Just been diagnosed

hi Poppy

sorry to hear your diagnoses, the waiting is definitely the worse, i finished 7 weeks (daily) of treatment the end of december and am now waiting for the all clear which wont happen till april as i have to have more MRI and Pet scans.

once treatment starts things move quite quickly, its the before and after treatment that is worse.

hope all goes well for you and if you want to chat drop me a message x

hi Poppy

sorry to hear your diagnoses, the waiting is definitely the worse, i finished 7 weeks (daily) of treatment the end of december and am now waiting for the all clear which wont happen till april as i have to have more MRI and Pet scans.

once treatment starts things move quite quickly, its the before and after treatment that is worse.

hope all goes well for you and if you want to chat drop me a message x

Hi Debz64, 

I have been for my PETCT scan today and signed all my paperwork, I start treatment on the 6th March having 7 weeks radiotherapy every day except weekends and chemotherapy every Wednesday for 5 weeks, 

i have Graves’ disease as well and I’m absolutely shattered today with over an hour’s drive each way to the hospital I am not looking forward to having to do it every day,

I hope you get the all clear in April, this is what I’ll have after my treatment too, did you get any side effects from the treatment? 
thank you for your response x

hi

the first 4 weeks i had no side effects at all but then i did, i struggled with sore skin, bladder and bowel control and extreme tiredness, sounds like your treatment plan is similar to mine only i had 2 weeks of brachy after the radio and chemo

just take each day as it comes, you will smash this x

Thank you x

Hi Poppy,

I had vaginal cancer, welcome to the club...apparently it's quite exclusive, there aren't that many of us...lucky us...not!

I was diagnosed in Oct 2018, treatment complete Jan 2019.

If you look at my posts, there are some tips for when you have your treatment - im guessing it'll be ChemRad...

Anything you want to know, dont hesitate to ask.

Shell x

Hi Shelley, thanks for your message, I started chemotherapy and radiotherapy yesterday and I went for radiotherapy again today, I am unbelievably exhausted but otherwise I’m ok so far, I have been told that the side effects will probably get worse. 
I was really surprised when I was told how rare it is and I am grateful that people are there like yourself that I can talk to. 
Poppy xx

Hi Poppy2024 

I appreciate that you’ve got the added issue of Graves to deal with, which I didn’t, but which might make things tougher for you.  

I still found the fatigue caused by radiotherapy to be cumulative as things went on (I had 32 sessions). Things to look out for, but which might not necessarily happen with you, but did happen for me, were bladder and bowel issues-cystitis and diarrhoea. These can be common with pelvic radiotherapy. 

My advice would be that to report anything to your team and you will get something to help. I hope you don’t get side effects-I know ladies who had none and sailed through-but don’t suffer if you feel you are having any issues. 

I hope things go smoothly for you as you go through your treatment.

Sarah xx

Thank you, I have 5 sessions of chemotherapy and 35 sessions of radiotherapy so I’ve a long road ahead but I’m a fighter and hopefully i won’t get too many side effects 

Poppy xx

Same protocol I had to start with on the chemo, but I only managed 4 of them..I had 25 radiotherapy planned but ended up with 32. Fingers crossed for no side effects, and every radiotherapy day completed is a day closer to finishing treatment! You’ve got the right attitude to deal with this. 

Sarah xx