December 2006: The Pain Intensifies

The pains started to intensify during the month of December. During Christmas break they got to the point where they would buckle her over in pain. She was also very tired all the time. It was a chore to do anything…she was constantly fatigued. Of course her “wonderful” husband would just roll his eyes because he didn’t want to be inconvenienced – after all, he had home improvement projects to complete. Fortunately, once again she followed her instincts and called her doctor. I was annoyed because she had already been through round one with all the doctors and they found nothing. I wasn't annoyed at her, but the doctors. All of the running around they made her do just validated my opinion of doctors. So in my opinion, it was like “here we go again”. Her physicians assistant at this point said “probably irritable bowel syndrome” and gave her a prescription for irritable bowels. She also referred Kristi to a gastrologist (sp?), Dr. Serdahely.

One thing you have to understand...Kristi, at 36, did not fit the "normal" profile of someone with Ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer usually strikes older women...40's - 60's. There are also things that help reduce the risk of ovarian cancer...multiple child births, oral birth control, no family history. So the fact that Kristi was 36, had 3 kids, was taking "the pill", and had no immediate family history of cancer really makes this a mystery. So you can understand why the doctors' first thoughts weren't ovarian cancer. It just didn't add up.

October – November 2006: The Waiting

These months passed relatively uneventfully. The stomach pains remained only when Kristi pushed on her stomach. It seemed as if we were just waiting to see if the pains would "magically" go away. I remember Kristi always walking around pushing on her stomach and wincing. I think deep down she knew something was going on.

August – October 2006: Instincts

The following 2 – 3 months went by and the pain in Kristi’s abdomen stayed about the same. It only hurt when she pushed on it. Of course, I would always just tell her “don’t push there”. Fortunately, she listened to her instincts. She remained persistent with the doctors and they ran blood tests, did an ultra sound on her kidneys, did a bladder scan, and even did a CT scan of her stomach. All of the tests came back “clean”. This reinforced my theory that there was “nothing wrong”. Nice one! She also went to Dr. Fogg during this time. He called it! He told her it was something with her reproductive organs – "felt like a puddle of blood". But, he couldn’t do anything about it and told her to keep seeing her regular doctor.

August 2006: The First Symptoms

Kristi’s stomach pains were first discovered during her annual exam in August of 2006. During the exam, Angela Birch, P.A. pushed on her abdomen and it hurt. She told Kristi not to be concerned unless it doesn’t go away.