Diane's Cancer Journey - One Year Later | RV Travel

Come on out, I'll grab your sunglasses. Keep an eye on things. Welcome back to Zephyr Travels. I'm Diane and in this video I'm going to give you an update about my cancer diagnosis, the treatment I've received, and where I'm at now. It's been, actually tomorrow will mark the one year date, I don't want to say anniversary, but the one year date of my surgery where my diagnosis of ovarian cancer was confirmed. So where are we off to today, Diane? Today we're off to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. And why are we going there? Today I have an appointment for my second three-month follow-up following my treatment for ovarian cancer. After you complete your treatment and you're determined or your chemo treatment or whatever treatment you receive and you have been advised that your cancer is in remission, for the first two years you need follow-up exams. After that then it's follow-up every six months for so a total of five years before I believe my understanding is that you are determined to be. So it's kind of a long haul so far. It's been just about a year since I had my surgery and was... Yeah, I was gonna say by the time people see this video it will be a year since you had your surgery. Right, February 19th will be one year since I had my surgery and a confirmed diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Yeah, this time last year you were in the hospital getting ready for your surgery basically. Right, initially it was scheduled, excuse me, for Valentine's Day, February 14th, but due to a medical complication it was determined to wait a little bit and so it was another five days before I actually had the surgery. Yeah, and that surgery was in San Diego, California which I still think you were really lucky to be there at that time because you had some of the best people taking care of you. Yes, I have to say, you know, if it had to happen, fortunately we were in a large city with one of the well-known cancer centers and I have to say the hospital was outstanding. My surgeon, my doctor, she was, you know, I couldn't say anything better about her and, you know, quite a long surgery and yeah, I pretty much went through it, you know, smoothly. I don't believe there wasn't any major complications and I woke up back in the room that I started off in. But even before that you spent a month at Chula Vista Hospital under the care of Dr. McKee and that's how they found your cancer diagnosis, your ovarian tumor, because you were having trouble breathing. Right, initially I was diagnosed with a large pleural effusion and so I was admitted the first time because I was having trouble breathing and that was determined to be the problem. The procedure was done to drain the pleural effusion and they really couldn't find a cause because a number of things can cause it, so I was discharged. Unfortunately, within a couple days I was back in the hospital. The effusion, the pleural effusion had reformed, so at that point I was readmitted to the hospital and this was another Sharp Memorial but it was in Chula Vista, California. So I was admitted again, another procedure was done to drain it and then further testing was done to try to determine, you know, the cause of it, why it came back. So I went through multiple of tests and a couple different procedures to try to stop the pleural effusion and then I was... And one of those was actually a surgery on your lungs. On my lung, yeah, to try and stop it which unfortunately did not take care of the problem and so then further testing was done. I was given a couple different diagnosis. I had a couple different doctors evaluate me with... I was told different things and finally because of the doctors that I had, the testing was done that showed the tumor in the ovary. And at that point I was discharged with an appointment to the OBGYN oncology surgeon and had an appointment with her. She reviewed my medical chart and accepted me as my patient, accepted me as her patient and the surgery date was set up. And like I said before, because of another medical complication, actually we were in pre-op. I was all set to go and then the determination was made that we would pause the surgery and take care of the problem and or the medical issue and, you know, after five days of the treatment and so forth, then I had the surgery. But I still think, again, you were very lucky to be there, very lucky to have doctors you had, but also the fact that, you know, with ovarian cancer, it's... in any cancer really, it's more survivable. The sooner you detect it, the sooner you take care of it. And the fact that you were in the hospital, they kept you in the hospital until they found a diagnosis of what was going on. If you had done this as outpatient, you would probably still be doing this and it in all likelihood, yes, it would have spread and, you know, there certainly would have been a different outcome. Right. But you were lucky. It was very well. The cancer was contained. Most of it was taken out during the surgery and, you know, chemo took care of the rest of it, hopefully. And, you know, we are on that post-cancer follow-up. Right. After surgery, of course, you know, they test your... for any spread to lymph nodes or other organs and everything. And even the fluid from the pleural effusion came back negative for any sign of cancer. So that was a huge relief. And following the surgery, when I did speak with my surgeon, she told me that she felt my prognosis was good. So that's what I went with. And I think that helped me a lot through the treatment. And fortunately, we were able to go home to, you know, to New York State, to our home base. And I was able to, you know, connect or contact both cancer facilities in the Rochester area. I chose one and went with that, the Lipson Cancer Center at Rochester General. A wonderful doctor, Dr. Nicole Rubin, who has taken care of me. And I got through six chemo treatments. A minor blip after the first treatment in that I end up having to have my gallbladder out. So that kind of delayed my second treatment. But after that, all the treatments went as planned. And I have to be very thankful that except for a couple minor side effects, I really, you know, didn't, you know, nothing too severe. Thankfully, I did, you know, lose my hair and my eyelashes. And, but you know, your hair regrows, the eyelashes regrow, as you can see. A little different color, but actually, I've had a lot of compliments about my hair and I've gotten more used to it. And I feel good. And like we said at the beginning, we're going and having my second three-month checkup in Florida. And so we'll have to wait until after my appointment and see how that turns out. And hopefully everything will go well and able to finish our time in Florida. So we'll be back after my appointment and be an update on how things went. Great. All right. Sounds good. Let's get you to that appointment. Okay. It went very well. And from the report that I read today, everything is good, including my CA-125, which is a cancer marker for ovarian cancer. It's from a blood test that I had. So everything was good. I really liked the facility. It's fairly new. And I really liked the doctor that my appointment was with and her staff. So we're thinking perhaps that we'll do the appointment next February again in Florida, but that's for something we have to make a decision about. So right now I'm feeling good. All my chemo treatments are done. I had the CT scan, which showed that my cancer is in remission. So for right now, I'm really in the surveillance stage afterwards. And the surveillance stage is a total of five years. For the first two years, you need a surveillance or a follow-up appointment every three months. And that includes blood work and some other testing. For me, unless this type of cancer, unless I experience any of the symptoms, they really do not do a CT scan with every visit or in between if you start, unless you start to develop symptoms. And thankfully I have not. So for right now, I am good. That second appointment is done. So we'll just go forward with my next appointment in May once we return home and go from there. So are you feeling back to the way you did before all this happened? Yes, I feel good. As you can tell, my hair has grown in quite a bit. Actually, I really do like the way it has grown in, even the color. And for now, it's working out great. It's very low maintenance. It's just really wet and wash occasionally and just let air dry. There's no styling involved or anything. So whether it'll stay like this, I don't know. But for right now, I like it. And yeah, my energy level is good. I'm feeling, you know, feeling good. And yeah, just right now, just taking it day by day and enjoying my life. Any advice for anybody that's dealing with this? Like we said in the beginning, you know, once you hear that there's a possibility that you will get a diagnosis of cancer until you know for sure. You know, I recommend try to keep a positive attitude. And what Randy said is, you know, you can't get too upset about something that you really don't know about or really haven't been told definitely. And I know it's a big thing when you hear the word cancer. It's like, oh my gosh, you know, I'm, you know, something's going to happen to me, I'm going to die, you know, whatever. And until you actually, you know, meet with an oncologist, determine what treatment you will need, whether it's surgery, chemo, radiation, or some other type of treatment for whatever type of cancer you're diagnosed with, you know, you just have to, like I said, you know, try to be positive about it. And, you know, just go through it as your doctors recommend. And for me, I was very lucky that my side effects were quite minor. And so now here I am, you know, I really a year later, and I'm doing good. And hopefully going forward, that will be the, you know, that will stay that way. Anybody you want to thank? Oh, I have to thank, well, really, Sharp Memorial, their staff, their nurses. I was at two different Sharp Memorial, Sharp Chula Vista, and just Sharp Memorial that was in San Diego. And the Chula Vista Hospital was in Chula Vista, California. My doctor there, Dr. Devin McGee was absolutely wonderful. He kept on it until he had a definite diagnosis for me. He made the referral to my oncology surgeon, Dr. Lindsay Charle. And yeah, she was absolutely wonderful. If I had any concern, questions, her and her staff were wonderful. And yeah, the nurses at Sharp Memorial were absolutely wonderful. I probably was there longer than they thought because the nurses kept coming and go, Oh, you're still here. And my recovery after surgery was probably a little bit longer. But, you know, they made sure we had whatever we needed when I was discharged. And yeah, unfortunately, Dr. Charle is not with the practice that I saw her at. But I know if I need, you know, if we do visit that area again, I certainly can contact the practice for any, anything that I would need. I have to thank all the subscribers that showed me support during all of this. I also have to thank Randy, who was absolutely wonderful during all of this, taking care of me, taking care of the dogs and yeah, getting me home safely, contacting SkyMed and as well as my friends, Heather and Val and my sister, Linda and her husband, Terry. And, you know, my brother and sister-in-law, my friends, Jack and Sherry. Jack was wonderful in that he flew out with the assistance of our travel insurance, SkyMed. They flew him out to San Diego so that he could drive home with Randy, bringing the trailer and the dogs. So that was, you know, a huge thing that he did for us. And we're so thankful to him and his wife, Sherry. You know, family and friends and subscribers who have followed along during my journey and helped both me and Randy out. And I have to also thank the KOA in San Diego for working with Randy and working with us really to accommodate the needs and, you know, providing us a space for the Airstream, no matter for how, no matter how long we would have had to stay. So that was a huge benefit as well. If you have any comments, we'd love to read them and, you know, about any experiences you may have, you know, if you care to share with your cancer journey or any other comments. That concludes my video. If you like this video, please give it a big thumbs up. And if you haven't already, we would appreciate you subscribing to our channels, Zephyr Travels, and we try to post new videos one to two times per week. Until next time, we'll see you down the road. Take care.