Wife diagnosed Stage 3 Cervical

Hello Cassiemundo and welcome to the group.  I am a Stage 3 lady and have finished treatment and quite recently had my three month PET scan and MRI which both showed excellent response to treatment.  Stage 3 is very treatable and they will be treating to cure her.  She will have a few appointments for scans before they are able to start treatment.  They will want to gather all the information they can about her cancer and then set out a treatment plan.  I promise that when she gets a treatment plan everything will seem so much better and she will feel more in control.  The medical team are so wonderful and caring and the treatment is usually pretty standard.  If you read through some of the posts here you will see that many women have chemotherapy, radiotherapy and then brachytherapy.  In the meantime it may help her to control the things she can such as diet, exercise etc so that she will be in tip top condition when the treatment starts.  Also it is so beneficial for her to try to stay positive and I know that is not easy but I truly believe it helps.  Good luck and keep us all posted and please ask any questions.  We are all here with you both xxx

Hi Cassiemundo and welcome to our group!

Your wife’s diagnosis is very new, so I’m sure will have sent you both reeling-it’s a lot to process, and there will be a whirlwind of appointments to complete before starting treatment. You have said what stage she’s at, but not where she is in the process so far with scans etc and if you know the treatment plan yet? Although treatment for this stage is pretty standard in how it is carried out.

Would your wife like to consider joining our group so she can speak directly to us? She may find that helpful, but it’s fine if she’d rather not.

I can appreciate why you’re angry, but I hope you can move on from that, as you can’t change anything about where you are right now. I wasn’t angry personally, but preferred to channel everything into having a positive mindset and getting on with dealing with the cancer. The treatment can be very effective, and your wife has every chance of getting good results from it, so if I were you I’d focus on treatment being successful rather than not being at this point. Being able to be positive has a huge effect on how you deal with this, both you as the partner, and for your wife going through the treatment.

You are welcome to be with us and keep posting and we’ll do our best to help you through. We have lots of experience between us in the group.

Sarah xx

1. Thank you so much, your reply has really lifted me, it’s really helpful to hear from people who are going through it. Very grateful to have found this forum xx

Thank you for taking time to reply, we know we are dealing with a 6cm tumour which has spread from the uterus into the ligaments and are waiting for our first appointment with the doctor which is next week. The plan so far seems to be 5.5 weeks of radiotherapy and potentially a chemo sandwich each side.

Hearing back from you both has already helped me feel more positive, I think when you feel like you are on your own you can easily disappear down a rabbit hole of negativity.

A massive thank you! 
xx

Morning Cassiemundoand I’m glad you’re able to feel more positive.

It’s difficult if you don’t have anyone to talk to, so you’ve come to the right place here! 

Your wife will be going through quite a lot of intense treatment when it starts, but getting started means feeling like you are getting some control back in dealing with this. Side effects from treatment are different for everyone, but the critical thing for your wife will be telling her team about how she’s feeling during treatment so that any side effects can be dealt with. 

If you think of questions for your appointment before you go, I’d recommend writing them down as they come into your head as it’s surprising how much you forget when you’re actually with the doctor. Hope it goes well next week and you get a treatment start date.

Sarah xx

Hi Cassiemundo, I'm so pleased that you are feeling more positive and I feel that is very important.  Please do not hesitate to ask any questions here, we are all here for you both xxx

Thank you for your excellent advice!

Thank you! The support is greatly appreciated

Hi Cassiemundo,

it is absolutely normal to feel anger about the diagnosis because it looks like that you love and care for your wife. She should be feeling angry and disappointed as well about her diagnosis. Looking about the stages of grief anger is one of it before accepting the situation. Even thought you are angry I think that it will be very helpful for her not to direct it towards her as it is no one’s fault and at the end of the day she will need to get though the treatment with the rads and chemo. The only think that you can do at this stage is to support her physically and emotionally and let her do her own decisions about her treatment. Cervical cancer is treatable at stage 3 compared to other cancers. She will get through out of it, many ladies have done it! Try not to be pessimistic about the treatment as she will need all the positive energy that she can get!! All the best!

xxx

Thank you so much for your response, I hadn’t really thought of it as a grief process, but it makes total sense xx