Martha’s Battle

A few years ago my Aunt Martha was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. She was only 41 years old. This came only 8 years after my great aunt had beaten breast cancer. She had been 59 when she was diagnosed.

When she was first diagnosed we had no idea how bad it was. I was living over 6 hours away so it wasn’t like I was able to just ‘drop in’ and be there for her. That was hard. She’s always been like my 2nd mother. When we finally got a grasp on everything, we realized that the cancer was manageable – the doctor believed that he could get it all. The only catch was that he was going to have to take her uterus. She was devastated. She had 2 boys already – one was in college and one was in middle school, but she had always wanted a little girl.

My mom was able to be with her when she came out of the surgery. She came through it well, but was an emotional wreck. I can’t even imagine what it must feel like to be in that situation – to know that you can never have any more children. Ever. Especially for someone like her who had built her whole life around her children. It had to be terrible.

Thankfully, the doctor was right. With taking her uterus, the cancer has not come back. She is now completely cancer free and has been for 4 years. For that, I thank God.

Since I first started going through puberty, my mom told me that “abnormal pap smears” ran in the family. Since then, almost every time I go to the gynecologist, my pap smear comes back abnormal. I really have to be careful. Just earlier this year I was having really abnormal menstrual cycles with horrible cramps so my doctor ordered an ultra sound. Luckily I’m aware of these things at a younger age and can be watching out for it. It’s still really scary, though.

Everyone is always so quick to talk about breast cancer, which is a great cause, but I hate that people seem to forget about other cancers. Ovarian Cancer is a terrible killing of women. Please consider donating this Christmas season as a gift to those who suffer. You can also go to L’Oreal Color of Hope to get a L’Oreal Paris Hope Necklace for $29.95. $5.00 will be donated to OCRF (Ovarian Cancer Research Fund) to help fund research to fight the disease. You can also go to Julie’s Journal to enter an extremely easy contest to win one! All you have have to do is write a post on your own blog about this disease to spread the word to others. See her blog for more details.