REGINA – The audience stood and gave Gail Bitner-Lewis a loud ovation, the only one of the day at the Associated Country Women of the World conference held in Regina on Oct. 14.
In a hushed room she had just told the 96 delegates about her imminent death. She has ovarian cancer, something few women recognize or understand.
Each year 2,400 Canadian women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 1,500 die.
The problem is that the symptoms are not unusual and could be put down as aging. But Bitner-Lewis said women should go to a doctor if they have one or more of the following signs that lasts longer than three weeks: swelling or bloating of the abdomen; pelvic discomfort; fatigue; back or abdominal pain; gas or indigestion; change in bowel habits; frequent urination; weight changes or menstrual irregularities.
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The cancer is most common after the age of 50, but Bitner-Lewis was 42 when she started having symptoms.
“I considered myself to be healthy and active. I was busy with six-year-old twins and worked part time. I had no family history of it. I knew nothing of ovarian cancer other than the comedian Gilda Radner died of it because she’d left it too late.”
Bitner-Lewis joked that she first noticed symptoms that were similar to the day after overeating at a Mexican restaurant. Then came farting and burping after each supper, which amused her kids.
A visit to her doctor last fall gave her an appointment three months later for an ultrasound scan. She was able to get in within the week by going to another city.
The doctor reading her test found a mass, likely a tumour, and urged her to go immediately to the emergency room and have a blood test.
It showed that her CA125 level, which marks the presence of ovarian cancer, was at 1,798 compared to a normal level of zero to 30.
Surgery followed within a week and her ovaries were removed, leading to instant menopause. Chemotherapy followed in the winter of 2006 because the cancer had spread to other organs and within three months she was back in the operating room having more body parts removed.
Bitner-Lewis went back on chemo this summer but the doctors told her it was palliative.
“My time is short, they said.”
Bitner-Lewis said while that took her hope away, she regained it by writing letters each day to her two boys and feeling a deeper love for the people she cares about and her religion.
“I’m not sure why I got cancer, but I think it may be to save the life of a woman in here or one that you will talk to.”
The National Ovarian Cancer Association says there is no test to show if a woman is developing the cancer; the CA125 blood test only confirms a diagnosis. A Pap smear can showcervical cancer, not ovarian.
The association said other than vigilance about their bodies, women can ask doctors to do a vaginal-rectal pelvic exam or order a transvaginal ultrasound test. Even if the tests are negative for cancer, women should ask for a referral to a gynecologist if the symptoms persist.
