3 week cycle, and we will start with 4-6 rounds to see what happens. Week 1 is all 3 drugs, week 2 is 1 drug, and week 3 is off. Then we start the cycle all over.  It still needs to be scheduled, but we are aiming to start next Friday (I want to do Fridays again since it gives me the weekend to recover with (usually) no plans). Additional surgery isn't ruled out, but we will wait for now.  I will also go in for a P...

So it has been a long while since I've posted about my ovarian cancer. I guess I didn't want to because I've been trying not to think about it on my trip...  My hair is growing, and it's getting curlier 😳 I don't really like the curls, and they really come out when I'm all sweaty 😜 which is all the time in Taiwan 🤣 I look back at photos from my last trip to Taiwan and Japan in late Jan, early Feb and I didn't really have any hair...  So here it goes... I get blood work done every 6 weeks with visits with the oncologist or his PA every time. I see my surgeon or her PA every few months for a physical exam (think your annual gyno exam, but I get one every few months). Since I no longer have any internal female organs (ovaries, tubes, uterus and cervix), I don't need pap smears anymore and no more periods 🤣 But I'm in menopause 😕 They also removed some lymph nodes during surgery, so they are always checking for swelling. I've been fine so far...