During the break her numbers rose again and they chose to use Topotecan to knock the cancer out. Topotecan was not the answer, it made her deathly sick. After two rounds her numbers where steadily rising. My mother continued to have signs and symptoms of a bowel blockage. We would take her to the emergency room where they would tell her the x-ray showed a small bowel obstruction. They would admit her then the regular doctors would come and to say the bowel obstruction was open. This went on for months. Finally in November of 2008, her surgical team and oncologist tell her that her treatments were no longer working and that she had only a short while to live. We didn't take that very well, we were not ready for that. She went home hospice came out and went through all the details of this and that. Anyways, she was still in the fighting frame of mind. Daily she was praying for the answer to her problem.

As she was watching television she had seen a commercial for the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. We called and had all of her records sent to them. December she was set to fly out to see them. My mother and father are both sixty four years old had never been on a plane in their entire lives. I flew with them to Illinois. We saw an ovarian cancer specialist who was an ovarian cancer survivor herself. The hospital was so different from anything we had hoped for. It’s so far advanced in all technologies and treatments. It’s a whole mind, body, and soul treatment. I am so grateful, she decided to go. The doctor informed her that she did in fact have advanced cancer but that they were going to have to put a nephrostomy tube into her kidneys to drain them so that later they could but in a stint. This was performed along with the implantation of a port. She was put on tpn for nutritional supplementation. Things were looking up and she was actually doing a lot better by the time we had returned home. She only got the chance to receive the stint and removal of the tube and one more round of chemo before they found her in our hometown that she had a staph infection from improper cleaning of the port before administration of meds in the local ER. She was put in to the hospital and treated for the infection and blood clots that had formed around her heart as a result from the infection. She would have to wait for six weeks or more before she could do chemo again. Before the infection was completely gone she started throwing up all the time and it was fecal matter. She was admitted into the local hospital again and received a peg tube for decompression. Shortly after the peg was placed she was released to take chemo again. She had one round of carbo and we will return April 23 for more treatments. I hope all of this turns out well. I have full confidence that if anyone can make it she can. My mother is the fighter I hope to one day be. She never gives up and never backs down. Doctors here locally have told her to give up but she continues to strive on and prove them all wrong. It’s not all uphill and it’s not always easy to watch but she's surviving.

I would recommend the cancer treatment centers to anyone. At the very least, research and find a cancer specialist in your area who you can trust. It’s a sad world that we live in that doctors will take your money and allow you to die while they do so. Some things doctors can't fix other things they can. I have left a lot of what we have been through with her oncologist out of the story. It’s been bad, no one should have to go through what she did with a doctor but I feel that telling that right now is inappropriate because God is seeing to her needs anyway. That’s a blessing that I thank Him for continually. However, the cancer treatment centers are a very good place to be if you have cancer. We have learned so much from them in just short amount of time and I am overly thrilled with their kindness and determination to cure cancer for everyone. One last plea, let’s get the word out there about ovarian cancer. There are woman who suffer this diagnoses somewhere every day. We need to push trials and clinical and research for detection and doctors have got to take the symptoms that woman have more seriously. It could ultimately save someone’s life. I am glad that all the breast cancer research has gone so well and that so much is being done to advance detection and treatment but we need to be able to say the same for OVCA. Remember we are the fingers that bind together to form that fist that will begin to beat cancer. Donate, advocate, and most importantly share what you know with woman in your life. Information is knowledge and knowledge is power. OVCA may whisper but we can still hear it...fight!

Click here for Part One