Part 1: Where It All Started

Part 1: Where It All Started

Life doesn’t always go as planned. For me, this has never been more true.

My name is Caitlin Lyons. I’m 26 years old, a 4th Grade Math/Science/Social Studies teacher, and have a rare form of Ovarian Cancer called Serous Borderline Ovarian Tumors - Stage IIIb.

In the late spring of 2018, my husband and I decided to try to expand our family. We were so excited at the idea of bringing a sweet itty-bitty into our little home!

Month after month, we were met with the disappointing news that it didn’t work out. We both got tested and all of our results were coming back normal - it should’ve been working! We decided that it was time to try Clomid (a hormone inducer to help with ovulation) in May 2019. I took two rounds of Clomid (May and June), but on Father’s Day, I started to have sharp pains. I thought it wasn’t anything to really worry about, but Patrick convinced me to call my OB/GYN and see what they think.

They scheduled me to come in for an ultrasound first thing Monday morning. Turns out, having sharp pains isn’t a good thing when you’re on hormone inducers. They found 4 cysts on my ovaries; two on either side. My doctor said that it was common for women to develop these after taking Clomid, but that she still wanted to keep an eye on them and hold off on any more hormones.

A month later, I went in for another scan. All four cysts were still there, two of them slightly larger. “Come back in another month and we’ll check on them again,” they said. I had monthly scans from June through August with nothing more than a “wait and see”. I was frustrated, exhausted, and filled with questions. I just had this feeling in my gut that something more was going on.

Finally, on September 16th, I went in for my monthly ultrasound and was able to meet with my doctor immediately after. I went from four cysts down to two, but the ones that were left continued to grow slowly and still had some “solid particles” in them. My doctor suspected an advanced stage of Endometriosis due to the nature of the cysts, infertility, and stomach pains I was having. Hallelujah! After almost a year and a half of not knowing why we couldn’t get pregnant, we were given a potential answer!

We were given three options: 1. Keep waiting and see what happens (because that was working so well already…) 2. Go on birth control to try to shrink the cysts 3. Schedule surgery to remove the cysts and clean up the Endo that has most-likely spread through my abdomen. Tired of waiting and being in pain every-other night, we opted for the optional surgery. Before we could schedule anything though, she needed to run a lab for my CA125 hormone. She explained that this lab measures inflammation which is an indication of Endometriosis, as well as cancer and about ten other things, but she was confident that it was Endometriosis due to all of my symptoms. Trusting her judgement and medical expertise, I did the lab and we went on our way.