Met with my new surgeon today (since my original surgeon moved over the summer). She was nice. She was very impressed with how nicely my incision has healed. She said that she doesn't think she has ever seen one look so nice! I am actually surprised as well how much my scar has faded. I will try and take a picture that I can post on here when I remember. :)  The appointment went fine and everything looks good as far as they can tell.

My CA-125 number is at 12 this time around. :)

My appointment for this time around was scheduled for a Monday so that we could have it the same day that I met with my new surgeon. As it turns out though, whoever scheduled my appointment with the surgeon created an appointment at a bogus time that wasn't in the system and they had to call me and reschedule it for the following week...

Since it had been almost 5 weeks since my last appointment, the nurse had a little bit of trouble getting my port to work correctly... (I actually think that the nurse was a little too hesitant at sticking the needle into it and didn't get it in good enough. We will have to see though - that is just my personal observation from someone who has had her port accessed at least once every 4 weeks for the past 4 years...) Once she got the port working, it was much slower at drawing the blood out than I ever remember it taking. Hopefully it was just a one time thing - we will find out in 4 weeks when I have my next CT scan.

They also didn't have all of my normal labs listed to draw today so I made them call the nurse who works with my doctor to get them ordered. Again, since I have been doing this for a while now, I pretty much know the routine and try to make sure they get it right so I don't have to have my port re-accessed - which they've had to do before.

After all of that, everything went fine with my appointment. The study coordinator who I have been working with for a little while now apparently just recently took a new position up at Huntsman so there was a new coordinator there today. She seemed nice though - it will just take her a little while to get up to speed on everything that she has responsibility over now - she was the previous coordinator's assistant.

After my appointment I had an interview with someone who is conducting a study of young cancer patients and how they can best be helped and supported during the cancer treatments. It was interesting and made me think a lot about what I have gone through up to this point and maybe what would have helped me more while I was going through my initial diagnosis and early treatments.

I had my follow up appointment today. Everything looked fine on my scans and my CA-125 number came back at 13 which is fine. I asked if it helped to do my scans the day before so we can have the results in time for my appointment but the study coordinator said that they can't sign to have the drug released to me until they have physically seen me in the office - so getting the labs done sooner makes no difference. The nurse today asked me how long I have been coming into the office (she has only been there a little less than a year). I told her that it has been about 4 years and she said that she was wondering because I always have all of the routines down pat and know where everything is and everything just goes really smoothly for my appointments.

I had my CT scan this afternoon. Up until this point my scans have usually been on Mondays in the morning/early afternoon but because of the Labor Day holiday and the fact that MJ is in afternoon kindergarten, my scan was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. Everything went fine for the scan but it upset my stomach some and I had to skip going to soccer practice because I needed to be close to the bathroom! I ended up having them draw my labs today so I could get my results back before my appointment tomorrow.

Just checked out my CA-125 results from yesterday. It is at 11 once again so good news there.

Another 4 week visit today. I met with another research fellow and she also had a high school student who was shadowing her. Apparently I am a model patient (and an easy one to work with) so they like to have all the newer/student doctors see me and read through my chart.

This visit was a little harder for me because my baby has started kindergarten and she needs to be driven to school right after lunchtime. Thankfully there is another little girl in her class from our neighborhood so MJ was able to get a ride with her and we will be carpooling from now on. It also worked out that my 12 year old hasn't started school yet so she was able to watch MJ until she was picked up for school. I asked the scheduler to give me afternoon appointments from here on out. Apparently the afternoon ones are easier to get because most people want a morning appointment so they can have their chemotherapy on the same day. I don't have to deal with that right now so I will be switching to afternoon appointments.

I found out a couple of days ago that my neighbor's cancer had spread more than they were hoping. She had her surgery and was diagnosed with stage 3C ovarian cancer - just one step better than my diagnosis. They were hoping that it hadn't spread that much... I went to the hospital today to visit with her. This whole experience has been bringing back a lot of memories and emotions from almost 4 years ago. I can't believe that it has been that long! They also found out that she does not have the BRCA-1 mutation - which surprised everyone. That will make her experience and treatment a little different than mine was. She will meet with her oncologist next week to decide on a chemo treatment schedule. (I will only give brief updates here about my neighbor because I don't want to share too much of what is her story.)

My CA-125 number this week was back down to 11.

My husband left for scout camp yesterday and M&M and Blondie left for YW camp this morning.

Today is Blondie's 12th birthday - my 3rd child! They are growing up too quickly!

Everything went fine with my appointment today. My scans looked good once again. Today is the surgery date for my neighbor - hoping for the best for her.

I had another scan today. Things were uneventful with the scan once again.

My CA-125 number was at 12 this week. I am not worried about it bouncing around like this though. I asked my doctor about it one time and she said that the bouncing around is fine - it is if the number started doubling each time that she would start to get concerned.

The other day my husband and I were talking about how we felt strongly for some reason to move to the house that we are in and we were wondering what that reason was. Then a day or two later we were at church and I was up on the stand because I was playing the organ for Sacrament Meeting when the bishop went up to the pulpit and announced that a neighbor of ours that had just had a baby had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. My husband and I just looked at each other and I had an overwhelming feeling come over me that this is one of the reasons that we are in this house at this time - so that I can help be there to support our neighbor and her family. After church DH and I went to the hospital to visit with her and I had written her a letter beforehand about some of my experiences and feelings at the time. I also gave her my contact info and the link to this blog and told her to feel free to call me anytime for help or with questions.

Today at my appointment I talked with my doctor and nurse practitioner about my neighbor and they gave me some contact info so she can try to get in to the doctors at Huntsman. Other than that my appointment went fine. It is nice having the older kids out of school now so I don't have to find someone to watch MJ for me.

My CA-125 number this week is 11!

Had my 4 week appointment today. Everything looked fine with my CT scans. I am one of only a couple of patients still on the study that I am on. My doctor is hoping that pretty soon here they will let me space my scans further apart. Since my last appointment I have started trying to cut down more and more on the anti-nausea drug that I am taking. Right now I am down to taking a quarter of a pill before I take the veliparib.

Routine CT scan today. Nothing out of the normal to report.

The office called me yesterday and said that the machine for testing the CA-125 number was down for some maintenance so I would have to wait another day for the results from the test.  I checked online today and my number has risen slightly to 12 (from 10 the last couple of times).  Hopefully that is nothing to worry about yet.  Hopefully it will not continue to go up like happened a little over a year ago now...

Had my 4 week appt today again. I had to wait a long time for them to even call me back for my lab work today. After waiting for about 20 minutes I went and asked at the receptionist desk and they said that they were just really busy and would get me back as soon as they could.  I ended up finally getting called back for the labs and by the time I saw the doctor it was about an hour past my appointment time.  (Usually they are pretty close to schedule and I am usually called back for my labs within 5 minutes of checking in at the front desk.)

I met with another resident fellow today. I'm never sure what to say to them because I really don't have any symptoms to complain about and not much to really discuss with them.  After that the doctor came in and I let her know that my surgeon is moving.  We think it would just be easier to transfer my care up to Huntsman so we are not having to send results back and forth between the two offices.

I also asked the doctor if I could ever be considered in remission. I have people ask me all the time and I am never really sure what to say to them.  She said that yes I can tell people that I am in remission - since I have no evidence of disease and my CA-125 number is within normal levels.  She said that I am just receiving maintenance therapy for the cancer - we are not actively treating any cancer.  So "YEA" I am in remission!!

I had a mammogram today.  It went pretty quickly and then the technician said that the doctor was going to look at the scans while I was waiting in case there was something of concern on the scan that they wanted to take another look at.  So after waiting for a few minutes back in the waiting room, the technician came out and said that things looked good and that I could go home.  That was kind of nice - better than the last time when I had to come back a couple of days later to do some rescans.

I had my 6 month appt with my surgeon today.  She said that she is moving at the end of June so this will probably be my last time seeing her.  Her husband got a new job in Michigan so she is transferring to a practice out of the University of Toledo.  She said that I can either transfer my care to one of her partners in the office or just transfer to one of the doctors at Huntsman.  Other than that everything went fine for my appt.