Hello

Hi I'm Kate 

I thought I would introduce myself and tell my story, I will apologise now for the long post! I'm 44, married with 3 children.

My story starts back in August 2021, I started having strong period pains that refused to go away even after my period stopped. I saw the doctor and she was sympathetic and said it was nothing to worry about! 3 months later and the pain was getting worse, I was sent for ultrasounds, xrays and various other tests which all came back clear! 

I was put on all different types of pain meds to help ease the pain to make life easier.

I had my 1st smear in March 2021 that showed HPV, I had a 2nd smear in April 2022 which still showed HPV! No sign of anything else at all. 

Throughout 2022 the pain got extremely severe and it started to affect my bowel, walking and even eating and drinking. 

I was then referred to both gynaecology and gastroenterology to see if either of they could work it out. 

From gastroenterology I was told part of my bowel had collapsed and that was the cause of my pain. Gynaecology fiund nothing!

Nothing any of the doctors done helped, I was on so many different meds I felt like I rattled! I spent several times sat crying in A&E because the pain got so excruciating only to be told to stop waisting their time.

The pain got so bad in my lower back, lower stomach and right hip the only way I could describe it was like giving birth daily but the baby got stuck! I ended up being housebound and using crutches to walk, the only relief I got was by using hot water bottles which burnt my skin so badly I now have scars.

In July 2023 I was sent for keyhole surgery to explore my stomach, they found absolutely nothing! I was told it could of been my copper coil so they replaced it with a hormone coil. That just made it worse! I was crying from the time I woke up until I passed out! I couldn't eat anything as the weight of food in my stomach made the pain worse.

I had my 3rd smear in October 2023, I was told that there was abnormal cells present and I had to have a further examination.

So I went for a colposcopy in November and the doc said it looked like she got all the cells but I would have to wait 2 weeks for the results.

I heard nothing until the 21st of December, they rang me and said the gynaecologist needed to see me on the 27th of December.

I was then diagnosed with stage 1a cervical cancer, she told me the course of treatment would be a hysterectomy and I would be fine. 

I was then sent to have an MRI and a PET CT scan, 2 weeks later the head of gynaecology wanted to see me ASAP. My diagnosis was upgraded to stage 3a and I was told i had to see an oncologist 2 days later. This is where I was told that the tumour was growing upwards and it was pressing on my bowel and the base of my spine which is why I was in all the pain. After talking to the doctor the gynaecology nurse dragged me and my husband to 1 side and told me to get my coil out ASAP! I did ask loads of questions and 1 was if the hormone coil could of made it worse, she said no but the vibes from the nurse gave us a different story!

I started chemo on 23rd January, a week later I was told my right kidney was struggling so they had to put a tube between my bladder and kidney, on the 2nd of February I was being knocked out! 

When I woke up, I was told they couldn't do it because they found a "bulge" in my bladder which they biopsied, 10 days later I was upgraded to stage 4a! 

This hit like a ton of bricks, my mum passed away in Nov 2020 after being diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer in March 2020, so i had to be blunt with my family, the hardest thing I've ever done and prepare them for the worst!

On valentines day I had to have the tube pushed in through my side and kidney to protect my kidney during radiotherapy.

I had to do 6 weeks of paclitaxel and carboplatin, 5 days a week of radiotherapy with weekly cisplatin chemo for 5 weeks and 1 whole week of brachy radiotherapy! That was the worst part, not allowed to move for 4 whole days!

I finished all my treatments in April, had an MRI scan at 12 weeks which wasn't clear, my oncologist couldn't tell if the tumours had shrunk, if they still there or if it was scar tissue, in September I had my PET CT scan and got my results Monday just gone!

I had good news and bad....

Good news my original tumours have gone completely

Bad news is it's spread to my lymphnodes in my stomach! My new treatment plan is to have a high risk surgery to remove the infected node and then another 25 sessions of radiotherapy  definitely not what we were expecting!

Thank you so much for reading all the way through, it's nice to be able to share with others who understand what I've been through.