linda smith died!

[sfxmum]

i for one will miss her, so many laughs

Both dh and I very upset indeed about Linda. Lovely person, best thing ever to emerge from Erith (except my dad of course), great comedian, felled by the silent killer. By chance I spent yesterday in a clinic getting checked over for worrying symptoms and she was so much in my mind. Feel very sad for her partner and for everyone battling this dreadful cancer :(

oh my gosh!
how awful/
i really liked her.

Are there really no symptoms at all with Ovarian Cancer until it's too late? I ask out of interest as I know very little about it. How unfair not to have a chance at recovery

Problem is that by the time you get noticeable, specific symptoms tinygang, it has usually spread. Early symptoms are often dismissed by the woman, or by her GP, as being perimenopausal, or some kind of non-urgent "women's trouble". :(

Having said that, dh has a colleague whose wife has lived with an OC diagnosis for at least three years. But, being men, whenever I ask how she is doing, I get a lot of guff about "oh, I don't like to ask and I don't think X wants to bring it to work". I think she is well and am sometimes minded to just mail the colleague direct and say that they are both in my thoughts.

Oh thanks Marina. I meant to say I do hope all is well with you and you are ok.

I am thank goodness thanks TG. Was so petrified never posted about it, a first for me I might add!

So glad for you. You must feel so relieved!

oh marina, what a relief! i had no idea...glad the sinister stuff ruled out. btw, did i tell you i have a gallstone?? god it's dreadful, getting old

bundy, I'll see your gallstone and raise you a polyp :( Not fun is it.

Very glad you are OK, marina .

I have had (uncomfortable!) tests for OC, because my mother had it - it was only discovered at post-mortem, she actually died of mesothilioma, aged 50. She never had contact with asbestos as far as we know so it's possible that the mesothilioma was a secondary from the ovarian.

I worry about my nieces because their other grandmother also had OC, although she was a bit older when she died - in her 60s I think. I have mentioned this to my brother but I don't think he took much notice, I should push a bit harder.

According to the Nigel Havers appeal though there are more early symptoms than people realise, and the aim of \link{http://www.ovarian.org.uk/\OCA} is to raise awareness all round.

very sad - I thought she was a very funny woman

really, really sad :(

well I would always say now, get anything you are worried about checked out and if you have a few of the symptoms mentioned on the other thread or on the website, go to the GP and INSIST. It might be something else, but I think we women are too ready to just dismiss things as 'women's troubles' and so, unfortunately, are others.

I didn't go to the doctor for ages because my symptoms were so vague, and because some were masked by the pill. When I did go I turned out to have a large semi-carncerous tumour the size of a football, and I lost an ovary and had an extremely debilitating operation - I was only 27 too. I also had tubal damage and had to have another operation a couple of years late to repair tube damage and adhesions. Luckily, 2 weeks after I was told I would prob have severe problems conceiving, I was pregnant with DD

I was extremely lucky, if the tumour had been fully cancerous, it would have been far too late. I don't care how paranoid I sound now, I bother the doctor with any worries because I know how easy it is to ignore them....