Most of us hardly pause over the occasional stomachache. Maybe it’s that heavy dinner, a little stress, or just one of those days: that’s not a big deal, right? But for Cathy Brockhoff, her story started with a stomachache that was anything but ordinary. At 47, living in New York, busy with life and family, she had no idea this pain would flip her world upside down. No family history of ovarian cancer. No sense of being high-risk. Just a pain that sent her to the ER, where doctors found a mass on her ovary. Not long after, she got the diagnosis: stage 3 ovarian cancer.Her experience, reported by TODAY.com, captures just how sneaky ovarian cancer can be. The early signs are so vague and easy to confuse with more common issues, like indigestion, urinary problems, or just the routine aches we all get. Cathy’s pain struck hard and fast, something her doctor, Dr. Antoinette Sakaris, later explained probably happened because the tumor inside her ovary was growing, pressing into nearby organs, maybe even bleeding into itself.
