Dealing with my diagnosis

FormerMember
FormerMember
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I was diagnosed with cervical cancer in March this year just 6 months after having my little girl. I'd had a complicated delivery which lead to further investigations with the outcome something I never expected to hear.

I dont think I have actually dealt with hearing the words you have stage 2 cervical cancer because as soon as I was diagnosed we were suddenly in lockdown due to covid.  I have finished my radiotherapy and chemotherapy but found this extremely difficult as I wasnt able to have anyone there supporting me or asking the difficult questions to the consultant thay i was too scared to asked because I'm not sure i wanted to know the answer.  I'm not sure how in feeling one minute I exceot it and the next I'm mad at the world, as I am only 29 and also had the HPV vaccine as a teenager so on my bad days nothing makes sense. I keep being told this is normal but that doesn't always help.

I am 13 days post treatment now and still seem to be struggling with everything. My body is physically exhausted and I'm not sure what to do to stop feeling so tired all the time. I am falling asleep at the strangest of times and places. Please tell me this is normal...

  • Yes, totally normal albeit there is no wrong or right way to deal with what you've been through.  First you've recently had a baby, then a cancer diagnosis - stage 2 (as was I) followed by 5-6 weeks of heavy duty treatment.  This is a marathon and some, physically and mentally.  It took me a while to catch up with the toll that treatment took on me; not long after my treatment finished I joined a group class at my local gym as I thought if i just got back into the swing of things life would somehow go back quickly to the way it had been.  With hindsight I think I was half crazy to try and join in with the class - after 5 minutes the teacher came over to me and diplomatically suggested that perhaps I would like to take a chair at the back of the studio and do what I could whilst sitting down.  A few weeks later I tried to join in with a yoga class (I've done a lot of yoga over the years) and well it was just embarrassing as my back was so stiff and painful I could barely do 10% of what the rest of the class was doing. It took experiences like that to finally realise that I had a lot of recovery time ahead of me.  Be kind and patient with yourself - you deserve a medal for what you've been through over the last year or so.

    I was diagnosed with stage 2A squamous cell cervical cancer (node negative) in 2017 following symptoms: persistent, watery, yellow vaginal discharge then post-menopuasal bleeding.  My treatment was a radical hysterectomy followed by chemo-radiotherapy.  My long term side effects include lymphoedema and urinary retention which I manage with intermittent self catheterisation.