Step-on-me vs. Ovarian Cancer

A week ago Stephanie and I had just left the Oncologist with great news and had just made a decision to decline the placement of a 2 and 7 year old.  That one sentence describes a few hours of last Thursday morning that were incredibly stressful and challenging.  I like to describe it as "real life stuff" was happening last Thursday morning.  Let's jump forward to Friday and reminisce the call we received for a 2 year old that we accepted into our home for 4 days.  Here is how it happened.  I get a call from Steph while I am sitting at my desk at work and she says I am on the line with the state and they have another placement opportunity.  I am elated and I walk into a private room where I can really listen and make a decision with Stephanie that could impact the rest of our lives.  Pause right there.  I was typing an email to some human resources person at a company that doesn't want to talk to me and then I get a call where I decide whether or not to accept a

The day I check up with my gyn-oncologist is always stressful.  You are waiting to hear if you can continue on with life as usual, or if your world will be turned upside down again.  This past Thursday was especially stressful. While we were home getting ready for my appointment we received the phone call we've been waiting for.  The state placement worker called and had foster children for us!  My heart jumped and I called for Greg to come in the room so he could hear all of the information as well.  (Thank goodness he was home for this!)  They had two girls, one was almost two years old and the other was seven.  For privacy reasons I am not able to go in to detail about their situation.  We spoke to the placement worker for about 20 minutes getting as much information as we could and asked if we could discuss it privately and call him back soon. We were still in the process of making our decision when we arrived at my doctors appointment.  The nurse took my blood pressure and

This week I go to the doctor for my six month post-chemo follow up appointment.  I will have my labs checked to see if my CA125 tumor marker is stable (mine has been less that 5 which is great!).  With many ovarian cancer patients, this is the only sign that the disease is reoccurring.  Several women in our local ovarian cancer support group watch their CA125 rise month after month, until it gets high enough to begin a new course of treatment.  Some women are not sensitive to it at all and can only monitor disease progression with the symptoms.  A small minority of women never experience a reoccurrence.  Many doctors tell their patients, it's not a matter of "if" it reoccurs, it's a matter of "when".  Luckily, my doctor does not have that mindset.  Though it is still difficult to hear other women with the same disease get this news. That being said, based on my initial CA125 tumor marker which was 88 (normal is considered less than 35), my doctor informed