Tami Ward

November 2015

My cancer journey began in January 2013 when I was awakened in the middle of the night from a piercing pain in my right side. I thought for sure it was appendicitis so I got online to research my symptoms; I didn’t want to go to the ER unless my life was in danger because I didn’t have insurance at that time.

According to the internet, it wasn’t appendicitis so I waited until morning and went to Urgent Care. The doctor there told me I was passing kidney stones so I went home and prayed the pain would lessen. In a couple of days, the pain went away so I assumed I passed the stones.

But the pain kept coming back. It was more intense each time and I thought “geez, I must have a lot of kidney stones.” The pain was only when I was ovulating, but it didn’t occur to me that my symptoms could be something else.

In May, I was finally approved for insurance, and just when the pain was becoming unbearable. So I went to the ER, where a huge cyst was discovered twisted around my right ovary. I was sent home with pain meds and instructions to follow up with my doctor who is a gynecologist. When I called my doctor (on the Monday after my ER visit the week before) I was asked how quickly I could come in. Three hours later, I was in surgery with an oncologist present. It was scary, as “cancer” had never crossed my mind. Following the surgery my doctor said that everything looked good. She said she didn’t see any cancer so she left my left ovary intact, but removed the cyst and my right ovary.

On Friday, I was home recovering and looking forward to going back to work when, at 4pm, my doctor called with my pathology reports, and said “You have ovarian cancer. I have made an appointment for you on Monday morning with an Gynecologic Oncologist.”

Wow! This was very unexpected — I was in shock! My kids were right there and saw my face and said “what’s wrong mom?” I blurted out that I had ovarian cancer. Of course, my teenage son went straight to the internet and freaked out because he read that his mom was going to die. I didn’t know what to tell him. Needless to say, it was a very long weekend for my family and me as we waited to see the Gynecologic Oncologist on Monday.

At that appointment, I was told I had an aggressive form of ovarian cancer called serous adenocarcinoma of the ovary. I would need a complete hysterectomy, followed by chemotherapy. I was 44 years old at diagnosis.

During my hysterectomy, my Gyn Onc discovered cancer in my left ovary and behind my uterus, resulting in a stage 2C diagnosis. I am so lucky that the twisted cyst caused pain or I would not have been diagnosed in an early stage. This experience has led me to advocate to other women to take time and see their doctors, especially when they aren’t feeling right.

After my diagnosis and subsequent treatment, the Gyn Onc encouraged me to have genetic testing done. It was discovered that I carry the BRCA 2 gene, and the second part of my journey began.

I chose to have a double mastectomy because my risk for breast cancer was so high, and I wanted to do everything in my power to prevent cancer from invading my body ever again. My family and I had no idea we were at risk of having this genetic mutation. Since then, other family members have tested positive for the BRCA 2 gene. They (my aunt and her daughter, my cousin) went on to take preventative measures, with both getting double mastectomies and hysterectomies, which will lower their own risk for breast and ovarian cancers.

I know that many women are not as lucky I to be diagnosed with early stage ovarian cancer. Wanting to get involved, I joined the Sherie Hildreth Ovarian Cancer (SHOC) Foundation Board of Directors. SHOC’s mission is to raise money for ovarian cancer research. I have also become a trained ovarian cancer mentor through the Peer Mentoring program run by the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Oregon and SW Washington.

It is my passion to help women get an earlier diagnosis and better treatment for ovarian cancer because nobody should have to rely on luck to survive! We need to change the statistics of this deadly disease. I live everyday feeling blessed and grateful that I have had no evidence of disease for the past two years.

Editor’s Note: Tami is the mother of a son who is a Senior in high school, and a daughter who is a Freshman. She is originally from Chicago and is therefore a huge fan of the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Blackhawks, although her son has also turned her into a Portland Blazer fan as well. Tami loves beach vacations and celebrated her cancer free victory with a trip to the Florida Keys. She works as a marketing manager for a website development firm.