Wednesday, December 20, 2006

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.