February 27, 2024 • 30 mins
Tune in to hear from VDMC Provider Jade Williams as she shares her journey on the other side of the room, as a patient navigating ovarian cancer.
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(00:00):
Good morningand welcome to Focus on Health.
I'm your host, Laurie Foster.
And today we're going to hearfrom one of our providers, family practice
gerontologist Jade Williams, who overseesour skilled care program at the hospital.
However, this time she joins usfrom the other side of health care.
As a patient.
(00:20):
Going through her journey prior to
and leading up to her diagnosisof ovarian cancer, I want to thank Jade
for offering to share her story,for being so open, so vulnerable.
Displaying such strength in courage.
Now, here's Jade.
(00:41):
So my situation
really startedactually in December of 2022.
So I had been working with a trainerfor two years
and we were decided we were geared up for
like a new challenge because I was justkind of I felt stagnant, like I was just
religiously lifting,you know, 3 to 5 days a week.
(01:04):
And I was doing a little bit of cardiohere and there,
but I really wasn't doing anythinglike I needed a goal.
I'm just the type that I have to have like
some type of goalI'm like working towards.
And that's typicalwhen you're lifting weights.
And I know that sounds kind of silly, but
I mean,
you have goals, you know,like to increase your weight or,
you know, different things like thatmaybe do more advanced lifting, but like,
(01:27):
I just needed something that I could belike every day checking off and be like,
and this is where I made itat the end of this this time.
So it was December of 2022, rightat the end of the month.
I'm a little bit type-A,
didn't realize thatuntil this situation. But
(01:47):
so we have an app with the trainerthat we use and then you have like
your health app on your phonefor because I use an iPhone,
so it's an Apple product and you know,
you track everything on thereand it also tracks things for you.
Like one thing being a VO2 max, which
I won't delve heavily in do,but it just kind of identifies
(02:08):
where you're at cardiofitness wise, essentially.
And the month of December, mine
took a huge like nosediveand I didn't really know why.
Like itwent from being in the upper thirties
like 34 to 38 on a regular day or,you know, a week.
If I was working out to like in the toes,which is not good, anything
(02:29):
22 or belowreally says that there's something major
going on with youand you know, and I was like
maybe I just have like a glitch in mymy watch sensor.
Maybe I need to get a new watch.
I did like a reset all this stuff.And it wasn't changing.
And I was I was really tiredand I was telling my trainer
(02:49):
and I would tell Ryan, my husband,like I was so tired all the time
and I was increasing my caffeineso I would drink coffee in the morning.
I drank like a monster.
In the afternoonI was taking a pre-workout,
so I was taking almost 600 milligrams
some days, 400, 600milligrams of caffeine, which is a lot.
And I was workingand I couldn't get through the day.
(03:12):
I'd come home and I just like,you know, be so exhausted.
So it turned out the end of December.
So like the VO2 started taking a dipand in the middle of the month
and I did not have COVID,
I got COVID at the end of the month,which was coincidental.
And I was just like, I can't
(03:34):
I can't accept this and I'mgoing to like just be this lazy moment.
So we decided we were going.
To train for our first half marathon.
So like January one, while I had COVID,I started training for the half
marathon and I was like, you know, becauseif you get your body up and moving,
you usually feel better.
(03:55):
And lifting weightswas taking way too much effort.
And I'm like, I'm just going to cut backand lift three days
a week lighter weight because reallynow my focus is just kick in.
This half marathon that we decidedwas in March down in Des Moines.
So as soon as I started training,
I began to experience like lower backpain.
(04:18):
And I was primarily on the left side
and I thought maybeI just had tweaked my back from lifting
or from the runningbecause just the pounding on the treadmill
and that's how I startedtraining can be brutal.
And so I got two newpairs of running shoes
was like alternating, doing all the thingsthat they tell you to do.
And then I started having serious, like spotting.
(04:42):
And at first it just started twice a week.
And then from thereit was like just progressing.
But my actual menstrual cyclestayed on course, so it didn't matter
how much fighting I was having,I would still have a regular cycle.
And I was like, Well, this is so weird.
And I talk to my trainer about itand, you know, we both decided
(05:06):
I had a reasonfor all the things that was happening,
and it wasn't like I was droppingweight or anything.
But the once you change or stretch
your body sometimes in a new way, especially for women, we can experience
like the spotting, like pain and different things like that.
And I was like, You know what?
(05:26):
I had two pregnancies.
The last one was very difficult,
developed a uterine prolapsewhile I was pregnant,
and so I just chalked it up to a poor core
and a weak pelvic floor,and I just needed to work harder.
So I started increasinglike my core workout
and my legs and that type of thing.
(05:50):
And then we get into March and we go downand we run the race.
And by that time I had gained
like over £5 from when I had started,
which I thought was bizarrebecause I was running at one point
over 20 miles a weektraining for this race and lifting.
And I've been on a consistent eightcalorie
(06:12):
macros,what we call it a macro calorie count
where I track everything that I eatand I have a specific amount of protein.
I'm taking in and carbs and fat.
And so to not have that number movefor those three months
and then to be gaining weight, I was like,what is happening?
You know, And and so I
(06:35):
my trainer and I, we talked about itagain and she was like, well,
you know, if you're stressing your body,
your body sometimes will be resistantand it'll hold on.
Yeah.
And she's like,You're lean and you're tall and. So.
That could be the reason.
But, you know, just like if it keeps happening,
you know,you probably go to the doctor and.
(06:58):
And so, you know.
I didn't because why would I do that?
Were you still as tired,like when you were in like
the majority of your training?
So it got better, actually, the fatigue.
But that was probably because
or it could have also beenbecause I developed a mindset
(07:20):
like if I can knock out a two hour run,then I can like do anything else.
And I had convinced myself
because I was getting up at like 430in the morning, running for 2 hours,
and then I'd come into work and do my job,and then I'd go home and take
care of the girls and, you know, familyand all those other things.
And so I was maybe getting 6 hoursof sleep, but I was just doing that.
(07:45):
That was like my cycle
and and so
then when we finished that race,I was like, okay, well, we talked about it
and I had to cut back on activityfor like two weeks.
And that was just the recommendation.
Like when you finish running a race,your body is so taxed from all that
(08:05):
you need to really taper back.
Well, and then we anticipated to see
maybe a little bit of normalizationwith my weight at that point.
So that took us tolike the end of March and
and the weight never did.
It just stayedlike right around where it was.
(08:26):
And then I started feelinglike I was bloated all the time.
And so once again, I went back
to the drawing boardand increased my fiber intake instead of
having, you
know, really reevaluatingmaybe what was going on.
And so then I started consuminglike 30 grams,
35 grams of protein,which is a high amount.
(08:48):
I increased my water intake towell over 100 ounces a day,
which was my baseline was around80 to 100 a day.
So I went over 100 ounces a dayreligiously.
I had to start taking stool softeners
because the fiber, in my opinion,caused the constipation.
So I basically had just whittled awayall five primary
(09:11):
symptoms that you were to be looking forfor ovarian cancer.
And those are the bloating,the pain, the constipation, urination.
And then usually you startto experience issues with eating.
But I couldn'ttell if I was having problems
because I had numbersI was trying to meet every day.
(09:31):
So I was forcing myself to eatwhether I was hungry or not.
And it might not have always been thingsthat I enjoyed eating,
but I was eating because I had thesethese macros that I had to meet.
So the
next thingI know, the spotting was getting worse.
And then then I started to experienceissues with the urination
(09:55):
where it was just likeI'd be in rounding on a patient and I just
I'd have to leave the roombecause I was going to
pee my pants like it was you know,
it would be terribleor we'd be in the middle of rounds
and I'd be like,I have to go to the bathroom.
Like, Can we just wait a minute?
And then I'll meet you guys in there or,you know, something like that.
(10:16):
So that's, you know,I don't like making people wait on me
and I don't Everybody'stime is just as important as mine.
So for my team to have to be waitingaround, you know, for all these frequent
bathroom breaks and all of that,that was frustrating as well to me.
But I will that issue awaybecause I was constipated
(10:37):
and I was like, well, constipationcauses issues with urinary frequency,
so there's literally nothingI need to be worried about at this point.
And then
it had to have been May by that point.
And we were planning a tripto go to Florida for two weeks in June.
(10:59):
We were taking the girls to Disney
and then we were meeting my parentsdown in Florida for the second week.
And out of nowhere my,
my health app on my phone
sent me an alerttelling me that the symptoms
that I had been documenting,
because these are all thingsyou can document in your health app,
were concerningand I needed to make an appointment
(11:22):
with a physician or a provider,and then it provided a PDF
of all these symptomsthat I'd been tracking from December
until that point in May,and it was exportable.
You could so you could click on itand you could export it, print it off,
and it said that it would recommendyou take this to your provider
to have them analyze these graphsand look at all these things that I had
(11:45):
been charting and, and I was like,my gosh, like, this is crazy.
One, I didn't know that the health app
was able to function that way,but I think it's amazing.
Yeah.
And unfortunately,I'm not like endorsed.
By Apple products,but I do have to like really put.
A plug in for thisbecause this is amazing.
(12:08):
And honestly,like I said, I being a provider
myself, had willed away every singlesymptom I was experiencing and,
and my phone, my,my phone is the one thing
that was telling me like,no, you need to go get this checked out.
So I talk to my husband about it.
(12:30):
And and then it made me concerned
because then I knew there was something.
I just had this feelingthat there was obviously something there.
And we went to Florida for a vacation.
And while we were there, I rememberlifting weights at one of the hotels.
(12:51):
It was in Clearwater and the gym,and I did.
It was just like a lightupper body workout.
And as soon as I finished that,I just had this terrible amount
of spotting and I was wearing white shortsand it couldn't have been
more embarrassing,you know, of a situation to be in.
And so I told them I came downstairsand I was like, I am.
(13:12):
I got to make an appointmentwhen we get back.
And so so that's what I did.
So we got backand I made an appointment with
I Have a Specialty or Gabriel Skin Clinicwith Valerie Martin,
who's a nurse practitioner therethat specializes in abnormal issues
and surrounds perimenopauseand menopause and things like that.
(13:37):
She was able to see me in July.
We talked about the symptoms I was having,and she said, you know, it's possible
because my mom was youngwhen she went started menopause.
She was 35 that I was maybe experiencingsome of those situations,
but we really wouldn't knowuntil we did some testing.
And because I was over 35,there was a specific subset of tests
(14:01):
that they have to do for youto rule out things like a mass
or uterine canceror different things like that.
So we scheduled that appointment.
Unfortunately, it wasn't till like towardsthe end of August
because of how it lined upwith the type of stuff
that they had to have inthe clinic and all of that.
(14:22):
So I was like
around the 24th, I think of August,I went in and we did a abdominal
ultrasound,a like an intra vaginal ultrasound,
a uterine biopsy and
and some bloodwork that day.
(14:42):
And we as soon as they didthe abdominal ultrasound,
it was fine.
We didn'tthe tech and I had been chatting,
you know, really wasn't anythingconcerning or, you know, at that point.
And then we moved to the internationaland that's when I mean,
I just felt her demeanor change.
(15:05):
She asked how old my children were.
And for those of youwho've had a intravascular ultrasound,
you can't really see
what's happening on the screenbecause of the position you're in.
But I just remember trying to like,
look up and see what it wasthat she was seeing.
And when I looked up, you could just seemy right ovary was literally
(15:25):
just like broken openand just like spilling out the stuff.
There was a bunch of fluid and then thereand then we moved over to the left ovary
and there was just this consenttrick mass like,
and I thought itwas the ovary at that time.
And it just
I was I just was like, my gosh, Like,
(15:45):
this is obviously something terrible.
It's all he kept saying to myself.
And we finished the exam.
And she asked me to put this blanket
basically like wrap myself upand go next door to the exam room.
Like I didn't change nothing.
I just got up off the table,went into the exam room, and immediately
(16:09):
I did The one thing that we tellevery patient not to do
started Googling ovarian mass plague.
What does this mean?
And I'm looking at picturesand I'm trying to find which one looked
like what I seen on the screen.
And and Valerie came walking in
and we just both kind oflooked at each other and I started crying.
(16:29):
And I asked herif she thought it was cancer.
And she said, well, you know, definitivelywe can't we can't make that decision.
She's like, if you have a
really large amount of fluidin your pelvic area, which is concerning.
And then she said, Do you have any pain?
(16:49):
And that was so I said, Yeah, I'm in painall the time.
My left leg goes numb.
I just do all. These things I said, But.
I lift weights and I run and
I said, I'm constantly like,I have to stretch out my back.
And it actually about thistime had gotten to the point
where I had emailed Lisa Ridge,
(17:11):
my boss,telling her I needed a new office chair
because my office chair I had was wreaking
havoc on my back.
And and so, you know, Lisa, she was she.
Complied. She's like, well,what kind you want?
What do we need to do?
All those things?
And then it.
Really just turned out
it didn't matter
what office chair I had because it wasn'tgoing to make the problem any better.
(17:35):
Yeah.
So then when I left, leftthe appointment that day,
I, Valerie,
decided shewas going to tack on what we call aca1 25.
And I knew right there that her suspicionwas elevated, that there was a mass
because this is a marker that we checkspecifically for ovarian cancer and women.
(17:59):
But,
you know, I also was terrified rightuntil I left the appointment.
And I just remembercalling my husband crying
and he felt terrible that he wasn't there.
And I said, well, how could you have knownlike but just some routine
examinations and diagnosticswas going to turn into, you know,
(18:23):
potentially dealing with a cancer,you know?
And so that weekend
I also did the next thingwe tell every patient not to do.
And I checked my portal religiouslyuntil I found out what the radiologist
thought my reports looked likeand needed to know.
And then I kept refreshinguntil that Tier 125 came back
(18:46):
and and it came back fine.
It was like a 35, which is by standard,not really indicative at all.
It's just barely over.
Or at the basic upperlimit is what you would say.
First year when 25 usuallyif you have an active ovarian,
that number might be 100 or 200or we also can use it as a guideline
(19:09):
on how well the canceris taking the the chemo treatment,
because you can kind of watch that numberand recheck it
intermittentlyand you want it to trend down.
So I left that weekendwithout really any answers
other than the radiologistthought it was suspicious
(19:29):
and had discussed,you know, all the additional fluid
that was in my pelvisand things like that. And so
the clinic, of course, called methe following week
once they had everythingand said that I needed to come in.
But unfortunately,I wouldn't be meeting with Valerie.
I would be meeting with one of theirgaijin gynecologist, which was Dr.
(19:53):
McIntyre, and she was going to goover my results with me.
And so that's always concerningwhen you go moving from, say,
I know sometimes peopledon't like the term, but the mid-level
to a physician,
you know, it's always concerning.
So Ryan did come with meto that appointment,
and that would have beenin early September.
(20:16):
And she I'll probably start crying.
So she reviewed
the results
and she didn't want to discuss if.
She felt it was cancer.
And she said, you know, typically
I would remove this mask myself.
(20:38):
She's like,But I just feel like in your case,
I need to refer you or have a discussion
with a guy in gynecological oncologist.
And she said, typically,you know, I refer to Dr.
Elledge,
who at the time I had no
idea who he was because I,I don't specialize in women's health.
(21:00):
It's not my forte.
He's so
we left an appointment at 1:00and she said she was reaching out to him.
And by 330 they called me and said that.
He said,if there is any suspicion or concern
that he wanted to meet with methe following week.
And so we went down and then met with him
(21:23):
and he reviewed everythingand he said, you know,
even though you're a provider,I mean, I treat you just like
I would any of my other patient.
He's like, I'm not going to give youmore information than you need
and I'm not going to withholdany information, he said.
But ultimately, we have to do it.
We have to remove it to knoweven what we're dealing with, because just
(21:45):
based off of the
ultrasound,
you know, we know there's a mass,but it could be completely benign
or it could be nothing or it could end up being something.
And we really wouldn't
even know what that something isuntil we turn it off to pathology.
So we decided
(22:05):
that surgery was the next option and
I had also decided at that point
that summer, with everything going on,
that I was going to start training againfor another half marathon.
So I was in the middle of trainingfor that in September,
and our half marathonwas scheduled for October 15th
(22:28):
and I knew what it meant
if I had surgerythat it was going to keep me
from being activeand not just for a short period of time,
but like we're talking 6 to 8 weeksjust from the initial surgery.
And if for some reason it came back
concerning,there would have to be another surgery.
So I was adamant that I was going
(22:51):
to be able to finish this raceand then I would do the surgery.
And he he obliged.
He was not really thrilled about it.
But he said ultimately at this point,we were looking at a surgery
around the middle of October based offof his schedule, and he said, you know,
(23:13):
it's not going to push you backmore than a couple of weeks.
I think.
I think we can honor that.
So I ran the race on the 15th
and it was just like a good feelingto be able to do that.
And then when I finished the race,the pain in my left leg was so severe
I couldn't walk.
And they have.
(23:35):
If you've never been at a race,they have it set up where
they have like studentsand they have chiropractors
and all this stuffon the other side of the finish line
and they saw me coming across andthey were like, You can come over here.
And we're like,Well, we'll try and stretch you out.
And like all of that, I justI was like, No, it's fine.
I just want to try and walk it off,
(23:56):
get back to my hotel,and then we'll like come back down.
Hopefully it was my goal,but at that point I didn't really know
because it hurt so bad until I like
had to tiptoe or walk back to our hotel,
you know?
And it's just funny.
And I'm just lucky that I was ableto actually finish the race because,
(24:18):
you know, it was pretty bad.
And so we finished the raceand it was great.
And then my trainer,who I still working with,
you know, she told meI really should probably ease off
of the working outas is recommended after a race.
(24:39):
But I was like, no, I'm not.
Because I know come October
the original surgery was scheduledfor October 25th.
I know after that I can't do like anything except for a walk.
So I continue to run.
I continue to lift weights
and I even lifted weightsthe day of surgery, which was terrible
(25:01):
because you're fasting and you can't drinkanything in the morning. So
when I got there to surgery,
you know, they couldn'tit took like five times for them
to even get an IVbecause my eye was so dehydrated. But
and I also felt goodjust to now like that.
(25:23):
I knocked off a workout the last dayand whatever comes,
like mentally,I needed it for my mental state.
I needed to be able to just get in there,do something that I enjoy doing.
And, you know, go from there. So
so then I just remember,
you know, going back to surgery
(25:43):
and the surgery that day just keptgetting pushed back and pushed back
because he is
just the best guy,not good in the state of Iowa.
And he gets into surgeryand he's very thorough
and he does you know what he needsto do for each patient.
But that then means that the,
you know, the following casecould get pushed out a little bit. So
(26:08):
so they took me back
and I justI just remember getting back into the O.R.
and they had me back in a wheelchair andI got on the table and I started crying.
And they're like, the ladies were so greatback there in the O.R.
And they said,You know, this isn't uncommon.
A lot of women cry, unfortunately,when they get back here to this point.
And I had a doctor,I had an anesthesiologist who is a female.
(26:33):
And so she just started talking to meand they had some music going.
And she said that she was going tojust kind of give me something to relax.
And I and then before I knew it,
I'd wake up inthe surgery would be over and everything.
And she was right, you know, Next thingI knew, I woke up and I was in recovery.
(26:55):
And and like, this level of pain
that I never thoughtthat I was going to experience.
And he Doctor Elledge came in
and they started pulling the curtainsand they were like, where's her husband?
That's all they kept saying. And he Dr.
Auge was said that he had already visitedwith Ryan and he wanted him back there.
(27:18):
And so they were likegetting Ryan to come back.
And he just grabbed my handand he's like, Your husband's a wreck.
And I was like, you know,what are you telling me?
And he said, It's cancer.
And he said, I'm so sorry.
And then he justhe may have said more, but at that point,
I don't really knowbecause it was very dreamy
(27:41):
and they gave me so much,you know, pain medication.
I was like, I really don't knowthe amount of time
that elapsed from mewaking up and him coming back there.
It all seemed to happen very fast.
But I, you know, I really don't know.
And and so then the next thing you know,Ryan was standing there and he was crying
and we were both crying.
(28:01):
And he started to tell methat Doctor Elledge was hoping
or he was optimisticthat it was going to be germ cell.
And so we held on to that
and was very hopefulthat that's what it was going to be.
And so kind of what that means isthe ovary
is there's really four layers,but we kind of classify it as three.
(28:24):
So you have like you're outsideepithelial, then you have like this
like connective tissue,and then you have essentially
like the inner core of the ovary.
And so each
area canhave its own type of cancer, basically.
And so the germ cellwould be on the outside
(28:45):
as well as epithelial cancer.
And unfortunately, mine was not germ
cell, which would have been
have the surgery, take out the over inthe mouse and you're done with germ cell.
But mine is a subtype of epithelial.
It's called clear cell carcinoma.
(29:05):
So it is aggressiveand it's on the outside of the ovary,
which makes it badbecause then it's sharing its cancer
cells with every other tissuethat it comes into contact with.
You know,and like a good analogy that we have used
is that, you know,you have cancer and it's in one spot,
(29:30):
but it's just kind of likegoing to the airport.
That cancer's hanging out at the airport,but it has an intention to go
or can go somewhere else.
And it's just a matter of time
when is it going to get on that planeand like take off.
So mine we checked thethe fluid that was in my pelvis.
(29:50):
And at that timeand it came back suspicious.
And so then that'swhat made it even more concerning was that
it was on the outside of the ovaryand then it in your pelvic washings.
So whatever was touching the pelvic fluid
has now been exposed to this aggressive
subtype of cancer.
(30:14):
Thank you to Jade
and thank you for tuning in for part one.
Join us next week on Focus on Health
to hear more from JadeWilliams about her journey.
That will do itfor today's edition of Focus on Health,
brought to you by Vandy Medical Center,where our focus is you.
Good morningand welcome to Focus on Health.
I'm your host, Laurie Foster.
And today we're going to hearfrom one of our providers, family practice
gerontologist Jade Williams, who overseesour skilled care program at the hospital.
However, this time she joins usfrom the other side of health care.
As a patient.
(00:20):
Going through her journey prior to
and leading up to her diagnosisof ovarian cancer, I want to thank Jade
for offering to share her story,for being so open, so vulnerable.
Displaying such strength in courage.
Now, here's Jade.
(00:41):
So my situation
really startedactually in December of 2022.
So I had been working with a trainerfor two years
and we were decided we were geared up for
like a new challenge because I was justkind of I felt stagnant, like I was just
religiously lifting,you know, 3 to 5 days a week.
(01:04):
And I was doing a little bit of cardiohere and there,
but I really wasn't doing anythinglike I needed a goal.
I'm just the type that I have to have like
some type of goalI'm like working towards.
And that's typicalwhen you're lifting weights.
And I know that sounds kind of silly, but
I mean,
you have goals, you know,like to increase your weight or,
you know, different things like thatmaybe do more advanced lifting, but like,
(01:27):
I just needed something that I could belike every day checking off and be like,
and this is where I made itat the end of this this time.
So it was December of 2022, rightat the end of the month.
I'm a little bit type-A,
didn't realize thatuntil this situation. But
(01:47):
so we have an app with the trainerthat we use and then you have like
your health app on your phonefor because I use an iPhone,
so it's an Apple product and you know,
you track everything on thereand it also tracks things for you.
Like one thing being a VO2 max, which
I won't delve heavily in do,but it just kind of identifies
(02:08):
where you're at cardiofitness wise, essentially.
And the month of December, mine
took a huge like nosediveand I didn't really know why.
Like itwent from being in the upper thirties
like 34 to 38 on a regular day or,you know, a week.
If I was working out to like in the toes,which is not good, anything
(02:29):
22 or belowreally says that there's something major
going on with youand you know, and I was like
maybe I just have like a glitch in mymy watch sensor.
Maybe I need to get a new watch.
I did like a reset all this stuff.And it wasn't changing.
And I was I was really tiredand I was telling my trainer
(02:49):
and I would tell Ryan, my husband,like I was so tired all the time
and I was increasing my caffeineso I would drink coffee in the morning.
I drank like a monster.
In the afternoonI was taking a pre-workout,
so I was taking almost 600 milligrams
some days, 400, 600milligrams of caffeine, which is a lot.
And I was workingand I couldn't get through the day.
(03:12):
I'd come home and I just like,you know, be so exhausted.
So it turned out the end of December.
So like the VO2 started taking a dipand in the middle of the month
and I did not have COVID,
I got COVID at the end of the month,which was coincidental.
And I was just like, I can't
(03:34):
I can't accept this and I'mgoing to like just be this lazy moment.
So we decided we were going.
To train for our first half marathon.
So like January one, while I had COVID,I started training for the half
marathon and I was like, you know, becauseif you get your body up and moving,
you usually feel better.
(03:55):
And lifting weightswas taking way too much effort.
And I'm like, I'm just going to cut backand lift three days
a week lighter weight because reallynow my focus is just kick in.
This half marathon that we decidedwas in March down in Des Moines.
So as soon as I started training,
I began to experience like lower backpain.
(04:18):
And I was primarily on the left side
and I thought maybeI just had tweaked my back from lifting
or from the runningbecause just the pounding on the treadmill
and that's how I startedtraining can be brutal.
And so I got two newpairs of running shoes
was like alternating, doing all the thingsthat they tell you to do.
And then I started having serious, like spotting.
(04:42):
And at first it just started twice a week.
And then from thereit was like just progressing.
But my actual menstrual cyclestayed on course, so it didn't matter
how much fighting I was having,I would still have a regular cycle.
And I was like, Well, this is so weird.
And I talk to my trainer about itand, you know, we both decided
(05:06):
I had a reasonfor all the things that was happening,
and it wasn't like I was droppingweight or anything.
But the once you change or stretch
your body sometimes in a new way, especially for women, we can experience
like the spotting, like pain and different things like that.
And I was like, You know what?
(05:26):
I had two pregnancies.
The last one was very difficult,
developed a uterine prolapsewhile I was pregnant,
and so I just chalked it up to a poor core
and a weak pelvic floor,and I just needed to work harder.
So I started increasinglike my core workout
and my legs and that type of thing.
(05:50):
And then we get into March and we go downand we run the race.
And by that time I had gained
like over £5 from when I had started,
which I thought was bizarrebecause I was running at one point
over 20 miles a weektraining for this race and lifting.
And I've been on a consistent eightcalorie
(06:12):
macros,what we call it a macro calorie count
where I track everything that I eatand I have a specific amount of protein.
I'm taking in and carbs and fat.
And so to not have that number movefor those three months
and then to be gaining weight, I was like,what is happening?
You know, And and so I
(06:35):
my trainer and I, we talked about itagain and she was like, well,
you know, if you're stressing your body,
your body sometimes will be resistantand it'll hold on.
Yeah.
And she's like,You're lean and you're tall and. So.
That could be the reason.
But, you know, just like if it keeps happening,
you know,you probably go to the doctor and.
(06:58):
And so, you know.
I didn't because why would I do that?
Were you still as tired,like when you were in like
the majority of your training?
So it got better, actually, the fatigue.
But that was probably because
or it could have also beenbecause I developed a mindset
(07:20):
like if I can knock out a two hour run,then I can like do anything else.
And I had convinced myself
because I was getting up at like 430in the morning, running for 2 hours,
and then I'd come into work and do my job,and then I'd go home and take
care of the girls and, you know, familyand all those other things.
And so I was maybe getting 6 hoursof sleep, but I was just doing that.
(07:45):
That was like my cycle
and and so
then when we finished that race,I was like, okay, well, we talked about it
and I had to cut back on activityfor like two weeks.
And that was just the recommendation.
Like when you finish running a race,your body is so taxed from all that
(08:05):
you need to really taper back.
Well, and then we anticipated to see
maybe a little bit of normalizationwith my weight at that point.
So that took us tolike the end of March and
and the weight never did.
It just stayedlike right around where it was.
(08:26):
And then I started feelinglike I was bloated all the time.
And so once again, I went back
to the drawing boardand increased my fiber intake instead of
having, you
know, really reevaluatingmaybe what was going on.
And so then I started consuminglike 30 grams,
35 grams of protein,which is a high amount.
(08:48):
I increased my water intake towell over 100 ounces a day,
which was my baseline was around80 to 100 a day.
So I went over 100 ounces a dayreligiously.
I had to start taking stool softeners
because the fiber, in my opinion,caused the constipation.
So I basically had just whittled awayall five primary
(09:11):
symptoms that you were to be looking forfor ovarian cancer.
And those are the bloating,the pain, the constipation, urination.
And then usually you startto experience issues with eating.
But I couldn'ttell if I was having problems
because I had numbersI was trying to meet every day.
(09:31):
So I was forcing myself to eatwhether I was hungry or not.
And it might not have always been thingsthat I enjoyed eating,
but I was eating because I had thesethese macros that I had to meet.
So the
next thingI know, the spotting was getting worse.
And then then I started to experienceissues with the urination
(09:55):
where it was just likeI'd be in rounding on a patient and I just
I'd have to leave the roombecause I was going to
pee my pants like it was you know,
it would be terribleor we'd be in the middle of rounds
and I'd be like,I have to go to the bathroom.
Like, Can we just wait a minute?
And then I'll meet you guys in there or,you know, something like that.
(10:16):
So that's, you know,I don't like making people wait on me
and I don't Everybody'stime is just as important as mine.
So for my team to have to be waitingaround, you know, for all these frequent
bathroom breaks and all of that,that was frustrating as well to me.
But I will that issue awaybecause I was constipated
(10:37):
and I was like, well, constipationcauses issues with urinary frequency,
so there's literally nothingI need to be worried about at this point.
And then
it had to have been May by that point.
And we were planning a tripto go to Florida for two weeks in June.
(10:59):
We were taking the girls to Disney
and then we were meeting my parentsdown in Florida for the second week.
And out of nowhere my,
my health app on my phone
sent me an alerttelling me that the symptoms
that I had been documenting,
because these are all thingsyou can document in your health app,
were concerningand I needed to make an appointment
(11:22):
with a physician or a provider,and then it provided a PDF
of all these symptomsthat I'd been tracking from December
until that point in May,and it was exportable.
You could so you could click on itand you could export it, print it off,
and it said that it would recommendyou take this to your provider
to have them analyze these graphsand look at all these things that I had
(11:45):
been charting and, and I was like,my gosh, like, this is crazy.
One, I didn't know that the health app
was able to function that way,but I think it's amazing.
Yeah.
And unfortunately,I'm not like endorsed.
By Apple products,but I do have to like really put.
A plug in for thisbecause this is amazing.
(12:08):
And honestly,like I said, I being a provider
myself, had willed away every singlesymptom I was experiencing and,
and my phone, my,my phone is the one thing
that was telling me like,no, you need to go get this checked out.
So I talk to my husband about it.
(12:30):
And and then it made me concerned
because then I knew there was something.
I just had this feelingthat there was obviously something there.
And we went to Florida for a vacation.
And while we were there, I rememberlifting weights at one of the hotels.
(12:51):
It was in Clearwater and the gym,and I did.
It was just like a lightupper body workout.
And as soon as I finished that,I just had this terrible amount
of spotting and I was wearing white shortsand it couldn't have been
more embarrassing,you know, of a situation to be in.
And so I told them I came downstairsand I was like, I am.
(13:12):
I got to make an appointmentwhen we get back.
And so so that's what I did.
So we got backand I made an appointment with
I Have a Specialty or Gabriel Skin Clinicwith Valerie Martin,
who's a nurse practitioner therethat specializes in abnormal issues
and surrounds perimenopauseand menopause and things like that.
(13:37):
She was able to see me in July.
We talked about the symptoms I was having,and she said, you know, it's possible
because my mom was youngwhen she went started menopause.
She was 35 that I was maybe experiencingsome of those situations,
but we really wouldn't knowuntil we did some testing.
And because I was over 35,there was a specific subset of tests
(14:01):
that they have to do for youto rule out things like a mass
or uterine canceror different things like that.
So we scheduled that appointment.
Unfortunately, it wasn't till like towardsthe end of August
because of how it lined upwith the type of stuff
that they had to have inthe clinic and all of that.
(14:22):
So I was like
around the 24th, I think of August,I went in and we did a abdominal
ultrasound,a like an intra vaginal ultrasound,
a uterine biopsy and
and some bloodwork that day.
(14:42):
And we as soon as they didthe abdominal ultrasound,
it was fine.
We didn'tthe tech and I had been chatting,
you know, really wasn't anythingconcerning or, you know, at that point.
And then we moved to the internationaland that's when I mean,
I just felt her demeanor change.
(15:05):
She asked how old my children were.
And for those of youwho've had a intravascular ultrasound,
you can't really see
what's happening on the screenbecause of the position you're in.
But I just remember trying to like,
look up and see what it wasthat she was seeing.
And when I looked up, you could just seemy right ovary was literally
(15:25):
just like broken openand just like spilling out the stuff.
There was a bunch of fluid and then thereand then we moved over to the left ovary
and there was just this consenttrick mass like,
and I thought itwas the ovary at that time.
And it just
I was I just was like, my gosh, Like,
(15:45):
this is obviously something terrible.
It's all he kept saying to myself.
And we finished the exam.
And she asked me to put this blanket
basically like wrap myself upand go next door to the exam room.
Like I didn't change nothing.
I just got up off the table,went into the exam room, and immediately
(16:09):
I did The one thing that we tellevery patient not to do
started Googling ovarian mass plague.
What does this mean?
And I'm looking at picturesand I'm trying to find which one looked
like what I seen on the screen.
And and Valerie came walking in
and we just both kind oflooked at each other and I started crying.
(16:29):
And I asked herif she thought it was cancer.
And she said, well, you know, definitivelywe can't we can't make that decision.
She's like, if you have a
really large amount of fluidin your pelvic area, which is concerning.
And then she said, Do you have any pain?
(16:49):
And that was so I said, Yeah, I'm in painall the time.
My left leg goes numb.
I just do all. These things I said, But.
I lift weights and I run and
I said, I'm constantly like,I have to stretch out my back.
And it actually about thistime had gotten to the point
where I had emailed Lisa Ridge,
(17:11):
my boss,telling her I needed a new office chair
because my office chair I had was wreaking
havoc on my back.
And and so, you know, Lisa, she was she.
Complied. She's like, well,what kind you want?
What do we need to do?
All those things?
And then it.
Really just turned out
it didn't matter
what office chair I had because it wasn'tgoing to make the problem any better.
(17:35):
Yeah.
So then when I left, leftthe appointment that day,
I, Valerie,
decided shewas going to tack on what we call aca1 25.
And I knew right there that her suspicionwas elevated, that there was a mass
because this is a marker that we checkspecifically for ovarian cancer and women.
(17:59):
But,
you know, I also was terrified rightuntil I left the appointment.
And I just remembercalling my husband crying
and he felt terrible that he wasn't there.
And I said, well, how could you have knownlike but just some routine
examinations and diagnosticswas going to turn into, you know,
(18:23):
potentially dealing with a cancer,you know?
And so that weekend
I also did the next thingwe tell every patient not to do.
And I checked my portal religiouslyuntil I found out what the radiologist
thought my reports looked likeand needed to know.
And then I kept refreshinguntil that Tier 125 came back
(18:46):
and and it came back fine.
It was like a 35, which is by standard,not really indicative at all.
It's just barely over.
Or at the basic upperlimit is what you would say.
First year when 25 usuallyif you have an active ovarian,
that number might be 100 or 200or we also can use it as a guideline
(19:09):
on how well the canceris taking the the chemo treatment,
because you can kind of watch that numberand recheck it
intermittentlyand you want it to trend down.
So I left that weekendwithout really any answers
other than the radiologistthought it was suspicious
(19:29):
and had discussed,you know, all the additional fluid
that was in my pelvisand things like that. And so
the clinic, of course, called methe following week
once they had everythingand said that I needed to come in.
But unfortunately,I wouldn't be meeting with Valerie.
I would be meeting with one of theirgaijin gynecologist, which was Dr.
(19:53):
McIntyre, and she was going to goover my results with me.
And so that's always concerningwhen you go moving from, say,
I know sometimes peopledon't like the term, but the mid-level
to a physician,
you know, it's always concerning.
So Ryan did come with meto that appointment,
and that would have beenin early September.
(20:16):
And she I'll probably start crying.
So she reviewed
the results
and she didn't want to discuss if.
She felt it was cancer.
And she said, you know, typically
I would remove this mask myself.
(20:38):
She's like,But I just feel like in your case,
I need to refer you or have a discussion
with a guy in gynecological oncologist.
And she said, typically,you know, I refer to Dr.
Elledge,
who at the time I had no
idea who he was because I,I don't specialize in women's health.
(21:00):
It's not my forte.
He's so
we left an appointment at 1:00and she said she was reaching out to him.
And by 330 they called me and said that.
He said,if there is any suspicion or concern
that he wanted to meet with methe following week.
And so we went down and then met with him
(21:23):
and he reviewed everythingand he said, you know,
even though you're a provider,I mean, I treat you just like
I would any of my other patient.
He's like, I'm not going to give youmore information than you need
and I'm not going to withholdany information, he said.
But ultimately, we have to do it.
We have to remove it to knoweven what we're dealing with, because just
(21:45):
based off of the
ultrasound,
you know, we know there's a mass,but it could be completely benign
or it could be nothing or it could end up being something.
And we really wouldn't
even know what that something isuntil we turn it off to pathology.
So we decided
(22:05):
that surgery was the next option and
I had also decided at that point
that summer, with everything going on,
that I was going to start training againfor another half marathon.
So I was in the middle of trainingfor that in September,
and our half marathonwas scheduled for October 15th
(22:28):
and I knew what it meant
if I had surgerythat it was going to keep me
from being activeand not just for a short period of time,
but like we're talking 6 to 8 weeksjust from the initial surgery.
And if for some reason it came back
concerning,there would have to be another surgery.
So I was adamant that I was going
(22:51):
to be able to finish this raceand then I would do the surgery.
And he he obliged.
He was not really thrilled about it.
But he said ultimately at this point,we were looking at a surgery
around the middle of October based offof his schedule, and he said, you know,
(23:13):
it's not going to push you backmore than a couple of weeks.
I think.
I think we can honor that.
So I ran the race on the 15th
and it was just like a good feelingto be able to do that.
And then when I finished the race,the pain in my left leg was so severe
I couldn't walk.
And they have.
(23:35):
If you've never been at a race,they have it set up where
they have like studentsand they have chiropractors
and all this stuffon the other side of the finish line
and they saw me coming across andthey were like, You can come over here.
And we're like,Well, we'll try and stretch you out.
And like all of that, I justI was like, No, it's fine.
I just want to try and walk it off,
(23:56):
get back to my hotel,and then we'll like come back down.
Hopefully it was my goal,but at that point I didn't really know
because it hurt so bad until I like
had to tiptoe or walk back to our hotel,
you know?
And it's just funny.
And I'm just lucky that I was ableto actually finish the race because,
(24:18):
you know, it was pretty bad.
And so we finished the raceand it was great.
And then my trainer,who I still working with,
you know, she told meI really should probably ease off
of the working outas is recommended after a race.
(24:39):
But I was like, no, I'm not.
Because I know come October
the original surgery was scheduledfor October 25th.
I know after that I can't do like anything except for a walk.
So I continue to run.
I continue to lift weights
and I even lifted weightsthe day of surgery, which was terrible
(25:01):
because you're fasting and you can't drinkanything in the morning. So
when I got there to surgery,
you know, they couldn'tit took like five times for them
to even get an IVbecause my eye was so dehydrated. But
and I also felt goodjust to now like that.
(25:23):
I knocked off a workout the last dayand whatever comes,
like mentally,I needed it for my mental state.
I needed to be able to just get in there,do something that I enjoy doing.
And, you know, go from there. So
so then I just remember,
you know, going back to surgery
(25:43):
and the surgery that day just keptgetting pushed back and pushed back
because he is
just the best guy,not good in the state of Iowa.
And he gets into surgeryand he's very thorough
and he does you know what he needsto do for each patient.
But that then means that the,
you know, the following casecould get pushed out a little bit. So
(26:08):
so they took me back
and I justI just remember getting back into the O.R.
and they had me back in a wheelchair andI got on the table and I started crying.
And they're like, the ladies were so greatback there in the O.R.
And they said,You know, this isn't uncommon.
A lot of women cry, unfortunately,when they get back here to this point.
And I had a doctor,I had an anesthesiologist who is a female.
(26:33):
And so she just started talking to meand they had some music going.
And she said that she was going tojust kind of give me something to relax.
And I and then before I knew it,
I'd wake up inthe surgery would be over and everything.
And she was right, you know, Next thingI knew, I woke up and I was in recovery.
(26:55):
And and like, this level of pain
that I never thoughtthat I was going to experience.
And he Doctor Elledge came in
and they started pulling the curtainsand they were like, where's her husband?
That's all they kept saying. And he Dr.
Auge was said that he had already visitedwith Ryan and he wanted him back there.
(27:18):
And so they were likegetting Ryan to come back.
And he just grabbed my handand he's like, Your husband's a wreck.
And I was like, you know,what are you telling me?
And he said, It's cancer.
And he said, I'm so sorry.
And then he justhe may have said more, but at that point,
I don't really knowbecause it was very dreamy
(27:41):
and they gave me so much,you know, pain medication.
I was like, I really don't knowthe amount of time
that elapsed from mewaking up and him coming back there.
It all seemed to happen very fast.
But I, you know, I really don't know.
And and so then the next thing you know,Ryan was standing there and he was crying
and we were both crying.
(28:01):
And he started to tell methat Doctor Elledge was hoping
or he was optimisticthat it was going to be germ cell.
And so we held on to that
and was very hopefulthat that's what it was going to be.
And so kind of what that means isthe ovary
is there's really four layers,but we kind of classify it as three.
(28:24):
So you have like you're outsideepithelial, then you have like this
like connective tissue,and then you have essentially
like the inner core of the ovary.
And so each
area canhave its own type of cancer, basically.
And so the germ cellwould be on the outside
(28:45):
as well as epithelial cancer.
And unfortunately, mine was not germ
cell, which would have been
have the surgery, take out the over inthe mouse and you're done with germ cell.
But mine is a subtype of epithelial.
It's called clear cell carcinoma.
(29:05):
So it is aggressiveand it's on the outside of the ovary,
which makes it badbecause then it's sharing its cancer
cells with every other tissuethat it comes into contact with.
You know,and like a good analogy that we have used
is that, you know,you have cancer and it's in one spot,
(29:30):
but it's just kind of likegoing to the airport.
That cancer's hanging out at the airport,but it has an intention to go
or can go somewhere else.
And it's just a matter of time
when is it going to get on that planeand like take off.
So mine we checked thethe fluid that was in my pelvis.
(29:50):
And at that timeand it came back suspicious.
And so then that'swhat made it even more concerning was that
it was on the outside of the ovaryand then it in your pelvic washings.
So whatever was touching the pelvic fluid
has now been exposed to this aggressive
subtype of cancer.
(30:14):
Thank you to Jade
and thank you for tuning in for part one.
Join us next week on Focus on Health
to hear more from JadeWilliams about her journey.
That will do itfor today's edition of Focus on Health,
brought to you by Vandy Medical Center,where our focus is you.
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