The journey at a glance
June 2022
Diagnosis
Symptoms that were easy to explain away finally weren’t. Scans, surgery, and the words no one is ever ready for: ovarian cancer. Treatment began almost immediately.
Summer 2022
Chemotherapy begins
Cycles of chemo, one after another — learning a new vocabulary of infusion chairs, counts, and side effects, and figuring out how to keep living in between.
February 2023
Last chemo infusion
Eight months after it started, the final round of chemotherapy. Done — but not finished.
Spring 2023
Maintenance begins
The next chapter: a two-year course of a PARP inhibitor, a daily pill designed to keep the cancer from coming back.
February 2025
Two years of maintenance, complete
The last PARP inhibitor dose. Nearly three years, start to finish.
Today
Building what we wished existed
Turning everything we learned the hard way into the Cure Ovarian Cancer Foundation — so the next family doesn’t have to figure it out alone.
First symptoms
What were the first signs something wasn't right?
Like so many ovarian cancer stories, ours didn't start with anything dramatic. It started with symptoms that had a dozen innocent explanations — the kind you put up with, put off, and promise yourself you'll mention at your next appointment. This is where we'll share what those early weeks actually felt like, and what finally made it clear something was wrong.
Getting diagnosed
How did the diagnosis actually happen?
In June 2022 the explanations ran out. Here we'll walk through the appointments, the scans, and the moment the word "cancer" entered the room — plus what we wish someone had told us about those first disorienting days between suspicion and certainty.
“The moment you hear it, the ground moves. Everything after that is learning to walk on it anyway.”
Treatment decisions
How did we choose a path?
Second opinions, treatment plans, and a crash course in words we'd never heard before. This section will cover how we found our way to gynecologic oncologist Dr. Joshua Cohen and his team at City of Hope Orange County, the questions we learned to ask, and how we decided on the plan we followed.
Chemotherapy — June 2022 to February 2023
What were eight months of chemo really like?
From the first infusion in the summer of 2022 to the last one in February 2023. The rhythms of treatment weeks, the side effects nobody warns you about, the small rituals that helped — and the people who carried us through it.
Two years on a PARP inhibitor
What does "maintenance" actually mean?
Finishing chemo isn't the finish line most people imagine. For two more years, a daily PARP inhibitor was part of life — a pill designed to keep the cancer from returning. We'll share what that long middle chapter was like: the check-ins, the scan anxiety, and learning to live alongside uncertainty.
“Chemo has an end date. Learning to trust your body again doesn't.”
Life today — and why this foundation exists
What did the journey leave us determined to change?
Along the way we ran into gaps — in early detection, in plain-English information, in the practical support families need mid-treatment. The Cure Ovarian Cancer Foundation is our answer to those gaps: funding early-detection research, translating what we learned into resources anyone can use, and standing with the women and families walking this road now.