If anyone calls ovarian cancer ?the silent killer,? Laura Clark Hansen told a group of physician assistant students, ?you have my permission to slap them really hard.?
Hansen and other Madison-area ovarian cancer survivors are trying to shift the metaphor to ?the disease that whispers.? Symptoms might be vague, they say, but they do exist.
The survivors are telling their gut-wrenching yet sometimes humorous stories to medical students and others, turning up the volume on a disease that gets a fraction of the attention breast cancer gets.
Jan McNally joined Hansen in speaking to UW-Madison physician assistant students in May. McNally said she told numerous doctors about her dull abdominal pain for nine years before she was diagnosed.
Patients like her might show up in clinics where the physician assistant students will be working, she told them.
?I am begging you,? McNally said, ?listen to what they?re saying.?
Ovarian cancer strikes far fewer women than breast cancer, but it kills a much higher proportion of those diagnosed. The disease is usually caught late, when treatments are less effective.
There?s no good screening test, and the symptoms ? which can include bloating, abdominal pain, frequent urination and difficulty eating ? usually stem from other problems.
The five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer is 44 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. For breast cancer, it?s 89 percent.
About 2.9 million breast cancer survivors were alive and able to give voice to their disease as of 2010, according to the National Cancer Institute, compared with 186,000 ovarian cancer survivors.
When Angelina Jolie revealed in May that she has a genetic mutation that greatly increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, almost all of the immediate attention focused on breast cancer.
That is largely because the actress said she had her breasts removed to greatly reduce her risk of breast cancer ? which was higher than her risk of ovarian cancer, even though ovarian cancer killed her mother. Jolie later said she planned to have her ovaries removed, which brought some attention to ovarian cancer.
?Sometimes it feels frustrating when I see pink, pink, pink, pink,? Hansen said of the color associated with breast cancer.
But teal, a shade of blue, is becoming known as the color for ovarian cancer, she said.
?Our pink sisters understand the importance of the color teal,? Hansen said. ?I?m not angry about the pink. I?m excited about seeing more of the teal.?
Putting a face on the disease
Hansen and McNally are among eight ovarian cancer survivors in the Madison area and about 30 statewide who participate in the Wisconsin Ovarian Cancer Alliance?s Survivors Teaching Students program.
Their mission: to put a face on the disease, so medical providers will be more likely to consider it when patients present with symptoms.
Hansen, from Brooklyn, and McNally, from Fitchburg, have spoken to UW-Madison medical residents, Edgewood College nursing students and a general audience at Meriter Hospital.
For four years, they?ve talked to the physician assistant students at the end of the students? two-year program.
Hansen wore a teal scarf and McNally a teal shirt as they shared their stories in May with about 30 students, most of them women.
Hansen, an actress, showed no shortage of dramatic flair.
Women with a family history of breast, colon or ovarian cancer are at higher risk for ovarian cancer, she explained, then she invited the audience to follow her hand signals for each type of cancer. She started by forcefully cupping her breasts.
?C?mon, you know you wanna,? she bellowed to great laughter before waving her finger in a squiggle for a colon and shaping her thumbs and index fingers into small circles the size of ovaries.
Hansen talked about ovarian cancer tests done on women who have symptoms. One is an ultrasound, sometimes done through the vagina.
?I unfortunately was not told that you shouldn?t drink bubbly water before you have it,? she said, waiting for just the right pause. ?It was an explosive situation.?
She turned sober when telling the story of another woman whose doctors referred her to psychiatrists when she repeatedly complained of abdominal pain and frequent urination. One psychiatrist eventually did a physical exam that led to the discovery of ovarian cancer.
The woman wasn?t feeling well enough to join Hansen and McNally in front of the students in May.
Raising awareness
Hansen, 58, said she was diagnosed in 2005 after experiencing bloating, abdominal pain, difficulty eating and frequent urination for a year. She had surgery and chemotherapy and shows no signs of recurrence.
McNally, 49, was diagnosed in 2007, two weeks after her husband lost his job ? which provided their health insurance. She risked being uninsured until he found another job in 2009.
She had felt dull abdominal pain since delivering her third child in 1998. It was a difficult pregnancy, which led to the discovery of a cyst on her ovary. Her doctor said the cyst was benign and didn?t need to be removed.
As the dull pain continued, accompanied by diarrhea and indigestion, other doctors attributed the symptoms to a possible ulcer or pre-menopause. Eventually, she started bleeding heavily, which led to surgery that discovered the cancer.
McNally had chemotherapy and shows no signs of cancer.
Mammograms screen women for breast cancer and Pap smears screen for cervical cancer, but there is no routine screening test for ovarian cancer. A blood test for the substance CA-125 can suggest cancer if the level is high, but the level can be elevated for other reasons and isn?t always high when cancer is present.
?We are trying to create the diagnostic tools? by talking to students and raising their awareness of the symptoms, McNally said.
Lori Seaborne, a gynecologic cancer physician assistant at UW Health, said such personal stories are powerful for providers.
?You can read and read as much as you want to,? Seaborne said. ?But the things that ultimately stick in your head are the faces of the people who have the thing you?re talking about.?
lindzi cox bachelor finale courtney robertson ben flajnik hunger games premiere red meat bachelor ben
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.