Newbie

Hi Ash1602 and welcome to our group.

Glad to see you’ve found us here-we spoke in the new to the community group.

It’s horrible getting any kind of cancer diagnosis, but it is good that you don’t have symptoms and that your consultant thinks it’s been caught early.

If things have been caught early, there’s a good chance of only needing to have a hysterectomy and no other treatment, but the scans will confirm. In my case, my gynaecologist could see an obvious tumour at my colposcopy so it was pretty obvious there was an issue.

No doctor can be certain of anything without biopsies and scans, but they usually have a good idea about what they’re seeing. Your consultant hasn’t seen any obvious sign of spread (mine did) and I think we’ve got to trust their experience in dealing with this on a daily basis.

Anxiety is high when you’re first diagnosed, I think that’s true for us all. But things get easier when we know what the plan is and what we’re dealing with. Once the mri and petscan results are available, your case will usually be discussed at a multi disciplinary team meeting where all the professionals such as radiographers and oncologists meet, and you’ll have an appointment afterwards with your consultant to tell you the plan of action.

You've mentioned difficulty sleeping so we do have a dedicated space for the night owls among us where people can chat about all sorts and share their tips for relaxing and sleeping. The link is here is you need it

Awake and up all night

Members chat there at all times of the day and night and you’d be assured of a warm welcome.

Please keep in touch and use this safe space here in the group to ask questions or share any worries. We have a lot of different experiences here in the cervical group of different surgeries and treatments, and we’re here to help support you through.

Sarah xx

Thank you for replying and sorry to hear what you've been through xx

Yes it's been a week and still going through the emotions but I will get there.

She said from biopsy results and from what she seen she thinks its early and contained but the scans will confirm & also if it's spread to lymph nodes she said! So I keep thinking of that when my head starts going into a dark place! I don't have any family except my partner and kids so thanks for taking the time to reply x

Yes, it’s true than only scans will show a spread to lymph nodes but try not to focus on that.

I had a locally advanced cancer at diagnosis but no spread to lymph nodes. Even when my cancer recurred it didn’t spread to my lymph nodes, so try not to assume that yours might have. It’s another thing to worry about when you’ve already got enough going on!

I only had my partner and daughters (who both live far away from me) so I understand that things can feel very scary and lonely when you’re first diagnosed. Have you got any good friends round you? I had my best friend at the end of the phone and she was a huge support to me-she still is.

Friends and partners cannot really fully understand your thoughts and feelings when you've had a cancer diagnosis unless they’ve had one themselves, but they will want to support you as best they can. In this group you’ll be among people who can understand completely how you’re feeling so there will always be someone here to help if you’re worried or feeling low at all.

Sarah xx

Sorry that you’ve had this news. I was diagnosed last year with Stage 2 Cervical Cancer, I was 35 at the time. I’ve two boys, the youngest was just 8 months old when I was diagnosed. I found in someways the kids being so young was good because we had no choice but to carry on as normal at home to an extent so their routine didn’t change much through my treatment.

Feel free to send me a message if you’ve any questions at all. Fingers crossed your scans match up with what your consultant said. Waiting on scan results can be the hardest part. 

Yeah the kids being younger defo help..i have a 13 year old, 12, 8 and 3 year old! Yeah im defo praying everything adds up with what the consultant said. I will hopefully hear back from the hospital regarding scan appointments this week. 

Yeah the whole waiting is brutal, did you have many symptoms before you got diagnosed if you don't mind me asking? I don't have anything, so it's just messed with my head a little because I have zero symptoms but have cancer..scary stuff! The doctor did make sure i was happy with the kids I have so im thinking she wants to do a full hysterectomy which I'm okay with.

Thanks for reaching out and replying x I'm new to this and couldn't figure out how to message private.. if you can even do that on here x

Mine was picked up from a smear test but in hindsight I’d had a few symptoms that I’d just put down to being postpartum. I had to wait about 1 week for the mri appointment after the biopsy was confirmed as cancer, then 1.5 weeks for the PET scan after the mri results and it was another few days after PET scan before I heard the results. In total it was nearly 3 weeks between the biopsy results and the pet scan results

Yeah mines was picked up through smear also. I got diagnosed a week past on Friday and still no word for scan i think the wait time for them at the moment is 3 weeks for mri and 4 weeks for PET so I'd imagine I will hear about an appointment this week. How are you doing now a year on since your diagnosis?