Cancer treatments

Hi M dolly and welcome to our group.

We have a few ladies in the group who have gone through treatment for stage 3c cervical cancer who will hopefully be able to help you out from their experiences. 

Can you tell us what treatment you are having? The reason I ask is that some ladies start with a chemo combo first and then have chemoradiation together, so it will depend on which way things are going to be done for you. 

I had stage 2b cervical cancer, so had the standard chemoradiation treatment, but I’ll tag some ladies who have or had stage 3c. Snobird Aquabambi 

if you can tell us your proposed treatment plan, I’ll see if I can tag any other ladies who have been through the same. The concurrent chemoradiation part of treatment is basically the same for stages 2b and 3c, but anything else may be different if other chemos are used first.

I hope your team has gone through your treatment plan with you and explained everything from the medical point of view, but it’s always good to read real life experiences from others who’ve gone through this. 

Sarah xx

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for your reply. I will be having chemo once a week and radiotherapy 5 times a week for 5 weeks then the last week bracci. 

Thanks M dolly 

Thank you for clarifying-that sounds like Cisplatin chemotherapy and the standard programme for this, and the radiotherapy, followed by brachytherapy internal radiotherapy.

I can tell you my experience of this, although I wasn’t able to have brachytherapy. The chemotherapy doesn’t make you lose your hair-it’s a low dose to help make radiotherapy more effective. It’s a long day on your chemo day as you will also have radiotherapy that day. I was in hospital basically the whole day on a chemo day-you will receive the chemo through a cannula, and will be attached to an iv stand. There will be flushes of other liquids in addition to the chemo-anti sickness and magnesium I had. It takes several hours for all this to be finished. 

I recommend wearing clothes which are loose and comfortable, and trousers you can take down easily to go to the loo-it’s quite difficult one handed when you are wheeling your drip stand into the toilet! 

Radiotherapy is a quick treatment, but there can be a lot of waiting around and dealing with drinking water to make sure your bladder is filled to the right level. You need to have a planning scan in advance of treatments starting so that you can be marked with tiny tattoos which are then used to line you up correctly on the radiotherapy table. Have you had this yet? I had no side effects from chemo, no nausea or sickness, but the radiotherapy did make me very tired as treatment went on. 

Not everyone has side effects from treatment, but from 3 weeks in I had diarrhoea and cystitis. I was given creams and tablets to help with both, and these side effects disappeared within a couple of weeks of finishing treatment. It’s important to speak up and say if anything is wrong, as there will be something to help. 

I’m not sure if this is the kind of information you are looking for, but please feel free to ask any questions at all. 

Sarah xx

Hi M dolly 

Welcome to the group, sorry you find yourself here but it’s a great place to get support and advice 

I’m also stage 3C and currently going through treatment, although I have a rare type so am having chemo first. But I will then have radiotherapy with chemo & brachytherapy, the same as you. 

So I can’t yet give you my personal experience of radiotherapy etc as I won’t start that part of my treatment until April.

I wish you all the best for your treatment, it does feel good to get started with it as I found the waiting very frustrating! 

x

Hi Sarah,

That's great thank you for your advice on everything, it nice to speak to someone that has gone through all this

M Dolly

Hi M dolly 

I had my treatment more than 5 years ago now, but please ask any questions if you think of anything you’d like to find out more about.

Sarah xx

Thank you I feel better about it all now chatting on here xx

Hi Aquabambi, 

Thank you for your reply, I hope all goes well with your treatments! 

Yes the waiting is horrible  seems to really drag

That’s good-I think it helps to be able to chat through things with ladies who’ve gone through it or are having the same treatment at the same time. It can take away some of the fear of the unknown that we all feel, especially with all the waiting we need to do.

Sarah xx

Hi M Dolly and so sorry I've just seen this as I've been away all weekend.  I am Stage 3C1 and am almost two years out of treatment.  I had the same as what it sounds like you are having and honestly it is very do-able.  The biggest pain of radiotherapy is making sure your bladder is full enough/not too full/too much wind etc.   From about the third week into radiotherapy, the biggest problem that I had was severe diarrhoea but they sorted that with some Loperamide.  I can say that your medical team will be sonderful and supportive and caring and treat you very gently.  As Sarah says, you only have to tell them if there are any problems and they will be right there on your case!  Chemo days can be long but you meet such lovely people and I found a real sense of camaraderie on those days.  You will be fine.  Do all you can to help your body cope with good diet, gentle exercise etc.  Good luck and please keep us posted xxx