Left with no answers and the professionals have terrified me. Ovarian mass. What could it be apart from the big C? Incidental finding.

Hello,

a few weeks ago I had a spinal MRI from an old horse riding injury, my leg had been slightly weak. Consultant physio called me yesterday and spoke at length about how my spine was very healthy…however there had been an incidental finding on MRI and was referring me to gynaecology. Straight away I was terrified. I am a single parent and this was so unexpected, I had a thousand questions but she couldn’t answer any being a physio. She did however tell me this finding was also present on my 2020 MRI….i was never told then. 
fast forward I call the GP in between panicking and crying, GP said it’s a fat containing mass in my ovary area Is what the report says. The report does not even say which side or size or any comparison to when it was seen before. Nothing. 
that’s all I have to go on. The GP didn’t know how to read an MRI and just kept telling me not to panic and wait for my referral which is as long as a piece of string. She kept saying  like “well at least if it is something, you have found it”
I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I’m having constant bout of crying an panicking and no one to speak to, it’s Saturday and GP said I could call her next Friday. 
I had CA125 bloods done in August as I have been having terrible upper stomach pain and they were clear. Turns out I had h pylori and they think stomach ulcer. 

What could this be? How do we all get through these weeks of waiting? I feel like I can’t stop having panic attacks, I don’t know how to work and look after my son this week. 
terrified. I am 38 years old. Awful family history of cervical cancer but not of ovarian. Premenopausal. 
thank you. 

  • Hi Cloudy

    There are lots of benign lesions / tumours that can be 'incidental' findings on scans, so try not to worry yourself sick whilst you are waiting.

    I was in your situation in May of this year, I had an ultrasound of my liver due to one slightly raised liver enzyme.  Everyone including my gp, did not expect anything to be found, it was merely a box ticking exercise to say that everything had been checked.  A couple of days later, I received an urgent call from my gp's surgery wanting to see me that morning, a large tumour had been found on my liver, I was absolutely terrified!  Fast forward through urgent ct scan, urgent mri scan and meeting liver specialist, they still could not tell from the scans whether it was benign or cancerous, but because of the size of it, even if it was benign it had to be removed, so I was scheduled for surgery which took place in early August.  I had to wait for 9 weeks for the histology results, but when they finally came back it was benign.

    Yes, it was a long and worrying time.  At the start I was terrified that I would die, not so much for me, but for my dad (he is 85 and has already lost my sister and my mum to cancer, I am literally all he has got left!).  However, after the first week of worrying so much that I was literally being sick and not sleeping, I realised that I had to change my thinking and everytime that my thoughts started to go to a dark place, I would try to distract myself.  I kept telling myself that until someone told me differently, I would believe it was benign.  Yes, I could well have been wrong, but it got me through the months with my sanity intact.  Worry, when you know for sure that there is something to worry about, that is what my mum used to tell me.

    I hope that you get answers quickly and that it turns out to be harmless.

    Best wishes

    Annie

  • Annie thank you so much, I am so glad you story turned out to be a happy one. I cannot believe you had to wait from may until only some weeks ago to know you were ok. That feels like an incredibly long and worrying wait. 
    I know that I should only worry when I have something to worry about, I think being told by a physio (although so appreciated that she did) then being left with no one to ask any questions of has been awful. I don’t even know which side of my body it’s on. Keeping everything crossed that I too will have a positive report in the not too distant future. Thank you for replying.