Two days ago my CA125 marker went from 14 at my last two month check up to 68.5. My dr says this is a significant rise in tumor marker. I have been in remission for 4 and a half months. Where does ovarian cancer spread to and how? Initially I had 7 hour surgery and they said they got all the cancer. I had 6 months of chemo and I feel fine. I don't understand and am scared.
View 8 RepliesWhat are the survival rates for ovarian cancer?This discussion is related to Ovarian Cancer.
View 1 RepliesJust received my abnormal pap agus no hpv and I'm really scared. I have Further testing next Wednesday and I feel like I've just been given a death sentence. I'm 31 and a mother of four. I don't have any additional info im here just to vent I suppose.
View 5 RepliesI've had an ovarian cyst for 2 months now, nothing was done about it, the pain went off after a few days until last monday where i had an ambulance to hospital, i stayed there for 5 days, the doctors did an ultrasound and my cyst has ruptured yet pain is so bad i cant walk! they sent me home with 3 day open access, i went back the next day in awful pain and after 6 hours of waiting the gynaecologists refused to see me and sent me home!!
View 1 Replies47 with what looks like a solid mass on my right ovary. Have been seen by a reputable gynecologist who doesn't think it is cancer. 2.9 cm. Took a the CA 125 test all normal. At first he thought it was a hemorrhagic cyst but, it has not changed size and has been there for close to 3 months.
No septations, no blood flow. He think it could be a fibroma but, not sure.
Going for an MRI. Worried. No history of any cancer on any side of my family. None of any kind.
Have been going through menopause for a few years. Periods are changing and some heavier than others. Been skipping off an on for a few years.
Cyst, mass is ovoid in shape.
Any ideas? So worried. But hopeful it is nothing. Hoping to avoid surgery.
I am a 50 year old who started having left back pain two months ago. After pelvic US discover 3.8 cm complex cyst. Gyro recommended waiting and follow up ultrasound, so two months later repeat ultrasound showed an additional 2.5 cm complex cyst, original was measured at 3.1 cm. Gyno Dr recommended surgery to remove left ovary and both cysts. I still have left back pain, some pain when urinating, constipation, so stomach upset. Part of me wants to continue waiting in pain to see if they resolve, but it's not fun having the not severe but constant ache in my left side. Have a history of thyroid cancer, but have been cancer free for 4 years. I am in perimenopause, periods are very irregular. Went 3 months without a period, had a period, and now it's been two months with no period. Have a surgical consult with gyn/ob at Kaiser Mr. Talbert in Sunnyside Oregon next Thursday. I need advice and suggestions on what to ask Dr. Part of me just wants to do the surgery and get it over with, but the other part thinks what if I wait and they go away? With my history of cancer (I had a 10% chance that my thyroid tumor would have been cancerous and it was) I'm a little leary of just saying that since there is only a slight chance of complex cyst being cancer I shouldn't worry about that. Maybe should have the cancer test?
View 1 Replies6 weeks ago I went into hospital and was told I had a cyst on my left ovary , which was about 4cm. I have recently been back to my doctors and had some blood tests done and waiting for a repeat scan. My ca125 has come back high, and I have got to go and see a gynecologist a week monday. I am 44 years old, I was sterilised 2 years ago. I am so worried. I lost both my parents to cancer.
I have pain in my left side all of the time, could this be because of the cyst?
Hi can anyone help please . I went 9 days ago for a ultrasound after suffering pelvic pain. Went to see gp 5 days later. Was told had a large cystic mass in womb. Was told I would be referred as a potential cancer. Following day received a letter for gynaecologist. Bloods were taken for tumour markers in my body. Am seeing a gynaecologist in 5 days. Is this normal procedure for women with a large cyst as it's all happening so fast. am I right to be worrying myself stupid that I've got cancer. My cyst is 12cm x 12cm x 8.5cm. I'm soo worried. I'm 37 years old.
View 42 RepliesI'm wondering whether anyone has had a simple cyst which dissolved by itself without medical intervention.
View 2 RepliesI was diagnosed with herpes when I was 19 years old. Fast-forward 35 years... I am experiencing my second recurrence. How common is this? Has this happened to anyone out there?
View 1 RepliesI'm a 26yo uncircumcised male. I've noticed a couple of times I have some red spots in my glans and the inside of the foreskin. This are not painful and they disappear quickly (a night, a day or so) and I've had a few recurrences. I notice sometimes white mucus, which it think it's smegma.
Apparently I got a negative test a few weeks ago, which the laboratory told me it was normal to get 0.00. However this was done before 8 weeks of my last contact.
Questions are:
1. Does this sound like Balanitis?
2. In which cases is balanitis a sign of herpes? Only during initial infection? Or recurrences too?
3. If it is caused by herpes, could it be painless? Could it be accompanied with smegma?
I was interested to read other experiences. I am currently experiencing a recurrence of pityriasis rosea. I had the first occurrence about 9 or 10 years ago and my Dr too was not only surprised to see a rare disorder but to see it in someone at my age. I was 27 then. Even more surprised now at late 30's!
I too thought there was a patch of ringworm on my arm and recently had an awful cold and took 2 days off work (that's really rare for me as I'm a bit a workaholic). I didn't pay any attention to it at first, the spots that now cover my tummy, and a fear of having chicken pox actually made me look into what I had. When I read the symptons I realised that my symptoms are classic. I would have left it at that, because I'm not suffering at all - not even itchy spots, provided I don't scratch the herald patch - I don't even notice it. It was only when I read that only 2% recurs that I read on and found your experiences.
My herald patch and spots has been so typical in both cases that there is no doubt it is pityriasis rosea. My Dr the first time told me that it was most likely to be stress related.
My only curiosity this time is why now? It's made me consider taking a holiday in the sun (how often is the diagnosis to spend time in the sun?) to make sure I'm not opening myself up to to something more sinister - maybe this is nature's little warning that I'm over doing it.
Does anyone else think like that?
In the spring of 1990 after a chronic right middle ear infection, I began having bad vertigo, nausea, and disequilibrium problems. I saw the ENT recommended by my PCP and after testing that came back normal was scheduled for exploratory surgery. A perilymph fistula was visualized and patched. Recovery was normal with some slight dizziness continuing for a few months and then resolving. Postoperative testing revealed no loss of hearing from the surgery and I was released from care to resume normal life.
Fast forward to March 2014, severe disequilibrium, tinnitus, and noticeable hearing loss brought me back to the same ENT (A relief, as he remembers me as being his only visually confirmed PLF) Testing showed hearing in the right ear normal but not as good as the unaffected left ear, other testing showed a possible recurrence of a PLF in the the same ear (right). I am scheduled for surgery on April 30, 2014.
There was nothing during this time that would account for the fistula to recur, no heavy lifting, head trauma, air travel, upper respiratory illness, etc. He feels that I may have a predisposition to increased pressure in my inner ear that causes the fistula to recur. Has anyone heard of this? And, if so, why would it take 24 years to happen again?
2 years ago I tested positive to entamoeba histolytica (amebiasis) which I contracted while travelling in central america. I was originally prescribed metronidazole which eliminated the symptoms (I was getting swelling around the abdomen especially when eating sugary food). Around 9 months later the symptoms returned and the tests again showed positive for the above parasite. I was prescribed paromomycin that time and it worked. 12 months later the symptoms are back and after 2 tests for parasites the results are negative. I'm a bit confused as the symptoms are exactly like what I experienced when I tested positive previously. The Doctor (don't have a lot of faith in him) has prescribed a course of prednisolone and said if that doesn't work I will need to see a gastroenterologist for a colonoscopy but reading up on that I am not sure what that is supposed to reveal. Any thoughts?
View 1 RepliesI'm now 38 and was diagnosed with achalasia in 1998. The condition stated in late 1997 and progressed very quickly. I was unable to eat any form of solid food and every meal had to be accompanied by buckets of water!
I had the myotomy and a fundoplication in Sept 1999.
However, the symptoms soon returned. They never got as bad as they were before the operation, but I think suffers of the condition become very adept at managing the condition.
I went through a series of dilations and other tests until, in 2005, my surgeon decided that another operation was the only hope. However, by this time, I had completely lost confidence in my surgeon and decided to live with the condition.
I have found that swallowing has continued to get worse over the years, but I manage it reasonably well by drinking lots of water with meals and avoiding problematic foods such as bread, pasta and fruit.
However, I suffer from dreadful substernal pain and have been admitted twice to A&E with a suspected heart attack. My use of painkillers is now at pretty serious levels so I am having the condition investigated again.
I guess that I knew this was inevitable, but I'm not looking forward to the barium swallows, endoscopy, manometry etc and I guess further surgery is unavoidable.
I utterly sympathise with those who have the condition. It is painful, restricting and embarrassing - you only have to regurgitate an oesophagus full of chewed food over a plate to realise what a bummer of a condition this is. It may not be life threatening, but it is certainly not fun!
I wish everyone with the condition every best wish in managing their condition.
PS - I really struggle with my weight and am now 5 stone overweight which must be a record for achalasia!!! Would love to hear from anyone in a similar position.
So I have had an issue with fissures in the past, due to being on pain meds for pancreatitis for months and cooccurrent constipation. I have already had one surgery to heal the fissure, and it seemed to work. So when I started have that same burning pain when I had a BM I assumed that was what it was. I became really used to it, and it went on for a LONG time. Flash forward to now. I noticed a couple weeks back what looked like pus on my toilet paper when I wiped after urinating, and was freaked out. I pushed on the area near my anus and more pus came out. I assumed my fissure got infected somehow and left it alone. It happened again, this time I was home so I grabbed a hand mirror and looked down there. I saw a bloody spot that was leaking blood slowly about 1 inch from my anus, and I freaked out. I had NO idea what it was, so I googled it and looks like it may be a fistula. It seems to "close up" and go away for a while, then I can smell something and when I go the bathroom I am leaking a little bit of blood/pus from the hole. Seems to happen randomly, its opening doesn't seem to have any correlation with when I have a BM and BM's aren't bloody typically. I have been using anti bacterial soap down there frequently now and I can feel what feels like a ridge under the skin running from the hole to my anus if that makes any sense?
I am completely embarrassed. I am 28 years old and a female, someone who doesn't even leave the house without makeup and this situation is so bad. It smells, I feel like I smell 24/7 (nobody has mentioned it but I feel like I do) and I am almost too embarrassed to go to the doctor. Doesn't help that I am overweight, and though I am meticulously clean (I even use a bidet) I feel like somehow the doctor will judge me as a gross fat girl.
I am 21 now, I had gotten shingles when I was 20. I only had it for a week luckily but, it was on my face...around my left eye and cheek area. While I had it, I had a lymph node swollen behind my ear that was pretty large also a couple lymph nodes on my head that were swollen as well. Both with piercing, constant pain. Then with the Shingles, the marks on my face and near my eye also hurt BAD. I got through all of that, no scarring.VERY lucky on that one. But now about 8 months later I have the same lymph node behind my ear swollen, my cheek actually filled up with fluid one day and when I opened my mouth something popped, all the fluid was released and the trash can became my best friend that night. NASTY. I thought it may have been a abscessed tooth causing the swelling and fluid build up, but after the fluid left my body my tooth stopped hurting. Now I'm just kinda lost and looking for some help on what may be going on.
View 1 RepliesSo for the past 2 weeks I've been dealing with an issue. It came on suddenly and out of nowhere. My first symptom was I had blood when I wiped after I peed. This was alarming bc I am on the shot and don't receive periods so what's up with the blood. It was very light pink and I wiped several times after to see if it there was more and it came out each time. The following day when I wiped there was pink strands of discharge. I'm not pregnant either. The pink discharge lasted a few days. And after that I got intense back pain on the lower left side. I thought I did something to pull out a muscle. Then the pain went into my hip and I had cramping in my lower pelvis. It was very tolerable. It was dull at this point. I thought I had a kidney infection.i've had 1 before so the symptoms resembled one almost to a tee. I had my urine checked and it came back negative. At this point a weem had almost past and the pain wasn't getting worse but it wasn't gone either. I remember having a BM one morning and it disappeared. My belly was bloated and things felt tight but pain wise, it was gone. So I thought I was probably just constipated. Well, 2 days go by and out of nowhere the pain comes back 10 fold. It hurt so badly. I hunched over a few times, grabbed my side and cried out. Thinking something had to be wrong I went to the ER. They did a CT and said it was constipation. Well, needless to say I left the hospital still in pain. It was weird because there'd be times the pain was low. In my hip and pelvis. Then there'd be times it was strictly in my back. It was all on the left side. My right side would occasionally get tingly or crampy but it didn't last long. I started getting loose stools they were wormy, and I don't ever go like that. This started 3 days ago. And my left arm and left leg were throbbing as if I over did it lifting something or walking too much but I didn't do anything of the sort. So just yesterday I had to work (Which I've been off the whole duration of this mess) and I had pain before work, I had pain for an hour while at work. I do a lot of walking at my job and I noticed about mid shift the pain was gone. I thought nah, I'm sure it'll be back. It came back last time I thought it was gone too. But it hasn't. So I'm just wondering if it sounded like a cyst that maybe ruptured or grew. And I have an appointment with an obgyn later this week, will they be able to tell if that's what it was even if I'm feeling better?
View 1 RepliesI've been suffering pain in the womb/ovary area for a few months, it's a general aching pain/soreness with stabs of sharp pain, although the sharp pain has been getting more frequent, along with pain at the top of my thighs, to the point where I was in excruciating pain the other day and literally couldn't move because even leaning forward was causing me pure agony. I'd been putting off going to the GP for a while but this made me realise I had to get an appointment.
The GP did a quick pelvic examination and said he would refer me for a pelvic ultrasound. I asked him how long I would have to wait for the appointment, and he said 'two weeks, three at the most'.
Received my referral letter in the post this morning, asking me to call up to arrange the appointment. The receptionist immediately told me they had a very long waiting list and asked if I'd be willing to travel to a clinic a bit further away to get an appointment sooner, to which I said yes, as I'm obviously in pain and worried about what is causing the pain. Anyway, my appointment isn't till nearly the end of JUNE, so in 3 months time as opposed to the maximum 3 weeks time my GP told me.
I've been researching my symptoms, which I know isn't always the wisest, and 'ovarian cyst' seems to be coming up a lot, along with a few other womb/ovary problems. I'm very concerned that whatever might be causing the problem could get more severe within the 3 months I have to wait for an ultrasound. I've looked it up and I understand that sometimes ovarian cysts can be cancerous, although it is rare among my age group (I'm 21), but I'm still very worried that if it is cancerous, surely it could get a lot worse within 3 months?
I'm honestly surprised the waiting times are so long for a diagnostic examination, I knew the waiting times were bad for operations, but I wasn't expecting this. Surely if the waiting times are so long this could be very detrimental to the health of some patients, for example those who turn out to have cancer, when early treatment is very important?
Can anyone tell me if they have experienced similar, in terms of waiting times, or of symptoms? Those of you who have been for ultrasounds, is 3 months a normal waiting time, or am I right to be surprised? Has anyone ended up going for a private scan instead?
Also, in the 3 months that I have to wait, if there anything that will help to control my pain? My GP advised me paracetamol, hot water bottle, and drinking lots of water, all of which I've been doing anyway, but have you got any other tips? For someone who is used to leading a very active life, this pain is really interfering with it, plus it's also having a bit of a detrimental effect on my sex life, as I'm sometimes in too much pain to have sex, or after I have sex the pain will get worse, which is very frustrating for me and my boyfriend.
I had flank pain, went to the ER and had a Cat scan done, they found a cyst on my left ovary. The printout says "ovary cyst NOS". Anyone know what NOS means, could it be cancer? I am 46.
View 3 RepliesI was diagnosed with a large ovarian cyst at the end of March this year (17cm), eventually being given an operation date of 26th July. Unfortunately, this had to be cancelled due to staff shortages - much to my frustration and worry. I let my doctors know of my anxiety as I felt the cyst had grown much bigger and I'd also got new strange symptoms where my legs were very swollen and painful when I walked up hills.
Anyway, a couple of weeks before my rescheduled op one of my legs really swelled up, and started to go a purple colour. Luckily I made the swift decision to go to A&E as I was concerned it could be a blood clot (you're at increased risk on the pill/pregnant and I currently looked 5 months pregnant).
I was admitted with a massive DVT - up to the top of my hip - and at risk of a pulmonary embolism. The cyst had grown so big (20 by 30cm) it was cutting off the blood flow to both my legs.
After 10 days in hospital, 4 in intensive care, I've had the cyst drained of 3 litres of fluid, a catheter inserted into the blood clot to diffuse it and now need to be on blood thinners for the next 6 months. This all could have been avoided if the operation was a bit sooner - or if I was monitored more closely. And I still need to have the actual cyst removed.
Once in hospital the nurses and doctors were wonderful - but the whole experience has been at a huge cost to both myself and the NHS. I just wanted to let people know that if you feel something is wrong, or a cyst is growing at a fast rate - demand to be seen - it would be far better for everyone if these things are prevented!