Ida
We can do no great things; Only small things with great love. —Mother Teresa The occasional inheritable nature of ovarian cancer is part of the story of Ida, a Canadian who originally came from Europe. Her mother died of the disease at the age of 52. Shortly after becoming a grandmother, Ida too would contract it. After her surgery, she was feeling so good that she and her husband wanted to go back to Europe for a visit. But would she still be able to go? I WAS BORN IN EUROPE AND MOVED to Canada when I was a teenager. My husband is also from Europe. Last year we went home to Europe for three weeks. My daughter is in nursing. My son is married and lives with a three-year-old son. My husband and I love to babysit our grandson. My husband is retired, and I retired when I was diagnosed with the disease. I was sorry to have to leave my job. I was working at making conveyor systems for the automotive industry. There is big money in that business. When our children were small I stayed home and worked part time. Then when they were in school full time I went to work at the conveyor company. I have a good relationship with the company staff, and they still invite me to the Christmas dinner. Intermittent Bleeding I was diagnosed a couple of years ago in the winter. I had been having trouble with intermittent bleeding for two to three years, and I got an ultrasound every six months. I was seeing a gynecologist. I had another 61 Ida 62 Bearing Witness ultrasound in the fall of 2000, and my family doctor called me (not my gynecologist) and said, “I see something on the ultrasound; we would like to check it out a little more and see exactly what it is.” He said we would schedule a scan, but it will take a while because it is so backed up. It took until after Christmas. My family doctor said that it might be cancerous, so you’d better go and see your gynecologist right away. I went and saw him, and he still didn’t know because he hadn’t looked at the pictures. He said that we would have another scan in six months, and I said that I thought he had better look at the pictures from the scan right away. So he did and then he gave me an internal exam and felt the mass right away. It was seven centimetres long, and then they were scheduling the CA-125 [blood test that shows the level of antigen in the blood known to mark tumours] and X-rays, and I had already had the X-rays. They were telling me this would take a week and that would take a week, and I told them I don’t have that much time! I said it will have to be faster than that, so I arranged it myself and got in the next day. Of course the CA-125 was over 1000—normal is 35. I was diagnosed at stage three. It is terribly hard to diagnose this type of cancer. My daughter was terribly worried because my mother had ovarian cancer; she died when she was 52. So my mother died of ovarian cancer and now I have ovarian cancer, and my daughter was terribly worried. I said that maybe she could have some tests done, and sure enough the cancer centre provided us with some tests that were covered by OHIP [Ontario Health Insurance Plan]. She just got her results back a couple of days before Christmas and they were negative. She said that was the nicest present she had ever received. She had the BRCA [breast cancer gene] test, which has been approved and is 95 percent accurate. I was referred to a gynecologic oncologist within seven days, and I had the surgery within another week. Altogether it was two weeks from diagnosis to surgery. I was happy with that. I had the surgery and I felt much better after that, and then I was on chemo for six months. When I had finished the chemo my CA-125 was down to 17. Plans to Travel So then we made arrangements to go to Europe right away, because I was feeling so good and things were going in the right direction. Then when we came back in November I had another...
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