My Mom has OC

[Alisa42]

My young 61 year Mom was diagnosed with OC stage 4, 3 weeks ago.  She had standard symptoms for 3 months.  Yesterday she had her "debulking" surgery.  Dr. came out after 2hrs and said that there was much more cancer than they expected; diaphragm, ovaries colon ect---a colostomy would of been necessary.  The team of Dr's stepped back for a moment and decided that the surgery would have been too much and therefore took a fist of cancer, stitched her up and scheduled chemo in days.  Their reasons were in hopes to shrink the tumors and hopefully attempt to do the debulking in 2 months.  Has anyone heard of this?  Does anyone know of someone who has had any success with this option? Need hope and encouragement!  

[Knotmeg]

So many similar stories here...

Alisa,
First... let me say that I hope things continue to get better... My mother was dx on 3-5 with Stg 4 and has surgery 3-11.  She had a full hysterectomy, omentum removal, 4 (yes, 4) bowl resections and removal of the lymph nodes....

Her doc thought being agressive with surgery would be better and then once she's recovered, to do chemo.  Her cancer did start in the ovaries but was found mostly in the bowl (the worst cases).  Recovery has been a struggle... she almost didnt make it the first 24 hours, but now she's doing better. While she's still in ICU, (this is the first time ive been home on a PC in a week)...she's doing better...small baby steps.
We aren't even talking chemo... we need to focus on her recovery.

That being said.... its all depending on each case. No two are a like... similar but never the same.  If you or your mom have any doubts, I would seriously rec a 2nd opinion or another set of oncologist eyes. Stg 4 is agressive, and sometimes needs an agressive approach.

Good luck to you.  I know you must feel lost.... My mom was a healthy 60 yr old woman until 6 weeks ago symptoms started to show.  Life was moving in a great direction for our family... and then WHAM!.  I know the shock and the feelings of being lost.... But I also know that after just experiencing this week of hell and back for my mom... that hope and attitude can make a HUGE difference.

Take care..and feel free to contact me.
M

[VANative]

Hi,
My Mom, is also 61 and is stage 4.  She was diagnosed in October 2007.
They were not able to operate on her due to the large amount of fluid (ascites) in her abdomen and lungs.  They initially thought she had Primary Peritoneal Cancer, which is treated the same as Ovarian.  She had a thickening in her Omentum, they felt a tumor behind her ovary, and thought there were possible other areas impacted.  They immediately started her on chemo to reduce the fluid and shrink what ever tumors existed.
She had 4 sessions and the chemo worked very well. She just had surgery in February. All of the fluid was gone and the tumors were much smaller than the Dr. expected.   I completely understand your concern and had the same concern myself.  Just as Paula said above, this is standard practice in these cases.  Best wishes to you and your Mom!
Janice

[PF_PVD]

I also am stage iv and had 3 rounds of chemo (a couple of months) before my surgery because there was so much cancer they needed to make the surgery manageable.  When my gyn/onc did the surgery he said he was pleasantly surprised by how well the chemo had worked to reduce things.  I then had 3 more rounds of chemo after surgery.  Now, I only had a short period of what I'm now calling "dormancy" (thanks Ronnie for the word) and am back on chemo, but I know that this chemo-surgery-chemo was the best chance I had and was the accepted practice for my case.  I did a lot of research on this--it's called neoadjuvant therapy.  The idea is not to take any organs or parts of organs they don't have to and to make the surgery as easy on the patient as they can.  The post-surgery chemo is to take care of what they can't remove in surgery. I also got immediate relief of my symptoms from the chemo, and although I had side effects, they were easier managed than the symptoms.  Please don't compare your Mom's case to anyone else's, as we all are different.  I hope you will feel comforted by knowing that this sounds like a good treatment plan for your Mom and not at all unusual.  The very best wishes to you and your Mom. Paula  

[Jan214]

It is not uncommon to do chemo before debulking surgery to shrink the tumors so that they are easier to get out without having to take vital organs with it.  One of the ladies on here had 3 chemos and than debulking surgery.  I am sure that your mom's onc is doing what he thinks is best for her and it sounds like he has a handle on it, so I would just stick to the plan.    You definitely don't want your mom to have to have her colon removed, so maybe by doing the surgery/chemo/surgery/chemo thing it will avoid that.
Good luck to your family and do let us know how things are going.
Jan

[Ang80]

Hi

We are in the UK. My mum had first debulking surgery and then 6 courses of chemo then second look surgery. After the second surgery she was free of disease. She was stage 3 and this happened 3 yrs ago. Unfortunately Ovarian Cancer has a high reoccurence rate and mum was told her cancer had come back in Nov 2007. She has just finished more chemo.