Treatment aftereffects.

Good morning. I was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer  September 2002, started chemo in October, had extensive surgery February 2003 with three more chemos afterward. My oncologist had not anticipated that I would go into remission because of the extent of the disease, but I went into full remission after the 7th chemo, and possibly after the 6th, since no test was done. I had 8 chemos total. My last chemo was on May 20th and I'm wondering how long does it take for the effects of eight sessions of chemo to leave one's body? I had an almost symptom free 6-8 months before my diagnosis, little pain, etc. but have had more pains and other symptoms of the disease since I started chemo, and even after surgery. My recovery from surgery was very strong, and I only took pain medication for a few days after returning home. But not long after, I started having funny feelings in my stomach which persist. I saw my surgeon just last week and she detected no suspicious lumps, etc. in my stomach. Now I am particularly experiencing pain in my left leg, which my oncologist had said was 'neuropathy' caused by the chemo. Since it's been several weeks since the last chemo, I wonder is this likely to be permanent? Is there anything to be done to treat it other than swallowing pain pills?

Second question: Every doc that I saw (3-4) during the  diagnosis period asked if I had been having sore throats. I had not. Why was this an important question?

[Patann]

I noticed a mistatement in my post in this sentence:

I had an almost symptom free 6-8 months before my diagnosis, little pain, etc. but have had more pains and other symptoms of the disease since I started chemo ...

It should read "but have had more pains (nothing chronic) since I started and finished chemo..."

Hope this is not confusing. Thank you for your help. This is a great service to us.

[Patann]

Thank you! The inquiries about the 'sore throat' mentioned in my question were not during chemo, but during the diagnostic part, several weeks before chemo was started.