During the year and a half that I was battling and then trying to recover, I wasn’t able to write my romances. Creating worlds and characters takes a lot of mental energy, and all my mental energy was centered on survival. I stopped writing and was even more miserable. Luckily my husband saw this correlation very clearly and told me to write, if not my stories, then what I was going through. So, I blogged through my whole cancer battle and will one day use those blog posts to create a book on how to survive the war after hearing those three little words.
Once I finished chemo and started detoxing from all the medications that had kept me afloat, the voices of my characters came back. Thoughts other than “I have cancer” and “Will I still be alive for my kids?” started to replace the terror and deep-in-the-bone exhaustion. I started believing in happy endings again, and I started to write my romances.
As I finished that first book, after returning to writing, I dedicated it to all the people who had helped me, supporting me and my family with meals, cards, and tons of love. Adding the ovarian cancer symptom list to the back of the book was an automatic and cathartic need for me. I write romance. The majority of romance readers are women. This was another way I could reach women with education that could save their lives.
I have continued to put the symptoms of ovarian cancer in the back of all my books. With each new book going out into the world, I hope and pray that the information reaches those who need to see it. It is another way that I can make what I went through into something positive. When I can force my villain (cancer) to work for something good, it helps me heal emotionally. Helping others is hugely cathartic.
Of course, when I send symptom cards and the symptom list in my books off into the world, I may never know if they will help anyone, which is fine. The symptoms might be read and then remembered years later. Or the cards might end up scattered and traveling far.
Once, though, I had a lady contact me through the SHOUT Against the Whisper Facebook page to tell me she found one of my cards in a gas station bathroom an hour away from my house. She thanked me for handing them out, because she had some of the symptoms. Reading them on the card prompted her to see a doctor who diagnosed her with a different gynecological cancer. A second woman in my local writing group contacted me with the same thank you when she was diagnosed with a gynecological cancer. And the most wonderful message came through to me on my author web site last year from a reader. She wrote:
“Heather thank you so much for all of your novels. I have almost read them all. They make me laugh and cry and I always read them in two days. I especially appreciate you writing about ovarian cancer. I was going to cancel my gyn appt thinking maybe I was in early menopause. But I didn’t after reading the end of your book. I went in and was diagnosed with endometrial cancer. I had a hysterectomy and I am cancer free. I sincerely thank you.”
I am extremely fortunate. We found my cancer early enough to fight it and win (yes, I’m owning that and not knocking on wood). After years of hard work, my dream of being a full-time writer has come true. And I can use my writing to help educate women everywhere by putting the symptoms in the backs of my books and writing articles like this one.
Thank you. Every time I can teach a woman about the whispered symptoms of ovarian cancer, it makes what I went through worth it. So, thank you for reading this article. Thank you for learning about the symptoms of ovarian cancer. Three little words changed everything in my life. I hope that my words going forward can help another woman save her own.
Know the symptoms. Save a Life.
Bloating that is persistent
Eating less and feeling fuller
Abdominal pain
Trouble with your bladder
Other symptoms may include: fatigue, indigestion, back pain, pain with intercourse, constipation, and menstrual irregularities.
If you experience any of these symptoms every day for three weeks or more, please see your GYN. They should perform a pelvic and rectal exam. If anything seems abnormal, they should refer you for a transvaginal ultrasound and a CA-125 blood test. For more information on ovarian cancer, please check out the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition – http://www.ovarian.org/.