5 Major Complications of Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian cancer is often labeled as the silent killer because its symptoms are usually mistaken for other benign conditions. However, researchers and experts have recently found that women who experience symptoms, such as pelvic pain, feeling full quickly when eating, urinary frequency, and abdominal bloating often disregard it to be something else. However, ignoring these symptoms might give rise to significant complications.
So, what are some of the ovarian cancer complications? Read on to know.
1. Infections
A prevalent treatment measure to cure ovarian cancer is chemotherapy. In this, drugs are used to locate and combat the rapidly dividing cancer cells in the body. However, sadly, at times, this treatment measure might also destroy healthy cells in the body. Typically, one kind of healthy cell, which is often damaged during chemotherapy, is responsible for creating white blood cells (WBCs) in the body. WBCs, combat the invading germs and bacteria. Your risk for infection aggravates dramatically if the WBC count in your body is low.
2. Blood clots
Following an ovarian cancer surgery, there is a greater likelihood of developing blood clots in the legs or pelvis. To prevent this from happening, your surgeon will recommend you get up from the bed and start walking as early as possible after the operation. In this case, the doctor might also give you some injections to thin your blood, or you might be asked to wear compression stockings.
3. Bowel obstruction
Bowel obstruction might develop because of the spread of cancer in the pelvis and abdomen and the scar tissue or adhesions formed following pelvic or abdominal surgery, including ovarian cancer surgery.
Adhesions might also result in twists and kinks in the bowel, which later cause obstructions. Some of the key bowel obstruction symptoms include vomiting and abdominal pain or cramps. To overcome this, you may need surgery to get rid of the affected intestine parts. Following surgery, a nasogastric tube or gastric tube is required to feed while the bowel heals.
4. Nausea
Certain chemotherapy medicines might make you puke or feel sick. To overcome this, you will be given anti-nausea medicines with your chemo sessions, which can help lower vomiting and nausea. However, understand that whether or not you feel sick is not a declaration of how well the treatment is working on you.
5. Vaginal bleeding
Following surgery, you might even experience vaginal bleeding. This may be similar to light menstruation. Before stopping, the blood will seem like a brown or red discharge, and it might last for some days to a few weeks. However, inform your medical health expert if the bleeding commences again after it stopped. Also, notify the doctor if the discharge is smelly, yellow, or green.
So, these are a few of the ovarian cancer complications that you should be aware of.