For the first time in probably eight years, I've painted my toenails. And not some innocent shade of red, no, no, the bold, beautiful, still-feminine-if-somewhat-ambiguously-situated-between-blue-and-green color known as teal.
Why would Margaret be waltzing around with blue-ish toenails . . . and why is she writing about it here??
Mainly so people will ask, because then I can tell them (and you) that teal is the "color" for ovarian cancer, and September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. I had ovarian cancer, and it sucked, but I got off relatively easy: the 5-year survival rate is under 50% if it's not caught at an early stage (
NOCC). You should know the symptoms, so if you or someone you know has them for more than 2 weeks, you can get to a doctor ASAP. The big bummer about ovarian cancer is there's no screening for it (your PAP smear is an important screening for cervical cancer, but cannot check for ovarian), symptoms are often fairly general and not acute, setting on gradually, increasing the odds that it's misdiagnosed. As with so many cancers, catching it early is the key to surviving.
According to the
Mayo Clinic, symptoms include (and these are quoted directly)
- Abdominal pressure, fullness, swelling or bloating
- Urinary urgency
- Pelvic discomfort or pain
A woman may also experience:
- Persistent indigestion, gas or nausea
- Unexplained changes in bowel habits, such as constipation
- Changes in bladder habits, including a frequent need to urinate
- Loss of appetite or quickly feeling full
- Increased abdominal girth or clothes fitting tighter around your waist
- Pain during intercourse (dyspareunia)
- A persistent lack of energy
- Low back pain
- Changes in menstruation
I was relatively lucky in that I experienced almost all of the above and very suddenly, so there was no ignoring it. But unlike Grazelda the SuperOvary, most ovarian cancers grow slowly.
So, there's your public service announcement for the month. And no, I didn't make up the Teal Toes bit; I'm part of a movement (
www.tealtoes.org), and you can be, too. Just pick up some nail polish, do your toes, and when anyone asks, tell them you have a friend who had ovarian cancer, why it's so hard to catch it early, and what the symptoms are. Bonus points if you send me picture (I'll post it here, unless you don't want me to), and triple bonus points if you're male.
