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Ovarian Cancer

People's stories

5-6 years since diagnosis

Interview OV28

Interview OV28

Age at Interview: 71
Sex: Female
Age at Diagnosis: 66
Background: Retired nurse, married, four adult children.

Brief outline:Ovarian cancer diagnosed in 1997 following indigestion and bloating. Treated by surgical removal of ovaries (previously hysterectomised) then chemotherapy. Further surgery to repair a hernia followed by more chemotherapy for recurrences.

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Says women should take vague digestive symptoms to their doctor at an early stage and ask for tests.
Print It's the early detection, so I do actually say to people now, if someone says “oh I have a problem with eating and I've been told I've got an irritable bowel”, I do suggest, rather interferingly, that they go to their doctor and say 'could I please have a blood test, and can I have an ultrasound?' because it's early detection is the best, and my one real regret is that because my symptoms were so vague, I hadn't realised that there was a blood test and that I might have asked for an ultra sound. As the patient I wouldn't expect to have to ask, but I would have thought it would have been done, but it wasn't, and so that's one thing I do tell, I tell almost everybody I know if they start telling me they have these kind of symptoms I say 'do go to your doctor, just don't leave them', because they are vague and they're different for everyone, and you don't want to wait until you feel ill, because it creeps on you rather slowly, and if only we could wake up one morning and feel as we did when we were well, then we'd realise how far we'd slipped. But you don't get that, you just get used to feeling below par all the time.

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