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Cancer at 15
By: Blair Emsick

Hannah Harlow didn’t expect to find out the she had an 8 pound tumor in her right ovary when she went to get her annual sports physical this summer, but this is exactly what happened.

“The doctor was feeling around my stomach and said, ‘That’s not normal…’”, says Harlow.

Harlow had no inkling that she had a tumor inside of her, but she knew something was not normal.

“I just thought I had put on a little weight”, laughs Harlow.

After her sports physical Harlow’s doctor sent her to the Children’s Hospital where Harlow had to take a series of different tests. She had to take tests such as an Ultrasound, and an ET scan. Later that day, after Harlow’s test were completed she went back to the hospital to get her results.

“The doctor was really blunt about it, he just said, ‘Alright want to see pictures of your tumor?”

Harlow was shocked as she looked at the pictures of her eight pound tumor inside of her. The tumor was about the size of a 6 month old fetus. Harlow was supposed to have surgery immediately to remove the tumor but she was going to Europe for two weeks. Since her tumor caused her no pain her doctor permitted her to go on the trip and scheduled the surgery when she came back to Omaha.

Harlow had her surgery and the tumor was removed, unfortunately the tumor was attached to one of her ovaries so they had to remove the ovary as well. After the surgery Harlow was relieved of her tumor and completely healthy.

“I was really out of it for a few weeks after the surgery, but once I recovered from surgery , I could really feel the results of the surgery, It was great.”

However the story isn’t finished. A few weeks after her first surgery Hannah received a call from her doctor telling her that the tumor was cancerous and that they had to do a follow up surgery to see if there was any more cancer inside of her, this is called Staging.

“Staging is basically where they cut you up right down the middle and the doctor takes samples from each organ to see if it’s cancerous,” explains Harlow.

Fortunately all the cancer inside Harlow was completely gone, she is now healthy and normal, with one ovary, and Harlow can now put the whole ordeal behind her and look forward to the future.