I had not been feeling overall as good as I thought I should but nothing specific, pretty much the whole year before my cancer diagnosis. In September of 2016 I went to urgent care and was diagnosed with Pyelonephritis (UTI that commonly begins in your bladder and moves upstream to one or both of your kidneys). I was given an antibiotic for 7 days. 

 

After the antibiotic, I was still not feeling very good.  I had nausea and bloating and didn't feel like eating.  I thought it was just the after effects of the antibiotic. I went to Urgent Care again.  They did labs, scans, and an ultrasound.  I was told that I had a large ovarian mass and they thought it could be cancer but didn't know  for sure without surgery. 

 

I really wasn't too worried at that point because I had had several cysts on my ovaries that had been removed over the last 40 years and they were all benign. I went ahead with the surgery on October 24, 2016 and was told that I had cancer, although they weren't sure what kind it was. They said I had very aggressive spiral cells, which was not good at all. 

 

Tissue samples were sent to 3 different places,  Marshfield, Houston, and Chicago where they diagnosed Peritoneal Cancer Stage 2B.  The interesting part was I always wake up right after surgery and this time I was pretty sleepy for quite some time.  When my husband, Terry, told me I had cancer I didn't really care. A menu was offered and I ordered green beans and some mashed potatoes.  After the meal came while I still had potatoes in my mouth, I stopped breathing! My family called immediately to the front desk and a code blue was started.  My family was told I wouldn't make it and they were sorry by the hospital chaplain. Of course, my family was in shock. 

 

Just hearing that I had cancer and coding.  That was quite unreal for them. Just before they gave up on me during the code someone thought of one more thing to try.  They gave me Narcan which worked. (I don't know why they hadn't thought of that before).  I remember waking up and hearing everything going on around  me and being an RN, I knew I had coded.  My first thought was someone tell my family that I'm ok.  I also had my hand in the hand of a large dark man who looked like an angel to me. My family was told that I was ok after all. 

 

They came back in to see me and none of us could believe what had just happened. We were all thankful that I had made it. I was taken to ICU for the rest of the day and night and back to a regular room by noon that next day. I am forever grateful to the hospital code them for reviving me. I went home within 3 days and recuperated while researching what to do for my cancer.