My Story...

So I guess it's probably a good idea to tell you how all of this started. I pulled my story text from the Caring Bridge site my parents started for me when we found out I have cancer so I'm posting it here. When I read through it, I see what a few people meant that I was very matter-of-fact about everything. I guess I was, but I think that it really helped. I'll post my caring bridge updates here as well so anyone can read them if they like.

Hi everyone. So I have had a lot of people ask me how this whole thing started and it will be good to write it all out.

On September 10th, I was sleeping at work and started having a terrible, really sharp abdominal pain
about 0200. For my parents friends who don't know, I'm a paramedic in Cherokee, Iowa. I got up for my shift at 0500, took a shower and went to work. I toughed it out until 8, when the clinic at our hospital opened and made an appointment with Dr VandeLune, one of our ER/ family doctors. I have had a Mirena IUD since 2009 and have never had a problem with it. The only explanation for my pain I could think of was that my IUD had worked it's way out of place, which can be really dangerous.

Dr VandeLune did a pelvic exam but couldn't find the wires on the IUD. Rather than pull the Mirena (about $2000 worth of hormone releasing medical plastic) he sent me to have an ultrasound so make sure it was in the right place before we pursued other explanations for the pain. Mary did my ultrasound that afternoon and I went back to work in the ER. About an hour later Dr VandeLune called me. The first thing he told me was "well you're not pregnant" (thank God, because I didn't expect to be!) and that my IUD was in the right spot. Then he told me that I had a 5cm "mass" on my left ovary.The following week, Dr VandeLune referred me to our general surgeon Dr Dierking for a consult. He looked at my ultrasound and proposed that we do a left sided oopharectomy (ovary removal) to take care of the problem. The mass was complex, he said, parts of it solid and parts of it were cystic. Dr Dierking said that we would send the ovary to pathology and they would look at it.

Due to the logistics of having surgery an hour away from home, I decided not to have the surgery in Cherokee. I called Dr Hunt to make an appointment for a surgical consult on October 7th. When Dr Hunt and her PA student did my pelvic exam again, it was obvious that the mass, which we had by now named "Henry", had grown considerably. I invited the student to actually perform the pelvic exam since I was an interesting case and I really hope that maybe feeling what "seriously abnormal" feels like will help another patient of hers someday... and frankly, her excitement and the look on her face at having a willing patient who was happy to be the guinea pig made my week.

Dr Hunt had me do an ultrasound in her office so she could get a current look at Henry and even I could tell that there was something VERY different about this mass. It looked odd, different than anything I had seen before. It still had the cystic black spots and the blurry, while solid parts but it looked huge.
"Henry" was now 12cm in diameter, a little more than doubled in only two and a half weeks. That was the first time I really thought that it might be something other than a dermoid cyst like they originally thought. If you're feeling brave, Google it, but if you're not one of my medically inclined friends, don't say I didn't warn you. Dr Hunt told me that I needed surgery, and soon. This wasn't something we could put off. When I was discussing the surgical plan, I still wasn't nervous. We decided that we would do a left oopharectomy for sure, and I have Dr Hunt consent to do a total hysterectomy if she or the pathologist decided it was necessary.

I called my boss Jeff and Claude, our paramedic who does the schedule and told them that I was scheduled for surgery on October 16th. I told them I would work up until Tuesday (the night before) but I would be out for about 6 weeks. Jeff and all the guys have been awesome at filling in the holes in the schedule and covering my shifts and when I'm all healed up, my job will be waiting for me. I love my job and I love the paramedics, EMTs and nurses I work with so that takes a lot of stress off the table. I hung out at work Tuesday night until midnight, laughing with my partner and distracting myself from the nervousness that was creeping up on me. I definitely owe my partner one for making me feel better; I needed a good friend.

My dad picked me up at 0530 and took me to St Luke's in Sioux City for my pre-op stuff. After a change into a gown, a bunch of questions (a couple awkward ones with my dad in there ha) and a nurse who impressed me with her IV skills, I was ruled into the OR. The last thing I remember, courtesy of an amazing drug called Versed, was telling the scrub nurse that the OR was every bit as cold as I remembered from paramedic school. I woke up in the recovery room in a LOT of pain with one of the most patient nurses I've met holding my hand and keeping me from crawling off the cart. I asked her what they did and she said I'd had a total hysterectomy. I asked "I have cancer don't I?" And after she said yes, I don't remember much until I was admitted to my impatient room. I remember that my dad looked really upset and he said I looked like Hell. Dr Hunt came and talked to me about my initial pathology report, which said that I had cancer and that it was a germ cell tumor, specifically a Sertoli-Leydig tumor. As Rick, one of my paramedic partners pointed out, figures I'd have to be a Tigger and have a super rare tumor. I spent four nights in the hospital, slowly improving in the pain department. It was hard to lay in bed and harder to get up and move but I knew I had to get mobile if I wanted to start healing. The nurses were great, always friendly and willing to chat for a bit. My dad came every day and hung out, even though I was tired and slept most of the first few days and my friends and roommates came too, bringing me flowers, yummy food and chocolate, movies and awesome company. Frankly, I'm still a little overwhelmed by the amazing support and love I've gotten from everyone. You're all amazing.

Well I think this brings everyone up to speed and I've never been good at ending things like this so goodnight everyone and thank you so much for the love and support.