Community Connection: Ovarian Cancer Canada is looking for volunteers! Could you help?
OVdialogue – consider joining our team in the role of Community Champion. Over a few hours each week, you would be part of a team that helps connect people, support conversations and are thought leaders for OVdialogue. This is your opportunity to give back to those who have/continue to support you through the tough times, share your unique experiences, and help celebrate successes. For more details of what this entails, please reach out to @Mfallis (mfallis@ovariancanada.org).
OVdialogue – consider joining our team in the role of Community Champion. Over a few hours each week, you would be part of a team that helps connect people, support conversations and are thought leaders for OVdialogue. This is your opportunity to give back to those who have/continue to support you through the tough times, share your unique experiences, and help celebrate successes. For more details of what this entails, please reach out to @Mfallis (mfallis@ovariancanada.org).
Ovarian Cancer Canada is thrilled to share that we have some exciting updates on the way for OVdialogue. These enhancements are designed to strengthen our community and make your experience even better.
Stay tuned for more details, and feel free to share your thoughts below. Let’s make this community even stronger!
Stay tuned for more details, and feel free to share your thoughts below. Let’s make this community even stronger!
TEAL THURSDAYS - Sign in and CLICK HERE TO ENTER LIVE DAYTIME ONLINE CHAT (1pm EST)
Comments
-
@tinazzie, @Fearless - Vol Mod,@karenbemi thanks for your encouraging words and support, hope everyone have a great weekend and stay safe and positive!0
-
@Readersmaven - all the best with your test results!0
-
I am going to disconnect soon. Good luck to everyone with their test and treatments this week. Be well and strong!!0
-
Thanks @Fearless - Vol Mod - once again, for a valuable chat and helping us all come together!
Wishing everyone a good week and positive outcomes! Take care.0 -
Well dear friends and fellow warriors....time's up for today. Wonderful talking with you all and hope you'll continue joining us. Rad....counting on you jumping for joy on the 26th. Everyone else in treatment right now...have a good week ahead....take time for you and the things that make you happiest. Everyone not in treatment right now...may you stay that way forever.
Big virtual hugs to everyone. See you next week
0 -
@Tinazzie thx! I have scan next Friday and then results following week. I'm hoping all will be well, but ca125 was over 500 last month so...
But regardless, take it as it comes and in the meantime, I'm doing a facial later today!
Best to all til next week.1 -
Best wishes to everyone on Positive Outcomes this week...no matter if it is for treatments or just that special me time facial.1
-
Thursday, January 21st - welcome all to this week's live chat.
I have just posted new discussion thread in response to an ask from OCC for our input to their 2021 planning. This is a wonderful opportunity for us and for them to ensure the programs and topics reflect the most relevant needs of our community. Please consider sharing your thoughts with them. More information is available in the discussion topic: 2021 OCC: an opportunity.....
It's been an exciting week on many fronts. Who else has been glued to the US political coverage? And more and more challenges on Covid, province by province...either case overloads in hospitals, changing guidelines to help manage transmissions or inoculation processes. We sure have them all here in Ontario. And on top of those, each of us has own set of challenges to manage......some days it just seems so overwhelming to me. So I just try to take it all in stride....focus on ME first and let the rest just swirl around me. Just my thoughts for the week LOL.
So here we are 1pm....welcome everyone....who wants to kick off today's chat?
0 -
Good afternoon @Fearless - Vol Mod
I was so happy yesterday. I watched all the coverage from my desk.
How are you feeling this week?
0 -
@KarenBemi
I think we were all jumping with joy yesterday. Welcome President Biden and wow, Kamala as VP.....what a team. And, LOL maybe we can start focusing on our own country again.
I'm ok. Scan yesterday so I'll find out on Tuesday whether this chemo is working or not. Keeping my fingers crossed bt always confident my oncologist has a Plan B in her back pocket. I do love this two week hiatus between cycles though. It gives me a chance to recover and have some really good energetic time. Of course we're in lockdown here so not much you can do with it but regardless I am ever so grateful for those days I feel like my old self for awhile. I'm counting on more and more of those ahead.
How are you?0 -
Hi ladies, glad to be here today.Watch the inauguration yesterday. I live in Brampton Ontario so we are in the new stay at home lockdown. I try to walk every day to stay healthy and it helps me physically and mentally. Seeing my oncologist/ gynecologist tomorrow and have final chemo on Monday
0 -
I am good. Just had my 1 Year anniversary of my first treatment. It has been a whirlwind of a year but..Curretly, I am still on the positive side of everything. Had a recent follow-up with Oncologist It wasn't mine (mine was not available and instead of waiting for another appointment, I kept it) but ... she said I am doing okay.0
-
@KarenBemi
@Rad
How exciting for both of you. Gosh it's so inspiring to hear about positive progress. Rad, you ring that bell on Monday. And wow, KarenBemi...wonderful milestone to celebrate. If you both could see me, I'm doing the happy dance for both of you.1 -
Hi all...exciting times for sure!
Anticipating my scan tomorrow, trying to be positive. And on a positive note, I started by excercise class with U of Alberta...very gentle but interesting to move body in different ways.0 -
@Fearless - Vol Modglad to hear your scan is ok.I can totally relate to how you feel because first week after chemo I am really down and then the next 2 weeks I am back to myself. I get so excited and happy when I feel normal again.0
-
@Readersmaven
Welcome back....and more to celebrate. We'll all keep our fingers crossed for your scan results. And thanks for the URL to the Alberta based exercise program. I passed it on to a couple of friends here, not OVC survivors but who were interested in finding something like it. I guess you could say there have been positive outcomes from Covid..specifically the access we have to some many new resources that are now online and available to us regardless where we live.0 -
@Rad
Absolutely. I realize now how much I didn't appreciate "Normal" until it wasn't there any more. Now, when it's back in my grasp I hate to have to let go. Very much hoping when these chemo cycles are over I can recover enough to get back to how I'm feeling today, but on a regular basis.0 -
1
-
BTW, hope I can count on you all to contribute your thoughts to the new discussion.....2021 OCC. You all have such diverse and interesting perspectives to share.0
-
@Fearless - Vol Mod I think having patience is one of the hardest things, at least for me on this journey
I know you'll get there! You are an inspiration!0 -
I have not really found the stay at home orders affecting me. I stay at home except for grocery shopping. However I do go for a 2 km walk almost every day and starting up my virutal quiquong classes this week. I do find they are very helpful for my body aches.1
-
Tomorrow I will be asking the oncologist what the next step after chemo finishes. When I was diagnosed with a mass on my left ovary in September my CA 125 was 64,after surgery it was 38.After 4 chemo it went down to 14 .My question to you ladies,does it go down to 0 or does it mean that I have some cancer still their?0
-
@Readersmaven
Thank you. I truly believe that one of the most important attributes to develop to help combat this disease is patience. It's so easy to get overwhelmed with anxiety and that related stress can have such negative impact on your body and your resilience. So when I start to feel I'm getting anxious I just sit down, take a few deep breaths, and then ask myself...Kathi, can you do anything about this right now? And when the answer is NO, I just turn my attention to something over which I do have control. I call it compartmentalizing my brain.0 -
@Readersmaven good luck on your scan tomorrow and I am sending you positive vibes!0
-
I totally agree with @Readersmaven,you have been an inspiration to me @Fearless - Vol Mod0
-
@Rad I honestly have never heard of anyone with a 0 CA125. But anything under 35 is considered "normal" range. Does that mean NED (no evidence of disease)? Not necessarily. What I have been told...and you're best discussing this with your oncologist....is that at the end of treatment you can be either at full response (NED), partial response (stil some cancer evident but dormant and acceptable) or no response but the last one is usually caught at the outset as they test to see if your treatment is working at all. You can be under 35 and still have evident cancer. When I was on the clinical trial my recurrence shrunk to 75% of it's size when we started and then remained at that size for two years. My CA at that time stayed around the 16 mark. I don't know if that reflected that the two tumors were now so small or that they were dormant/stabilized. But once the tumors started to grow again, even though they are still both less than a centimetre, my CA125 started to climb above the 35 level. Whatever, the case, the CA is not the most reliable test. It is really the scans that you should be relying on and your oncologist's interpretation of what they see. At least that's how I think of it. Again, add this to your list of questions for your next appointment.0
-
@Fearless - Vol Modthanks for the insight and will add it to my list of questions.0
