Thursday February 27, 1992
Up and off to see Dr. Bienstock, my surgeon. He examines me and says everything feels OK. He tells us it's almost impossible to kill all the cancer cells without killing the patient. The hope is that the body will naturally kill of what's left. He said I'm an average patient with ovarian cancer. I wanted to hear that I was doing better than most.
Instead of going to lunch we go home and Frank cuts a piece of plexiglass for Gary's garage door. Then we go to see how Gary is doing. He has taken 3 days vacation to work on his house. He's doing well.
We come home and take a walk with the dogs. I am awful tired after 15 minutes, but make it for 3 minutes.
The 5-year survival rate for a woman diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer was and still is only 11%. Because there are no symptoms of the disease until it has spread to other organs, most women are diagnosed at Stage 4 (advanced) cancer. Of course Mom wanted to hear that she was one of the 11%, not just average. Perhaps just a bit more encouragement from her doctor might have been a boost to her morale if not her immune system.
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