My name is Kelly Paulus, I am 48 years old and was diagnosed with stage I ovarian cancer January 7th this year.

I came down with what I thought was a bad case of intestinal flu on December 4, 2010. The severe vomiting lasted for 13 straight hours, I called my husband at work who immediately came home to take me to the ER.  Once we were there, the vomiting stopped, but luckily the ER doctor on duty agreed with me that there was something else going on. I had no fever, no diarrhea. The only symptom was vomiting. He ordered some bloodwork, along with an abdominal xray, and eventually a CAT scan. After several hours he had the results: my gallbladder (which never gave me a days trouble) was inflamed, infected and, he thought, ready to rupture. The bigger news was I had a large ovarian cyst. (I had been to the ER 5 years earlier with an ovarian cyst that ruptured, so I didn’t think much of it.)

A surgeon came in 20 minutes later and announced that I needed 2 surgeries: one immediately for the gallbladder and then one later a total hysterectomy. Talk about knocking the wind out of your sails! This was a lot to take in; they prepped me for the gallbladder surgery, which was thankfully done in time before it ruptured. Two days later I was released with another appointment with the same surgeon to discuss the next surgery which would be one month later! After much arguing with the insurance company (they had the nerve to tell me it was unnecessary! This came from a doctor that had never examined me or knew my full history.) My husband moved heaven and earth on Monday January 3rd: he convinced the insurance company to do the full surgery as planned (thank god for him!). The surgeon did a vertical cut and a full hysterectomy because he did not want to chance breaking the cyst in case it was cancerous.

I had quite a few complications during surgery. I started bleeding and in an effort to stop the bleeding, the surgeon cut a hole in my bladder. He in turn had to call a urologist to come in and repair the damage to my bladder. I had to be given 4 pints of blood due to the severe blood loss. A two hour surgery turned into a 5 hour surgery. I had a rough recovery period with a lot of pain and of course anemia due to the blood loss. The catheter that was put in was not going to come out for 4 weeks (I did not find this out until the day before I went home-and I was not happy about that!). The night before I went home the surgeon came in with the devastating news: it was stage I ovarian cancer. I am a strong person, but this took me by surprise and I began to cry. My husband told me that we would get through this and we were so lucky it was found. That night I allowed myself some self pity and cried myself to sleep. I told him that he would have to tell our children, that I could not. The next morning my 22 year old daughter came to pick me up, she knew but she kept herself together for me. She told me weeks later that she Googled ovarian cancer that night when my husband came home and that I would live! My parents postponed their trip to Florida and stayed to help take care of me during my recovery. My co-workers came to visit, called and brought dinner over. My in-laws and my sister in law Connie were also a tremendous source of support; visiting, calling and of course bringing dinner over for my family. My cousins and aunts and uncles came to visit and offer support, which was so nice.

The next big blow came when we visited the oncologist (just precautionary according to the surgeon). She informed me that I would have to go thru 6 rounds of chemotherapy and I would lose my hair! After she told me about the hair loss I did not hear another word she said, good thing my husband was with me! Once again he had to tell our two children my son Michael who is 18 and my daughter Kristen who is 22. They came upstairs and crawled onto my bed along with our two dogs and told me everything would be ok. Their love and support have meant everything.

I have just completed my 3rd round of chemo, and yes I am bald as a cue ball, but a wig has helped me maintain some sort of normalcy. I have been battling low hemoglobin levels and low white blood cell counts, but I am determined to be finished with my chemo on June 3rd. My son graduates high school on May 27th and I plan to be there, my May chemo is scheduled for May 13th. It falls in between many May events: senior prom, my daughter is the maid of honor in her best friends wedding and graduation. I plan to stay on schedule! I have raised my low levels in the past with good nutrition: iron enriched foods, plenty of fluids and sleep. According to my oncologist I will finish in June and then she will need to check me every 3 months at first and then every 6 months, then once a year! She gave me a 90% survival rate which is tremendous! It turns out if the surgeon would have completed an abdominal wash during the surgery I would most likely not even had to have chemotherapy! She said this would ensure us that even though the cyst was totally encapsulated, it would kill anything just in case a cell got out.

My advice to others in a similar situation: never give up, stay strong, listen to your doctor and thank god for the amazing family, friends and co-workers that give their continuous love and support! And to all of you (you know who you are!) I LOVE YOU!! AND THANK YOU!!