So I was diagnosed after having a smear, come back with Severe abnormal cell Had a Letz procedure under general anaesthetic three weeks later was diagnosed with stage one B2 cervical cancer had lots of blood test, CT scans and MRI hadn’t spread my surgery to have my lymph node taken out and tested surgery was very painful was blown up with Gas a week later. I had my radical hysterectomy as my lymph nodes were clear . operation went okay, but was so swollen from the before lost 1.6 litres of blood Was given a iron transfusion . during my hospital stay which was 5 days , had a few tachycardic moments where I had to have an ECG. Think this was due to the morphine the tramadol and the mix of the anaesthetic coming out. I’ve now come home and I had lymphatic liquid gushing out of my abdominal scar is bandage okay at the moment, but they’ve said it could start again I still have my catheter in feel so fed up and drained and emotional and I don’t know how much more I can take
Hi chars and welcome to our group
It sounds like you’ve had a really traumatic time, so no wonder your head’s all over the place. Do you have a district nurse coming round to see you to check on the catheter and the wound? It’s actually very scary to come home from hospital still having post surgery issues and you’ll need support. Have you got anyone at home-partner or family?
I’m so sorry to read how you’re feeling, and you’ve been through an awful lot so it will take time to get over that physically and process things mentally. You’ve been through the most major thing which was the radical hysterectomy so that’s a massive achievement in itself but the aftermath can be hard to deal with.
A few questions-do you know when you’ll get the catheter out-things should hopefully immediately start to feel better when that happens? Are you getting adequate pain relief since you’ve been discharged? When are you going to get checked over by a nurse or doctor next?
If you have anything you’re worried about in particular now you’re home and anything further issues with your abdominal wound happens, please call someone. You can phone the ward, your CNS or even 111. Please don’t suffer with anything that’s bothering you.
You need to be taking things very easy and carefully for now as you start to recover, so don’t beat yourself up about needing to rest up and heal. It’s a very emotional time for you, and if you can talk to others that might help. The support line (number is in my signature) is there every day, so please feel free to phone them if you need extra help-they can help with lots of different things such as emotional support or reassurance from the nurses.
Meanwhile, I hope you’ll get some further replies from other ladies in the group who have ben through this and will understand exactly how you’re feeling.
Take care, and keep chatting whenever you’d like to.
Sarah xx
I think it’s common to feel guilty about being a burden, especially for mums who are used to looking after everyone else.
I was out of action for quite a long time after my (different) surgery for cervical cancer, and watching my partner having to do everything while I could do nothing for myself was hard-they assured me it wasn’t a problem and they were more concerned about me getting better.
Your recovery time would be expected to be 2-3 months as it’s major surgery, but things should be feeling physically better once your catheter is out and your abdominal wound heals up. Hopefully things will really start to feel better quite quickly but the mental aspect is something different and for me certainly lasted much longer. I think we expect too much of ourselves and assume we’ll have surgery and things will straight away go back to normal, but it does take time.
Cancer makes us feel like we’ve lost control of ourselves, but it’s possible to find that again. There are all sorts of emotions involved, things like mourning the loss of fertility and the changes to our hormone levels after surgery. These things can all feel better in time, but do approach your gp if you feel you need some help either physically or mentally.
The best thing to do is take care of our ourselves, and accept that for a while we need looking after by others for a change. Talking about your feelings is not something everyone is comfortable with but sometimes it can be difficult to tell those closest to us how we feel. I’ve learned that it’s ok to cry, it’s ok to admit I wasn’t coping on occasion and talking with others in my situation who had been through the same surgery as I had really helped me not to feel alone.
The ladies here in the group will identify with your feelings, I’m sure and the support line can be a good place to chat with someone who’s not part of your family but will listen and can signpost you to extra help if you’d like that.
I hope you’ll keep posting to let us know how you’re getting on.
Sarah xx
