Her fight, so it's not mine.... my sister-in-law was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer, around 2011 and this story will revolve around her and our family and how we handled this difficult time, including her remission and recurrence of the cancer 6 years later and how we are still struggling with it and how we, as a family is coping and how I see her coping with this disease. 

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This time round, I will talk about how we found out that she was sick and our initial reactions to it. 

She was having some pain in her knees and legs, she has asked me countless times to help her relieve her pain by massage and some forms of treatment. You see, I'm a physical therapist - well, I gradudated BS Physical Therapy in one of the schools in our country but I wasn't given the chance to really practice it, unless you count times such as these, when I will "treat" family members - I was hesitant because I wasn't sure where her pain was coming from. So I have asked her to undergo check up so that we will know what was wrong and that what treatment we would give her. I will follow through with the treatment but we need to know first what was really wrong. After some time, she went. And since she also already due for her annual PE for her work, she decided to shoot 2 birds with one stone so speak and scheduled herself for the PE and in particular the pain she was feeling on her legs. 

Results came back and she was alarmed when the doctor wanted to see her personally, when usually such occasions will just merit her getting the results and the certificate that she was fit to work. That was her first warning sign that something was wrong. So the doctor talked to her and told her of the news. When she found out, she called for a family meeting, calling her siblings to explain her situation, at first it was just us, the siblings and brothers/sisters-in-law, who talked, we didn't tell their mother yet, coz we didn't want her to worry, when nothing was certain yet.

When we found out  our first reaction was, to get a second opinion. We searched out people and found the specialist for her particular cancer and she underwent another series of tests... it confirmed our worst fears, she did have cancer, ovarian cancer - we were joking with the family, since this sister-in-law was unmarried, that it happened because her ovaries weren't used - but just to lighten the situation. So, the idea was for her to undergo operation and chemotherapy as well. The protocols explained and what is expected to happen during this time. We conferred and agreed on what we needed to do, what responsibilities will be done by who and stuff, as even with her sick, life outside will continue. We had children to feed and take care of as well as their mother who was advancing in age.

On my next post about this, I will tackle her operation and subsequent chemotherapy sessions... See you next time...