Hi everyone,
I was diagnosed on Thursday 9th October with cervical cancer. I have had so many procedures in the past to remove abnormal cells that I have very little cervix left. I had to have a hysteroscopy as something abnormal appeared on an MRI. The biopsy results came back within the week.
All I know right now is that I need a pet scan and another mri to find out what stage I am at. The cancer is on the inside of my cervix not the outer part.
I have only just recovered from breast cancer. I am scared, very tearful and anxious.
I don't know what is ahead of me right now and that scares me even more.
Hi DawnP24 and welcome to our group.
I’m so sorry you’ve been through breast cancer before and are now facing another challenge and new diagnosis. That’s really tough for anyone to deal with, so no wonder you’re anxious about what lies ahead.
Since you’ve been through an mri scan before, you’ll know what that’s like, and in my experience of many different scan types, I found the mri the most difficult to go through. The petscan for me was much easier! It took longer in terms of having the radioactive tracer introduced via a cannula and having to sit quietly in a room for about an hour as the tracer worked its way round my body. The scan itself was much quicker than the mri and is not enclosed so I found it all very bearable.
Once those scans are done and the results are available, the next step is for all your results to be discussed at a multi disciplinary team meeting (MDT) where patients are discussed together by a team of medical professionals to determine the right treatment plan for you.
It’s really important to have the cancer staged in advance of deciding on the right plan. Sometimes a hysterectomy is possible for an earlier stage of cancer, but if that’s not possible, the plan will normally involve chemo and/or chemoradiation. It’s very daunting for you at the moment as you wait for the scan results and plan, but things normally move quite quickly once the decision is made, and you should then get an appointment with your consultant to explain everything.
My cancer was adenocarcinoma of the cervix, which also started inside my cervix but had spread a little into the surrounding tissues so I was staged at 2b. It wasn’t possible to have a hysterectomy, so I had chemo and radiotherapy.
Once you know your staging and plan, I’m sure the ladies in the group will be happy to share their experiences of treatment-some have had a radical hysterectomy, and others have had chemoradiation, sometimes preceded by a few cycles of a different chemo combination.
I won’t bombard you with other information right now as your new diagnosis is enough for you to get your head round, but there will be plenty of help and support for you in the group going forward, so feel to ask any questions and share any worries with us.
I hope that your breast cancer treatment has been successful and you are recovering from what that involved, and that you’ll find it helpful to be part of our group here. Hopefully it won’t be too long before you get your scans one and find out more.
Sarah xx
Stick with us Dawn, and we’ll do our best to support you through whatever you need to deal with going forward.
It’s really good to read that you have successfully come through your breast cancer, and I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to get another cancer diagnosis now.
I hope things will go well with whatever treatment you have for your cervical cancer-I’ve been through it twice myself, and I know for me that when my recurrence was diagnosed it felt far worse for me than my original diagnosis and a lot more scary.
Sarah xx
