Strange symptom and a "weird" referral led to a woman's Stage 4 cancer diagnosis: "Saved my life"
A 69-year-old woman was diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer after a nurse practitioner ordered a CT scan for persistent abdominal bloating. The case highlights the insidious nature of the disease, which often presents with subtle symptoms and lacks a standard screening test.
Why it matters
Increased awareness of subtle symptoms like bloating can lead to earlier detection of ovarian cancer, which is often diagnosed at advanced stages.
Kate Ping wasn't concerned about the bloating in her abdomen at first. She was too busy running two family businesses and worrying about her son, who was about to undergo open-heart surgery. Ping, 69, always had digestive and gut issues when she was stressed, so she chalked it up to that. When her symptoms still hadn't receded two months after her son's successful operation, she made an appointment with her doctor. Her abdomen was so bloated it felt tender around her belly button, she said. Ping expected to be scheduled for a colonoscopy. But the nurse practitioner she saw surprised her and ordered a CT scan. "In my head, I'm thinking, 'That's weird. Why did she do that?'" Ping recalled. The CT scan returned devastating results: Ping had Stage 4 ovarian cancer. The disease had spread throughout her body.
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