Survivor Story: Lauren Shecht
As many of my friends and family know, I am not one to share my personal stories on social media. However, in light of the recent events and the tremendous amount of love, support, and well wishes I have been receiving, I feel it is best to share my story. First, let me say, I am overwhelmed and speechless at how many people have reached out to donate to Wheel to Survive. Your donations are helping find a cure for a horrible disease. I’ve always believed in the saying “it takes a village”, and let me tell you all, I have and AMAZING village. Thank you to all of you.
My story starts in 2013 when I decided to be tested for the BRCA gene. I have a long history in my family of breast and ovarian cancer and close relatives who were positive. I knew my chances of being negative were small. Once I received the news that it was positive, I decided to take precautions, and I elected to have a double mastectomy with reconstruction. It was brainless for me. Why wouldn’t I do something that could prevent breast cancer? I had the surgeries in 2014, and a few weeks after recovery, I met with a gynecological oncologist to discuss a hysterectomy. I was going to have one and had pre op appointments scheduled. 6 weeks after reconstruction, I ended up in the hospital with Sepsis. That postponed my hysterectomy, and my regular OBGYN suggested instead of a hysterectomy I just come into her office every 6 months for ultrasounds. She basically convinced me that a hysterectomy would change everything and I was too young for that. SHE WAS WRONG! 2 years later, I started developing textbook symptoms of ovarian cancer. I went to her, and we did an ultrasound. All she saw was a cyst. Nothing alarming.
She didn’t seem concerned when I told her I didn’t feel right. In fact, she told me it was probably mental and suggested I go see a gastro. I did. He saved my life. He was able to see a shadow of something in a cat scan. The next day I went back to see the gynecological oncologist I had met a few years prior. We decided that even though he wasn’t alarmed by the scan, we would go ahead and do surgery to see what was going on. It wasn’t until my surgery on August 31 that we discovered the cancer. It was in my right fallopian tube and in an area called the omentum. Because of the area it was in, he staged it as stage 3. However, he was confident that he was able to remove ALL evidence of cancer in surgery and that it was not in any other organs.
My point in sharing my story is to bring awareness to you all. BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE! Know your bodies, educate yourself in your family genetics, and have the testing. It can save your life. Ovarian cancer can be silent, but in my case it was not.