Back at the start of 2018 i was a newly married 27 yer old, looking forward to an amazing honeymoon and I'd just found out I was expecting my first baby. Things were absolutely amazing, until all of a sudden they weren't.
I havnt spoken about my Bladder Cancer diagnosis on this site yet but have been reading it ever since my diagnosis and have found it a great support. May is Bladder Cancer awareness month so it seemed like a good time to share my story. I have also started my own blog: https://alittlerainwillfall.blogspot.co.uk/ to help raise awareness for Bladder Cancer.
We were so excited when those two little lines appeared on the pregnancy test at the beginning of February. We must have done at least 10 tests before we finally believed it! Especially because about a month before a doctor told me he suspected I might have Endometriosis and warned me that things might not be so straight forward.
But here we were, it felt amazing and a little bit too good to be true! A week or so later I had some bleeding which promoted us to take a trip to our GP. She told us it was probably nothing to worry about but refereed us to the EPU for an early scan just to put our minds at rest.
At 7 weeks pregnant we had our early scan. It really was the most amazing feeling to see that tiny little heartbeat flashing away on the screen. We went back to the waiting room so relieved and excited to share our amazing news.
Unfortunately our celebrations were short lived as we were called back into another room soon after. Neither of us could have predicted what was going to happen next, it was a bit like being hit with a sledge hammer as the doctor explained to us that the sonographer had found a 4cm mass in my bladder during the scan. They couldn't confirm cancer at this stage but they weren’t ruling it out either. Whatever it was they knew it shouldn't be there.
All of a sudden everything seemed to make sense. I had been having weird symptoms since the start of July 2017 when I started to notice some blood in my urine that came and went. My GP sent me away several timed with antibiotics, suspecting UTI's, until October 2017 when the blood became much more noticeable and I was sent to hospital with suspected kidney stones.
No kidney stones were found and my CT scan appeared to be clear so we were sent home with even more antibiotics and relief that it was nothing sinister. The bleeding kept coming back each month and this time a GP told me it could be Endometriosis.
Thanks to our little baby we were suddenly being fast tracked through the system in order to get a proper diagnosis and the correct treatment for both of us as quickly as possible I was told at this point that there was a big risk of miscarriage and depending on the severity of the cancer we might have to consider abortion. I was heartbroken.
The next few weeks were a blur of hospital appointments, scans and tests and I must confess quite a lot of google research. A cystoscopy at 10 weeks confirmed bladder cancer and I was told that surgery was the only option.
As terrifying as it was to be pregnant through all of this I received the best possible care from so many doctors, nurses and midwives. Each one reassuring me in their own way that they were doing everything they could to ensure treatment would be as safe as possible for me and the baby.
The safest time to do the operation would be after the 12 week mark which gave doctors a little while to prepare. A senior team was assembled and a special machine was brought in from another hospital. On Monday 14th of May 2018 I had surgery, fully conscious with spinal anaesthetic. We decided this would be the safest option for the baby and sure enough as soon as I was out of theatre and in recovery I was allowed to listen to it’s strong little heartbeat to let me know everything was okay. Surgery was a success, the surgeon managed to completely remove two tumours from my bladder and these have been sent away for testing. We should have the results in a few weeks.
I’ve kept my story pretty quiet up until now because for a long time it felt like such a personal battle. I needed to get my head around it without any outside influences. I’ve kept myself to myself for the last few weeks because it’s hard to act like everything is fine when it really isn’t. It’s also easier to stay focused and positive without people giving you pitying looks and I hate the idea of anyone feeling sorry for me! I wanted to stay positive and deal with this temporary set back as quickly as possible, so we could get back to our lives and start getting excited about our tiny little person.
What I really wanted was to talk to people who had been through what I was going through, who maybe understood. I spent hours searching the web for people and stories I could relate to, but because cancer in pregnancy is so rare and bladder cancer is usually diagnosed in people over the age of 70, I felt very alone. That’s why I’ve decided to write this blog. If I can help just one person in a similar situation to me feel less alone then it will be a huge success!
I also want to raise awareness of bladder cancer, it’s one of the most common cancers in the UK, with 10,000 people diagnosed each year, but we don’t like to talk about it.
Thank you for taking the time to read a little bit about my story.
Katie xxx
