Surgery today...

[cbmilito]

Hello all
My Mother in law met with Dr's last week and was told they believe she has stage 3 and as I write this she is in surgery.  They found on her CT scans that she has a mass about 14cms and lots of others attached to small intestine on tip of lung and also causing problems with lymph nodes (fluid draining into her leg).  They obviously do not know the full extent until they go in but they are concerned about liver and splein.
I do not know her blood levels from the CA125 but will find out.  She has been in terrible pain constipated and her belly is bloated she looks like she is 6 mths pregnant.
Last night she took the various drugs to prepare for surgery which made her really sicky feeling and exhausted, she had an IV and Epidural when she arrived at the hospital this morning and my husband said she felt a little bit better.
We don't have any prognosis info from Dr yet I presume that will come after surgery, does anyone here have a similar diagnosis and know what road we are about to go down???
Any advice of info I could get from you would be helpful, I'm not at the hospital because I have a 2 yr old and my family lives in England and my mother in law is our babysitter, feeling alone and desperate for my husband we just lost his father 2 years ago and not quire recoverd from that...Thank you (Sorry so long)

[marie3B]

I hope the surgery goes well. As for prognosis, no one can say. So many factors play a part in how we manage to fight this disease.I think the most important factor is the will to fight hard and to not give up. After the surgery they will give you a more accurate staging and after the path report is in you will know the tumor type. Everyone with ovca has a different story to tell as far as what they experienced. I pray your mother-in-law will have the best care and will respond well to treatment. Keep us posted on her progress. Feel free to come here for support any time. Marie

[cbmilito]

Thanks Marie, What tumor types are there, and how soon is the path report available?
She is in Sloan Kettering in NY so I think treatment wise she has one of the best.

[marie3B]

Yes, she will get the best available there. My tumor type is mucinous. If caught early mucinous tumors respond well. If not, they are often resistant to chemo. Serous epithelial are more common and usually get a good response to first-line chemo.  There are others, too, like clear cell. I was told by my gyn/onc right after surgery that it looked mucinous, but I didn't see my report until over a week later. The chemo treatments are so much better than when my mom was diagnosed. Also the anti-nausea meds are much more effective than the old ones. Although chemo was rough, it was so much more tolerable than I expected it would be. Good luck to your family. Marie

[Morrowville]

I am sorry to hear of your families' difficulties.  I can't offer any advice but prayer, and I'll gladly incude your family in my prayers!  Please let us know how she does today, and how your all holding up too!

Best regards,
Morrowville

[iona1]

I do hope the surgery went well.  I too have been in your shoes.  In July of 2006, we started noticing the same symptoms as your mother in law.  She had surgery in August at Albert Einstein in NY.  There was not much the doctors could do because the tumors were all over her liver, kidney, intestines, etc.  The good part is that the tumors had not spread inside these organs.  They just took an ovary for testing purposes and closed her up so that she could get treatment.  She was staged at 3C.  She had 6 rounds of chemotherapy which was difficult, but tolarable.  On April 7th she had surgery again, and all those organs were clear of tumors.  They were able to complete the hysterectomy and she is currently recuperating and will soon have to have some additional rounds of chemo.  I am sharing this because by reading the various posts in this forum, it gave me the hope that I needed to be of good courage for my mom through this whole process.  Everyone's story is different, but through my mom's story I want you to know that even when things look bleak as they did last august with my mom, there is still hope because she has come a long way.  Please keep us posted on her progress and I will add her to my prayer list.   Leslie