Woman raising awareness about ovarian cancer
Crystal Sumner describes herself as a happy woman. Her personalized licence plate says “giggle.”
However, her life changed drastically on Jan. 13, 2017, when she was diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer.
She was 53 years old. “When I first got it, I was embarrassed,” she said. “I felt it was my fault.”
Her embarrassment led her to purchase a wig when she began losing her hair from her 18 rounds of chemotherapy. She said buying a wig is one of the things she regrets, because she didn’t ask to be diagnosed with cancer, and nobody should feel embarrassed about having it.
About a month after her diagnosis, doctors removed an 18-pound tumour, even though barely four months earlier, in September 2016, when she went for an ultrasound, the results were clear.
“We were shocked,” she said. “We knew it was huge by the dimensions, but we didn’t know the weight of it. But because it’s Stage 3, that’s not good. So you don’t know what the outcome’s going to be.”
Now, Sumner wants to tell her story to raise awareness of ovarian cancer and, she hopes, to prevent other women from having to go through what she did.
“It changes you; you’re not the same,” she said.
“You don’t want your sparkle dulled. I look in the mirror every day and in my eyes, I can tell and my family can tell in my eyes, they just don’t look like happy eyes.”
Sumner said even though she and her family went through hell, she has still retained her strength and love of life, especially for her grandchildren.
According to Ovarian Cancer Canada, 2,800 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year. In Saskatchewan, there will be an estimated 75 new cases this year.
Currently, there is no reliable screening test for ovarian cancer, and despite it being the most fatal cancer for women in Canada, it’s also the least funded for research.
“It’s a silent killer, you don’t know,” Sumner said.
“Because the symptoms can be for irritable bowel syndrome, or you know, you’ve got a tummy ache or whatever. But if there’s symptoms — and if they persist — go to the doctor.”
Sumner went to different doctors at least a dozen times to try to get someone to help find out what was wrong. No matter which doctor she saw, she was told it was a bladder infection, and to go home, she said.
Finally, after noticing one side of her stomach felt squishy, while the other side was hard, she went straight back to a doctor’s office, for the second time that day, and asked to see the other doctor in the office.
“Right away he said, ‘There’s a tumour, I’m calling City Hospital, you get there right now.’ And I cried all the way to the parking lot because I knew. I knew,” she said.
Sumner considers herself lucky. She currently feels OK, and is working, although not as much as she’d like. Although she remains optimistic, she understands what Stage 3 means, and is also trying to be realistic.
She also said she’s very stubborn, and “will go when (she) damn well wants to go.”
The Ovarian Cancer Walk of Hope, a national event to raise awareness and provide support for women with ovarian cancer, takes place on Sept. 9. Anyone can register, and Sumner said she will participate with her team, named Cool Runnings, after the movie she and her grandkids love.
“Everyone talks about the breasts all the time, and breast cancer’s a terrible thing, but you can see the boobs. You can’t see your ovaries,” she said. “People don’t want to talk about the lady balls, but I want people to talk about the lady balls. The more people know, the more people will be aware.”
I look in the mirror every dayandinmy eyes, I can tell and my family can tell in my eyes, they just don’t look like happy eyes.