07/27/2026
There's really no good way to say it: On July 4th, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It showed up on a CT scan when my doctor was checking out something else. It's a shock (and certainly NOT the holiday weekend I was expecting!), but we caught it fairly early, so it's treatable. I'll be starting chemotherapy next week, followed by surgery, then more chemotherapy.
I debated for a while about whether or not to share this news, but I decided that sharing my story and my journey could help to raise awareness, educate other women about the symptoms, and ultimately help develop diagnostic and preventative strategies.
Briefly, the symptoms I experienced were: feeling unusually full, even after a small meal, bloating in my abdomen, shortness of breath, and fatigue. None of them seemed related until I knew there were a mass and excess fluid in my abdomen. Knowing that, all the symptoms made sense. If any of this sounds familiar to you, please see your doctor right away. I'll post a link to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition's page discussing symptoms in the comments below.
I do want to keep the focus here on my quilting activities, so I'll keep cancer-related posts brief, but if you would like more information, I've created a CaringBridge page where I'll share more detail. I've put a link to that page in the first comment below (apparently the FB algorithm doesn't like to share posts with links that take you away from FB, and this is a work-around).
