September - Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

This month is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Many of you may not have known that. I never knew until my mom had ovarian cancer. 

I had so many dreams and plans of making people more aware of this silent killer such as at one of the football games..... doing teal pom poms for the cheerleaders, or teal socks for the football players.... like they do for Breast Cancer Awareness. I know Breast Cancer is just as important as Ovarian Cancer as is every kind of Cancer, but for a while I was very bitter about it because I felt like it was favored more than other cancers. I'm not sure why I quit trying.... I just did. 

Mom hurt for a long time and never knew what the problem was. She continued to go to the doctor. They ran several tests, did ultrasounds, X-rays, scans, found nothing. She continuously told them SOMETHING WAS WRONG. She was very bloated, stomach pain, extremely fatigued, constipation, and very nauseous. It took her going into the doctors office and telling them that she thought she had colon cancer for them to do the proper testing that actually found her ovarian cancer. 

This was my very first blog post about her cancer if you would like to read it: https://thecolquett5.blogspot.com/2014/02/my-moms-journey-ovarian-cancer.html

The picture below was from our last vacation together. We went to the mountains and had a wonderful time. I remember how badly her stomach was hurting that entire trip and she had no idea at the time that she had cancer. This was in November 2013. She found out February 2014. 

 

There needs to be some type of exam that can be done at a woman's yearly check up that can test for ovarian cancer that is covered under your insurance. There is a blood test that is called a CA125 that you can pay to have done, but it is SEVERAL hundred dollars. 

Here is a post I did that talks about what your CA125 numbers should be: https://thecolquett5.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-return-of-evil-cancer.html

On January 13, 2016 we were told she had about 4 months to live. She passed away May 4, 2016.  This is the blog post that I wrote talking about that doctor appointment experience : https://thecolquett5.blogspot.com/2016/02/mom-update-hard-post-to-write.html

I just mostly want to make every woman out there aware that if you are having any of these symptoms to please not take it lightly. Even if you think it sounds silly and if you don't think it is anything serious, at least go talk to your doctor. Keep going like my Mom did. She eventually got to the bottom of it. Of course we all wish they would have caught it sooner, but God knew this was His plan all along as heart breaking as it is for all of us.  

The post where I wrote about her passing..... 

https://thecolquett5.blogspot.com/2016/05/in-sweet-loving-memory-of-my-mom-janet.html

This post talks about a lot of the hard things that Tyler and I had to do that people didn't realize. Our mom was not married so we had to make the decisions after her passing and I truly cannot express how difficult that was......  https://thecolquett5.blogspot.com/2016/05/decisions-that-most-dont-realize-we-had.html