A warning for other women
Teresa Heap is looking to the future confidently but in 2012 it was a different story because she almost ignored a warning sign that turned out to be cancer. ‘‘I started putting on weight.’’ Heap, personal assistant to mayor Damon Odey and Timaru District Council chief executive Peter Nixon, agreed to do this story to promote Gynaecological Awareness Month. She hopes her experience will help other women take notice of any changes in their bodies and get them checked.
Thinking she was gaining weight because she was in her 50s and her metabolism was slowing down, she started exercising daily. But during one session, she felt something go ‘‘ping’’ in her stomach area.
It was near Christmas and she was helping to host 13 people but felt tired and was in pain on her right hand side.
‘‘I thought I was getting appendicitis.’’
Strangely her bladder function changed and she had to find a toilet every 35 minutes. Because it was the festive season she thought she better go to a doctor, who referred her to gynaecologist Dr Albert Makary.
‘‘If it had been any other time of the year, I would have ignored it.’’
She could not get a scan in Timaru, so ended up in Christchurch.
Though Makary said he thought it could be ‘‘something’’, she clung to the hope it was not – but it was.
An operation at Bidwill Hospital at the end of January revealed a 1kg cancerous tumour on her right ovary.
‘‘It is a silent killer as I had no symptoms for so long.’’
Steroids made her feel invincible before chemotherapy at Timaru Hospital.
‘‘And then I felt human again after all.’’
Her workmates were supportive, as were her netball team and her family.
She met her husband, Morrie, when she was 14, and they have been married for 43 years.
‘‘He was fantastic through all this,’’ she said.
With six-monthly checks continuing until the five-year mark, Heap hopes by then she will be properly in remission.
The whole episode gave her and her family a big fright. ‘‘Family became massively important.’’
In hindsight there were signs all was not well before the pain started, Heap said.
‘‘I was tired, the world looked grey.
‘‘I was pale and my hair, which is usually curly, went straight.’’
Also she said the tumour made her look about five months pregnant, but she put that down to having an extra tummy roll.
She has a message for other women, including her own daughter:
‘‘Don’t muck around, listen to your body and get checked.’’