reoccurence of borderline mucinous tumor

[Heffmeister]

Hi I'm new. I had a mucinous tumor removed last year aged 32. Unfortunately it had already ruptured prior to surgery. It had grown to football sized and was undiagnoised while I was pregnant. I had a miscarriage at 23 weeks just 3 days before the surgery

I had completion surgery of a TAH a few months later which showed no spread and graded me as 1C.

I started to get pain a month or so again in my left side and my ca 125 as been creeping up. A MRI and CT scan have come back as showing growths in my peritoneum and into the bowel but near my coccyx not where I feel the pain. I have been told this area looks like "thickened tissue" which maybe my ometum -not sure why this hasn't already been removed!

So it looks almost certain I have a reoccurence. My consultant says he won't do chemo if it's all still borderline but it may have transformed to a higher grade. Surgery is booked for the 11th August to try and get rid of it all.

Anyone else any had a re-occurance of a borderline tumor?? I could really do with some virtual friends to help me though this! My family are being great but I am trying to keep calm at home because of our two small children.

[Hidden]

Just to say; don't despair. I don't have the same experience, but feel for you. You have had a bloody awful year, by the sound of it.

My understanding is that chemotherapy does not treat borderline cells, so is not an option.

Do you have some professional emotional support? You have had the dreadful experience of miscarriage, let alone the cancer shock and fear, at least two general anaesthetics, and much else. All these take masses out of you, physically and emotionally, and it is important not to 'carry' the emotional burden. Your oncology dept will have access to counselling to help you transform all that burden into a positive force to help combat what is happening now. That will give you a better basis for health, especially as you need to keep calm at home for your little ones.

Grab hold of the thing by the neck, and talk/cry/moan/shout it through. You will feel better, your immune system will benefit, and you will be able to relax more.

Very best wishes,

Isadora.

[RuthPOvacome]

I am one of the support line nurses at Ovacome and I am sorry to hear about all that has been going on.It sounds as if you have had a very difficult time with the miscarriage and the two lots of surgery If you would like to talk things through further do give us a ring on 08453710554 Mon - Fri 10-5. .

You may also find it helpful to get in touch with your specialist nurse so that you can get her to explain what has been done and what they are going to do.

The reason that chemotherapy is not usually used in borderline tumours is that are usually very slowly dividing cells which do not respond to chemotherapy but if they find that the tumours have become ovarian cancer ( rather than borderline cells ) this is something they may consider

Best Wishes

Ruth

[wendydee]

Hi! I'm sorry to hear you've had such a rough time lately. I recommend you ring the Ovacome support line. They are so knowledgeable and have experience of so many of these things. I had borderline OC about 9 years ago now, and had my omentum, and everything else reproductively-speaking, removed, so maybe in the surgery they will remove that, as my consultant said the omentum tends to mop up any rogue cancer cells that are floating around in the abdominal cavity. So far, it's worked!

I only wanted to say, keep posting on here. It's a good way of getting info and letting off steam. It's good for the soul to say "HELP!!" sometimes!

All the best

Love Wendy xx

[Eleni]

You are obviously a very strong lady as you have been through a lot and are still dealing with it. You're doing the right thing in sharing all this. I find that 'a problem shared' definitely helps and I 'dump' on everyone; family, friends, Macmillan, my support nurses, Ovacome helpline, Penny Brohn, my support nurses and this blog.

Like Wendydee, I had everything reproductively removed including part of the omentum and the appendix. My tumour had also burst and I was full of mucinous cancer cells so wash washed out as well!!

I'm sure that you are in good hands and it is positive that you have a date for surgery and that's not long.

Get all of your worries out of your head though and talk to the professionals as Ruth suggests; your support nurse can explain the procedures and follow up and also arrange some counselling for you too.

Best wishes

Eleni x