Hi
i was diagnosed with cervical cancer when I was 22 years old in 2009. I had a hysterectomy. Chemotherapy radiotherapy and brachytherapy. It’s left Me with scar tissue, the inability to have a normal sex life and of course the fact that I can’t have children. Obviously it’s been 13 years now since I was diagnosed but I just wanted to ask people, do you ever get over it? I feel like this ruined my life and I’ve never gotten over it.
m thanks
Hi GillianM and welcome to our group.
I’m not sure you do ever fully get over any cancer diagnosis and treatment, especially when it leaves such difficult reminders. I try and look for the positives as a way of helping to cope, but it is hard. The treatment you had has obviously had a massive impact on your life, and I can’t have the same understanding of what it’s like to have the chance of having children taken away from you at such an early age as I was post menopausal at diagnosis.
But being 13 years out from this is in itself a real achievement! Have you ever sought any help with how you’re feeling? I found counselling sessions helpful, and I try not to dwell too much on the negatives of my own life changing treatment and surgery but rather try and live in the now. I can’t ever have sex again as I’ve had my vagina removed, can’t ever go to the loo again in the normal way as I have 2 stomas, and know I have to live with those changes for the rest of my life. But I’d rather be alive with those changes than not here at all. My life has been forever changed, but I don’t feel it is ruined.
Maybe getting some professional help to talk through your feelings might help you move on in a more positive way? You are a survivor, and that’s amazing in itself.
Sarah xx
