Diagnosed with cervical cancer

Hi Rosie90 and welcome to our group.

I’m sorry to read you’ve received a cancer diagnosis-it’s quite difficult at the start of this process when you’re still waiting for some results to confirm your treatment plan.

A radical hysterectomy is a major operation when it’s done as open abdominal surgery as would be planned for you, and I think recovery within 6 weeks is pretty optimistic. You’d have a lot of healing to do inside and of course you’ll have a surgical wound on your tummy which needs to heal. To begin with you need to take things easy, no lifting etc.

I was admitted for this surgery when my cancer recurred, so I did experience open abdominal surgery even though it couldn’t ultimately go ahead and I didn’t have anything removed. My incision required 25 staples, and I found recovery just from that quite challenging. 

I ultimately had a larger surgery about 9 weeks later, which was had a very much longer recovery time so I’ll leave others to comment on their experiences of open abdominal radial hysterectomies. If your mri scan changes your treatment plan and takes surgery out of the equation, we do also have lots of ladies in the group (including myself) who have had chemoradiation as their first line of treatment so will be able to share their experiences of that.

Please keep in touch and let us know how you get on with your scan results-there will always be help and advice in the group to help you through whatever type of treatment you have.

Sarah xx

Hi. I had that exact surgery and honestly 6 weeks is pretty much not possible to be recovered fully. I’m almost 5 months in a still feeling the effects now. I did got back to work on phased return at 10 weeks but only because I was allowed to do admin duties . I ended up with a uti in the first few days then urosepsis 3 weeks after so that slowed my recovery down. Honestly the fear of the surgery took over everything things else and I’m probably struggling more now with processing what happened than I did when I got my diagnosis but physically, I’m feeling much better. So my advice would be to speak to your cns beforehand, I tried to ignore it all and its comeback to bite me in the bum. Before and after my surgery I ate really healthy with lots of fresh foods and protein to get myself in the best position for recovery. I hope you’re surgery goes smoothly - my medical team were wonderful and I’m sure yours will be too

Hi

i am from the womb cancer forum but initially thought it was cervical as tumour was prolapsing through cervix but had a radical open hysterectomy with vertical cut about 5cm above belly but to mid line (I already had caesarean scar!)

I am 56 and fit and healthy otherwise and have recovered well. I work as an IT project from home and started back to work after 2 weeks post op. My major issue was sitting initially with my scar , so needed to make sure got up and moved around regularly.

I did feel more tired if I did overdo it. Also take it slowly as it is easy to overdo it even if you feel well and you will know about it if you do.

I had my operation on 31st October , so 3 months post op and feeling pretty good but it is a major operation so you do need to listen to your body,

Also you need to consider what adjuvant treatment you may need after surgery.

Hope all goes well for you

Hi Rosie, 

i just got this surgery on 23rd December. I had 3cm tumor and my diagnosis was either IB or 2A. I’ve recovered and I’m traveling now without problems. I don’t know how old are you but are you sure they have told you that they will take out your ovaries? If so, do you know that you will enter to menopause, right? Another thing that I would suggest to dbl check with your doctor if they are planning to take out all the lymph nodes or just sentinel lymph nodes? You should read about the risks of the taking out all the lymph nodes.