When Amanda Davies began experiencing signs comparable to fatigue, painful intervals and swelling she was advised by docs she was perimenopausal.
However, the then 42-year-old, from Pembrokeshire in Wales, knew there was extra to it than that.
She recalled her signs: “I started getting stomach problems, feeling bloated, lots of IBS symptoms, I thought there is something more to it.
“I had massive pains to the point I would have to come home from work. Severe bloating.
“I was constantly going to the toilet to change, it was awful to think people were watching me walk across the corridor at work.
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Amanda Davies pictured left with a wig after chemo and right in recovery (Image: Amanda Davies)
"I constantly felt the need to be eating something. But I wouldn't be able to finish my food. I would eat as much as I could then an hour later I would be hungry again.
“I was going to the toilet more than usual, but I didn't see it as a pattern until afterwards.
“At my time of the month I went up two dress sizes and I would come back down.”
But docs dismissed these indicators, saying they have been all the way down to her age.
Amanda, now 48, advised Wales Online: "I stored going again and for the docs saying I'm scuffling with my time of the month, they mentioned you're in all probability peri menopausal. It was, 'It's your age, it is stress, it is your job’.
“I did not see the identical physician every time, so that they did not decide up what number of instances I used to be going there."
Amanda in hospital (Image: Amanda Davies)
She went back and forth to the doctors for 18 months with these problems before she finally got answers.
Since Amanda lives with a congenital heart condition, her GP advised her to consult her cardiologist about the problems she was experiencing. "I used to be actually nervous it was my coronary heart," she said.
In 2016 her cardiologist performed an ultrasound on her heart and prescribed her water tablets which made her sick.
This prompted a GP to feel her stomach which concerned him as he thought she could have a blocked bowel. Due to this she was told to go to A&E.
Amanda said: "They began doing scans, they mentioned you will have the physician to thank for this - my heart specialist had placed on my notes to have pressing scans, as a result of he knew there was one thing incorrect.
“Then at 3am that morning, they advised me it was a cancerous mass. A stage three tumour."
General symptoms of cancer to look for (Image: Express.co.uk)
An oncology team told Amanda she had a low grade serous ovarian cancer.
The type of mass she had starts out very slow growing and can go undetected for years until later stages when it becomes more aggressive.
However, no one with her heart condition had ever undergone chemotherapy before due to the risks, but she decided to go for it.
Luckily the chemo was successful and was followed up by a full hysterectomy in February 2017.
Amanda added: "Chemo is tough, in all probability one of many hardest issues you'll ever do. I keep in mind my biology instructor mentioned chemotherapy is the closest you'll be able to come to being poisoned with out dying.
“I had anaphylactic shock with the primary session. It was the speed it was going into my physique, they needed to scale back the pace of the drip by half.
“It was an unknown check due to the center situation. Instead of the traditional periods the place folks would have a day there then return in three week, they needed to do it at a decrease dosage over an extended time period"
Six months after the hysterectomy Amanda suffered an embolism and went into stage four heart failure.
She was treated with warfarin to move the clot and eventually needed an operation on her heart to replace a valve.
However, Amanda is extremely grateful to the NHS for the treatment she has received over the years for both her heart and cancer.
She said: “They have saved my life more than once. I feel really privileged to get up in the morning."
According to the NHS, signs of ovarian most cancers can embrace:
If you expertise signs of ovarian most cancers you need to converse to your GP.
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