This morning I repeatedly checked the patient portal at my oncologist’s office for my ovarian cancer lab work. It has been eight weeks since my previous lab test and twelve years since my diagnosis. Although I’ve been able to keep a cool head living with cancer, I’m still really nervous when it’s time for lab work.   My husband David, an attorney, once described it as waiting for your bar exam results six times a year, only worse.   Each time, I’m at a fork in the road, and either get to continue happily coasting along, or need my medical team to consider ‘next steps’.

For 12 years, I’ve been living this way, up and down, with a good dose of cancer denial in-between. At first, poor labs meant facing heavy metal chemo (again), steroids, feeling under the weather and losing my hair. But, for the last eight years, in approximately two year intervals, new, effective drugs have been discovered: Avastin, PARP Inhibitors, Immunotherapy. Each has worked and been far less toxic, affording me the chance to reengage in a life I love.

For that I feel grateful every day. No exaggeration, every single day. I never take my good fortune for granted. Each adult child, every grandchild, my friends, the energy to engage in writing (just finished my first draft of an historical novel!), walks with neighbors, precious time with my husband and so on. 

One of my blessings is you. The Mathilda Fund supporting the Ovarian Research Alliance has led to critical discoveries for over a decade. All due to your generosity. A generosity that’s led to the drugs and other treatments keeping me and thousands of women just like me living full productive lives. 

Please consider making a contribution this year. It’s so easy. Just follow the link to my fundraising site.

https://give.ocrahope.org/fundraiser/1757986

Thank you once again

Jane Rubin