Stories of Inspiration

In 2015, I was planning a wedding to begin a new chapter of my life. Not only was I preoccupied with planning a ceremony, but being a mother of two small girls and working full time, your symptoms take a back seat. I was tired, very tired, like lying on a dirty floor, I don't care, kind of tired. I…

I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December of 2017. I had been having bladder and gastrointestinal problems for years and months, respectively. My stomach sporadically swelled up to where I looked pregnant until it remained permanently like that. A 51-year old looking pregnant! When I finally was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, I looked it up, and bingo, all my…

At age 60, I was at the top of my nursing career as head of orthopedics in the operating room at a hospital in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I was healthy, with no significant medical background, and often planned my next hiking and camping trip with my husband, John. We have two adult children, a son and a daughter, life was…

My husband and I had been trying to have a baby since the birth of our son in 1999. By 2002 I had already had three miscarriages, and in February of 2003, we learned that I was pregnant again. During the years leading up to this pregnancy, I suffered from consistent, painful, large ovarian cysts on both ovaries. Each cyst…

It was like any other Tuesday... After my last class, I was walking in the hallway with my best friend getting ready for cheerleading and gymnastics practice. Suddenly, everything was different. I felt a foreign excruciating pain in my stomach, I felt dizzy, and the next thing I knew, I came to the bathroom and threw up. This pain was…

My name is Sara and I was 34 years old and in the best shape of my life when I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I had an IUD placed and on the follow-up placement ultrasound, they saw a cyst. I then had my CA125 drawn and it was normal. We followed up 6 months later with an ultrasound and…

Up until my thirties, my only medical history consisted of having a history of ovarian cysts which even required surgery to remove them; but ovarian cancer was not in my vocabulary. When I started to spot (bleed) and have some abdominal pain, my first thought was "oh I probably have another cyst". I guess technically, I was right. I made…

There's no clear history of cancer in my family. I was a college athlete. I prioritized whole-body health and I taught others the benefits of doing the same. I've always thought I was immune. One night in May of 2020, I tried to go to bed but couldn't lie down comfortably. I began having difficulty breathing. Pain spiraled out from…

My very complicated health journey starts at a young age. By the time I was in my late teens I was diagnosed with endometriosis, PCOS, and Calcium renal calculus (calcium kidney stones). Between my doctors and myself, we tried countless options to relieve and heal my never-ending symptoms. In 2012, my brother and I were in a life-altering car accident.…

It all started in March 2018 when I was in my final year of nursing and (no exaggeration) I woke up looking like Humpty Dumpty, or, more accurately a walking barrel. To make that clearer I had gained 10kgs in 2 weeks and had gone from running 10 miles the previous weekend to getting breathless walking 10 steps. Not wanting…