Voices: A Global Effect

A Global Effect | Dee Sparacio

N: I’m on Avastin and my CA-125 is up. Did this happen to anyone else?

K: Anyone have experience with HIPEC?

C: Sorry I haven’t been on. Just out of hospital. Ascites drained 1.5 liters.

S:I go tomorrow for my check-up and I’m so nervous.
K: Praying everything goes well.

M: 5 years ago today I found out I had ovarian cancer – stage 3. I’m running a 10 K tomorrow.

V: Mom’s results are back and she is still in remission.

M: I’m back. They accepted me in a PARP Inhibitor clinical trial. I am counting on this getting the job done.

S: I just heard from Carol’s husband. Sorry to let you know she has passed. I hate this disease.

R: I have reached the end. Doc says there are no more treatments to try.

D: Good news. Another clear scan.

The statements you have just read are similar to what have been posted by myself and other members of a closed group on Facebook. All the members are ovarian cancer survivors or their caregivers. There are a number of groups similar to this one on Facebook but what makes this group special is that its’ members don’t just live in the United States but in the United Kingdom and Canada.

If you look back at those posts you would have a difficult time figuring out if they were posted by a woman from the US, or Scotland, or Wales, or Canada or England. It seems that the experience women from around the world have with ovarian cancer is really not so different. We have the same worries. We search for the best treatment. We deal with side effects. And some even deal with learning there are no courses of treatment left for them to try. That is why what happened on May 8th was so amazing. For the first time ever women and organizations from around the world celebrated World Ovarian Cancer Day.

Women wore teal shirts and jewelry, painted their nails teal, displayed posters and many posted the symptoms of ovarian cancer on Facebook, on their blogs and on Twitter (#WOCD, #WorldOvarianCancerDay).

Maybe a life will be saved. And that makes me chuffed.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

P.S. The word “chuffed” is a British term to express pleasure or happiness.