Stage 3c/4a. Vaginal bleeding from treatment?? Looking for some answers

Hi Mashi93 and welcome to our group

I’m so sorry to read what’s been happening with you, and especially that your staging has been changed, it seems without informing you. This all must be very difficult for you all and having a young child makes it even tougher.

I am wondering with the course of your treatment so far if you are in the UK or somewhere else? Most of us in the group are in the UK, so I’m not sure if you’ll find anyone in the group who has followed the same path, but let’s hope there is someone reading who has some experience of your treatments.

I was a lower staging at 2b but I did have a lot of bleeding. This stopped after 10 sessions of radiotherapy and did not happen again. I hope you can gain the same result as this. Most of us at your stage start treatment with either chemotherapy first to shrink the tumour, followed by a combination of chemo and radiation, or go straight to chemoradiation. It may not be easy to find someone who has been through immunotherapy and targeted therapy as their main treatment.

It seems as if your doctor is not sharing enough information with you to reassure you why things are happening as they are-now that you are in hospital will you be able to speak more with her and ask for some explanation? You need this to be able to understand your situation better. 

I’m sorry I’m not able to help much as I haven’t had the same treatment, but please keep reading the posts and look for more replies to this. I hope that the radiotherapy will help you and things can improve. You are very welcome to be with us and post as often as you wish, and there will always be at least emotional support for you.

Sarah xx

Hi Sarah! 

And thank you very much for answering. I've been told I'll have an appointment with my oncologist on Monday.

I'm not in UK, but still wanted to ask for someone's experience or if someone may have heard about something like this.

I was reading on Google, trying to find some answers, and found that bevacizumab (avastin is the brand name i think), may cause severe vaginal bleeding, but of course I need to check this with my doctor.

I really hope the radiotherapy will stop the bleeding, so I can go home. I was told I will continue inmunotherapy after the bleeding stops.

What the doctor told me is that she wanted to start with inmunotherapy because there have been very good results in similar cases. But as I said, I started only with chemo.

Do you know of someone who had involvement on the lymph nodes (abdominal area)? 

Also, just now the radiotherapy doctor came, and said they will give me antibiotic for 1 week because they saw some necrosis process in area of the tumor. Which I also don't know if it's good or not. Any idea about this necrosis?

Thanks a lot for replying!

Hi again Mashi93 

Thank you so much for this. It seems a long time to wait to speak to your oncologist, but I hope she can give you some answers. Google is not very helpful for us when we really need our doctors to speak with us. 

Yes, Avastin is the brand name for your drug, and I do know some other ladies who are on this but they are not part of this group. Other ladies in this group at stage 3c have been on the chemo cocktail you had, and chemoradiation, but not on immunotherapy/ targeted treatment. But Avastin is available in the UK, so someone may be reading this post and not yet posted who has some experience with the drug. 

Other ladies in the group at stage 3c have had lymphnode involvement, as this is what makes the staging either 3c1 or 3c2, depending on which lymphnodes are involved. I’m sorry I don’t know about necrosis of the tumour, as I didn’t have this, so that is a question best asked of your doctor. Hopefully the antibiotics will deal with any possible infection from this.

I really hope you can get home soon-it’s horrible being in hospital and away from your child. 

Sarah xx

Hi SarahH21 !

Thank you very much for replying and for your kind wishes!! 

I'm finally at home, with my family, and this definitely helps a lot emotionally and mentally.

I just have been struggling with diarrhea and stomach cramps after the last radiotherapy.

The diarrhea is now better, lasted 2 o 3 days tops, but still have this stomach cramps. Do you know of this cramps or pain will go away as my bowel goes back to normal? Have you experienced this from radio?

Again, thanks a lot for sharing your experiences!!

Hi Mashi93 

I’m really pleased to read that you are home from hospital-it will feel so good to be back with your family again.

I suffered from very bad diarrhoea from my third week of radiotherapy, but told my doctor and was given medicine to help, which it did. I didn’t suffer from bad cramps, just an inability to get to the loo in time! 

My diarrhoea lasted all through the rest of my treatment-I had 32 sessions of radiotherapy- but it calmed after treatment finished and within a couple of weeks I was all back to normal.

Have you told your doctor about these cramps? Here in the UK, we are told to mention any side effects from treatment and they will look for a solution to help. It’s not good to be suffering if you can get something to help you.

Sarah xx

Thanks for replying so quick SarahH21 !!

Well, doctor told me to tell him if I have diarrhea, but while I was at the hospital i didn't  haha. It's like it waited for me to be at home to come 

I'm fine now about that, and have been taking a pill for spams for 2 days, and the cramps got better, but still have some. I was just thinking that the cramps were because of the diarrhea.  I'll giva a call to the hospital to ask about this, just to keep everything under control. Also, I got a flu . I was expecting to come home and finally be fine and feel well, and it's very annoying to have these things bothering now. Soorrry, sometimes I just get tired of this.

Thanks a lot for your advices Sara! Sending you many hugs full with gratitude