Stage 3c1

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Hello everybody in the cervical cancer group.

It’s my turn now. Yesterday I was diagnosed with stage 3c1 (grade 3) adenocarcinoma cervical cancer. 

The plan seems to be radiotherapy and chemotherapy over 5 weeks. 

  • Hi  and welcome to our group,

    It’s always a shock to get a diagnosis of cancer, but I hope you’ll find the group useful and supportive as you go along. I was originally diagnosed with stage 2b adenocarcinoma, and had the same treatment plan as you’re going to be having. We have lots of ladies who have been through this and come out the other side who can help with advice and share their experiences.

    Please feel free to use the group to ask any questions, share your worries and chat with others who can understand exactly what this is like. I’m going to tag a couple of members who were also stage 3 and who can hopefully join in.there are others too who will hopefully see your post and respond.

        

    It will take some time to process this, and there can be a bit of a wait before treatment actually starts, so please keep us posted and ask anything you’d like to. 

    Sarah xx


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  • I was stage 3C1. I've been NED for almost a year now. I luckily breezed through treatments with barely any side effects so hopefully it's the same for you. I feel back to my normal self again. The unkown is scary so I try to help other ladies feel better about treatment and post treatment. If you have any questions feel free to ask :)

  • That sounds amazing to breeze through treatments. And how wonderful that it’s worked. What, if anything, was the worst part? 

  • I think the worst part was at first when I started chemo I felt pretty nauseous. I asked them to give me a different type of nausea medication and that did the trick. I actually gained weight during treatment because I was able to eat normally.

  • Thank you, Sarah, for replying. You don’t expect there to be so many people with cervical cancer when they do the screening. Are you in a good place now? How did you find the treatment? I can’t say I’m looking forward to it; hate needles, issues with all tables/medicines. 
    Then there is the thought of long term side effects. It’s all so rubbish! 

  • Hi  

    I was diagnosed in 2018, so it seems a long time ago now! I had chemo and radiotherapy-found the chemo really easy and the radiotherapy more difficult.

    I never felt nauseous or sick with chemo, and my main side effect from radiotherapy was diarrhoea and cystitis which kicked in three weeks after treatment started-but I was given various things to help. Side effects were gone really soon after treatment ended and I had no lasting effects at all. But everyone is unique and experiences treatment differently.

    I was unfortunate to have a recurrence not long after my treatment finished, but that was dealt with by surgery and I must stress that my story is not typical. I would say I’m doing well now, overall, definitely. 

    Although the treatment is intense, it is over a relatively short period of time and you may not have any side effects-some ladies sail through. The main thing is that it can be very effective, so hang onto that thought.

    Sarah xx


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  • I’ve just been reading your profile- you’ve certainly been through it! 

  • Yes, it certainly feels like that but I’m just glad to be here still!

    Sarah xx


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    Macmillan Support Line - 0808 808 00 00, 7 days a week between 8am-8pm

  • Hi mvic,

    Sarah tagged me because I had stage 3C1 squamous cell carcinoma. My treatment was a bit different, as I am in Italy, so firstly I had a radical hysterectomy and then I had chemoradiotherapy for six weeks. It was intense for me, because I was still recovering from surgery when the chemorad started. A double whammy!

    I found the actual radiotherapy pretty easy, just holding still for ten minutes a day. My nausea was quite bad with the chemo, but meds helped and I slept a lot during the six weeks, mostly to get through it and I was also pretty exhausted tbh.

    I really hope your treatment is not too hard on you, but luckily it is fairly short lived compared to other treatments for other types of cancer. I am now almost 20 months past the treatment and it is all blurring into the past. So I hope this brings you some comfort, that once the treatment is over, time keeps moving on. The check ups and scans etc are scary afterwards, but one step at a time, you'll get through it all.

    Keep in touch and let us know how you are getting on,

    Big hug,

    Lulabell

  • Thank you for sharing your experience.