Normal Vaginal Ultrasound, but still have heavy bloated feeling belly.

[TCLL]

Hi I had some bloating and discomfort in my belly. Had a normal Vaginal US but still have that bloated heavy feeling. I'm concerned. Should I go ahead and get the CT Scan?

[CallmeMum]

Hi lovely,

I’d get the CT scan just to be sure the reason being a very big IF there is something it might be on the inside rather than outside and a CT scan will detect that rather than “no you’re all ok if there’s nothing on the outside there won’t be anything inside” doctors don’t know until they see results xxx

[Dee345]

i had several ultrasounds - vaginal, pelvic and abdominal. None picked up OC which I feel sure I had at the time. When I had the CT it was quite advanced. Mine was peritoneal - probably started in the Fallopian tube

So my advice is - yes get the CT. Wishing you well

[TCLL in reply to Dee345]

Thanks and I'll get that Ct scan

[Jessica-DianeB]

Yes I would go for CT.

my ultra sound, transvaginal scan all clear. Mine started in the Fallopian tube and so never got found until advanced stage after CT & biopsy.

Good luck, I hope it's not xxx

[Purple_k_in_Oz]

Hi there. Although CTs are very commonly utilised as a diagnostic tool, if you can get referred for a PET-CT that’s even better as it has more sensitivity and specificity than a “normal” CT scan. Have you had bloods including CA125 and HE 4 tumour markers? (HE 4 may not be offered in some areas).

[Hidden in reply to Purple_k_in_Oz]

Great point. My wife had multiple CT scans - all negative. Of the 60 identified types of Ovarian cancer, they don't all create a mass of tissue in every patient.

Sandy's Epithelial Ovarian cancer never formed a mass that could be detected by standard CT scans.

It took the radioactive-tagged sugar to mark the faster growing cancerous cells that attacked both lungs, her liver, Abdominal Wall, Colon, and of course her Ovaries, before her Oncologist would be satisfied it was Ovarian cancer.

Three days before he got the results of her PET scan, he wanted to run both a Colonoscopy and an Endoscope chasing after those non-existent masses. I'm so thankful I was on hand when he started talking about scheduling them. Apparently either he didn't check her CT scans, or thought I didn't know about them!

[Boymom5 in reply to Hidden]

DBeavers, I am sorry to hear about the OC diagnosis for Sandy. What were your wife's symptoms? How quickly did they progress? I am glad you were there to stop unnecessary tests.

[Hidden in reply to Boymom5]

Boymom5,

I don't know all of her symptoms, but do know she suffered from the Bloating,, Eating less and feeling full sooner, and trouble with the Bladder, going more frequently and/or urgently.

That's three out four of the BEAT Symptoms, that can serve as an early warning if women no how to listen to their body.

I was Sandy's caregiver for the seven weeks that she became home bound, not able to do much for herself. A neighbor gave her his late wife's Oxygen concentrator, so I went and bought the water cup, hoses, and Canula that was missing, so she could be on O2 almost 24/7 for the last five weeks.

Three months before in June, Sandy was still mowing the yard. We made our last trip to Texas, 2 1/2 hours to ours daughter's home, the last weekend of July.. Sandy made her first doctors appt on the first of August and was given a diagnosis of Pneumonia, and a prescription for the appropriate antibiotic.

One week later, she returned to the doctor, who referred her for X-rays. A second set of images showed not Pneumonia, but Pleural Effusions flooding the Pleural Sacs that surround the lungs. The surgeon insert Tubes and drained 1.8 liters of fluid from her Left lung and .7 liters from the Right lung. The fluid had collapsed her Left lung, and they started her on Oxygen after her first series of X-rays on the 8th. The surgeon observed from the color and clarity of the fluid that it didn't indicate an infection or chronic heart failure, with one possible cause being cancer.

She was discharged the next day, but six days later I took her back and we did the same procedure all over again. The tests, when they finally found them, indicated Metastatic cancer cells, with an unknown origin.

Approximately five weeks later, back to the hospital, where an Oncologist was assigned to her case on Saturday. As is far too common, the Oncologist couldn't confirm the source of the cancer, so wanted to do first a Colonoscopy, then if showed nothing, he wanted to try an Endoscope, to search her Esophagus, Larnyx, and Stomach, looking for a tumor or mass. I advised him to check the multiple CT scans in her file from the month prior that showed no mass anywhere in her body.

We had to wait until Monday for him to track down her PET Scan, which showed him the hot spots on both Lungs, both Ovaries, her Abdominal Wall, Liver, and Colon. It was Ovarian, He told us Ovarian cancer responded well to Chemo, he would place the PICC LINE that evening and schedule the Chemo for Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday he told us it was going well and he planned to have her home for the weekend.

It was just about twelve hours later, at 5 am when Her night nurse, Loretta came in to check her stats and we discovered she had stopped breathing. Loretta called cold, several nurses ripushed in, I was sent out, but thirty minutes later I received the news that she was gone. Seven weeks from her first visit to the doctor.

In the five years prior, she had seen several Cardiologists, and other doctors, had stents placed on her heart one year and three years prior to her death. With all the tests she had to go through, with a variety of symptoms, and all the doctors and nurses, no one mentioned the Ovarian cancer symptoms to my post-Menopausal wife.

The time line from the cancer germinating in the Fallopian Tubes, then traveling and implanting itself in the Ovaries, to Stage IV cancer is thought to take approximately six and a half years.

A BEAT symptom card put in her hand one to three years sooner during all the testing and procedures could have given her a way of relating the symptoms so the doctor might have checked for OvCa sooner.

The same warning applies to the post-Menopausal women when seventy percent of cases occur as well as the women in their fertile years, when thirty percent occur.

The Ovarian cancer awareness organizations in the U.K. Use different terminology for the four primary symptoms, but they are basically the same.

I order the BEAT Symptom cards and have plastic stadium cups and magnets printed up with them and distribute at health fairs, cancer walks, or just walking through a mall on a regular basis, including today, and will continue my outreach for ten years. Hopefully, by next year there will be an organization formed locally to raise Teal Awareness to reach more women than I can on my own.

[Boymom5 in reply to Hidden]

DBeavers,

Thank you so much for sharing your story. You are going to help many women concerned with symptoms and those struggling with OC. The information you shared is so valuable. I am so sorry to hear you lost your wife, Sandy. She would be proud to know you are advocating and helping others. Your suggestion inspired me to start a BEAT symptom card today. I have had scans and ultrasounds, I am postmenopausal and have free fluid in my abdomen with pain on my right side. The doctors suggest I see a GI doctor and a surgeon for laparoscopy. I plan to follow your threads. Know that you have a fan here. Keep up the good work. God bless you.

[Hidden in reply to Boymom5]

In addition to helping at least a few women each year with my raising Teal Awareness, I also help to spare a husband or two from what I am going through, along with any children, parents, siblings that are impacted when one life is lost.

I've learned far more about this ugly p, insidious cancer than I would ever have imagined, but it's part of my educating women, so it has to continue.

I read of one woman recently who beat Ovarian cancer at twenty-nine. As time passed and she learned more about her BRCA mutation, she insisted on a Mammogram at thirty-seven, three years ahead of the US mandate for such.

Her demand paid off, as her very first Mammogram detected Breast cancer that could have had a three year head start if she hadn't become her own best advocate.

Rules are meant to be broken, and when it comes to a woman's health, I support them in their need to know more, and their need for testing, far more than any beaucratic protocol.

Women in the US under a certain age are being told not to perform those needless monthly self-exams, at a time when 40% of Breast cancers are found by women following the practice, and that includes many under age 40.

How about we push for testing more women for the BRCA mutations, so the ones who are identified as Positive are given more screenings and receive them earlier.

It's only a question of money, and I say innocent lives trump money any day of the week!

[Tesla_7US]

TCLL, I had normal pelvic, abdominal and TV ultrasounds, even though I was later diagnosed 3C Ovarian Cancer. Visit a gyn-onc and get a second opinion. See my profile for details.