Sunday, December 3, 2006

Get yourself tested!

Addendum to my Friday post -

The next time you have a physical insist that your doctor do a CA125 test to check for ovarian cancer. Most doctor's don't do it because there can be lots of false positives. But at least with a false positive they will check you over further to make sure the cancer isn't there. Isn't that lots better than learning too late that you have Stage 4 ovarian cancer? That's what happened to my friend Peggy, who asked that I also pass this message along to everyone.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for this reminder Patti...as deadly as ovarian cancer is...heart disease remains the number one killer of women-so much we need to do to take care of ourselves and enjoy a long healthy life!

Anonymous said...

I knwo a woman who had ovarian cancer in her family and had a hard time getting them to give her the test - unfortunately she did end up with this cancer - such a sad thing
juliann

Anonymous said...

I think it's extremely hard here (Nashville) to get a doctor to order the test, especially if there's no family history. I've been aware of the test and the symptoms of ovarian cancer (which don't occur until usually too late) ever since Gilda Radnor died--for all the good it seems to do anyone. If I sound cynical, it's because I am--on this issue.

That doesn't mean it's not an excellent idea to keep the word out there. Thanks for the push.

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry your friend found out the hard way.

Anonymous said...

My Mom is currently undergoing treatment for stage 3c ovarian cancer. She was diagnosed in June and even with a high CA125 test they wouldn't commit to the fact that she had it until they operated. I think that even if they do the test Dr's don't trust it at all. She had few symptoms and most could be easily explained by other things. I think that more money needs to be directed to researching ovarian cancer, it's causes and diagnosis. There have been great strides in breast cancer because of the awareness, fund raising and research being done.