In 2004 at the age of 23, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

The question I am asked the most is how I found out I had it. After several months of off-and-on abdominal swelling and pain, I started to get major back pain when I exercised. By that time, I had a round, hard abdomen that just ached. I had sort of ignored the fatigue and weight loss because I was busy and tried to keep myself healthy and thin. I knew I wasn’t pregnant, but there was definitely something large in there.

Having recently moved, I had no regular doctor. At my well-woman exam two months prior to my diagnosis, the doctor felt nothing out of the ordinary. But by June I was tired of ignoring the pain and scared of what it might be. My Mom and I went to the ER when my back pain got bad. They did an ultrasound and CT scan. I was referred to an oncologist.

This is a picture of my ovarian tumor taken during surgery June 22, 2004. It was 22 cm at largest diameter, weighed 668 grams, and was encased in my left ovary.

I had asked my doctor if he would take a picture of it for me. Gruesome, maybe, but I wanted to see it before it was cut up and sent to the lab.

He made good on his promise, and when I woke from the anesthesia, the picture was in my hands.

One of the first things I remember saying was, “Mom, did you see this who’e?”

I had a unilateral salpingo oophorectomy (the surgical removal of an ovary and fallopian tube on the same side - see my scar here). My tumor turned out to be a type of germ cell tumor called a grade two immature teratoma. I had stage one cancer, meaning that I was lucky - it was well contained and had not spread.

I completed nine weeks of chemotherapy, a regimen of BEP (bleomycin, etoposide, and platinum) delivered through a PICC line. The first, fourth, and seventh weeks were spent in the hospital getting all three drugs, while the other weeks I went to my doctor’s office for bleomycin.

There were frequent blood tests and injections to boost my white and red counts, but thanks to those and the amazing anti-nausea drug, Zofran, I was sick only twice during those nine weeks. I had excellent care from Dr. Bruce Fine and his office, the staff at Medical City Dallas, and my wonderful family and friends.

Over three years later, I am healthy and still cancer free! The one-year mark is important because 75% of cases that will return do so within the first year; that percentage increases to 95% at two years. Remarkably, we now have a baby girl.

If you are experiencing anything like this or know someone who is, or if you would just like to talk with me about this, email me at blake@blakery.com.