Just diagnosed

Hello Shar58

Welcome to the Online Community and the Womb cancer group.

I am sorry to hear that you have had a diagnosis of womb cancer. It is perfectly normal to feel in shock, in denial and even anger. I know I went through a range of emotions. It does feel like being on a rollercoaster- from one symptom (in my case bleeding) it all spiralled very quickly. I went from a bleed to having surgery 4 weeks later and this was followed by chemo and then radiotherapy. Waiting for the scan results is always hard but hopefully they will come through quickly for you. Once they have them things do seem to move more quickly. 

I had my hysterectomy in April 2022, and it was straightforward, I had very little pain and recovered quickly from it. With your experience of working on a chemo ward you probably have far more knowledge than me. I had 4 x 21 day cycles of paclitaxel and carboplatin. I used scalp cooling and saved most of my hair. I did have some side effects from the chemo, but these were mainly managed through dose changes and medication. My chemo started 6 weeks post surgery. Radiotherapy was straight after. 

I will pop a link to some information that I found helpful when I was diagnosed. 

Womb cancer booklet | Macmillan Cancer Support

If you feel like talking things through would help then I recommend giving the Support Line a call. The number is below and they are lovely on there. 

I hope your scan results come through quickly. I found the waiting around was one of the hard bits, once I knew what I was dealing with and what the treatment would be, things did feel a bit more in control and calmer. 

I hope this helps a bit, but if there is anything else that you want to ask, please do so. There are many lovely ladies on here who have been where you are now and will want to offer support and share their experiences.

Jane

Hi Jane 

Waiting for scan results then it will go to MDTM on the 12th Dec just in limbo till then   do you know if your informed of your results after your scan ?

I think it can depend on the hospital but you could call them and ask. I understand it feels in limbo but I suppose that all the info needs to go to the MDT and then they can talk about what the full diagnosis is and what treatment to best recommend. Some ladies on here have had results through the NHS app. I think the only problem with that is that you have the information without someone there to explain it. 

Another thing you can do is ask your GP. My GP would be sent results/ letters etc directly via internal email and these could arrive several days before anything came in the post. Might be worth looking into.

At my hospital you had a choice of getting results by phone or going in for a face to face appointment. I chose a phone call for the results and then about 10 days later I had my pre op appointment with the consultant. With my phone call they just gave the diagnosis and said it was early stage and that someone would contact me about next steps. 

Thanks Jane the nurse rings me weekly to see how I am and I opted to get results via telephone so it's just a waiting game now

Hello Shar58,

Sorry you've been diagnosed with EC, but just to say you've joined a very supportive group  here who can try to help keep your fears at bay, I will try sharing my journey if it helps....you are lucky that the nurse calls weekly, hopefully she'll be able to look at any results or updates and give these straight to you.

So.....I was diagnosed Nov 2021 after a watery bloody discharge and followed by scan hysteroscopy and biopsy results which showed high grade cancer cells within a polyp.

I was absolutely terrified at having cancer even though at that point I hadn't a clue that it was high grade as my local hospital informed that test was inconclusive and MDT would decide whether to transfer my case to the nearest larger cancer hospital.

In January 2022 I received my appointment from the other hospital and I did not know it was actually a pre-op assessment appointment in which they informed me that I actually had High Grade Serous EC. By now I had read about all the endometrial cancer types and knew that one is the ONE I definitely didn't want!

A week later I had my op which went well and recovery was good. It's the only major surgery I have ever had so I can safely say it wasn't as bad as I'd imagined. This followed by Chemo and Brachytherapy (please click on my username to read more in-depth about this) and just to finish, I am now back to living my normal life trying to put my 'Cancer'journey in the past. I can tell you that I can imagine everything that is going through your mind and as I was convinced at some point that I wasn't going to come out the other side but I did, I now try to think of the positives how I am a survivor and not that I had it in the first place, I am well, I feel well and am so grateful for this. Thank God for our NHS, I was very well looked after.

I have come a long way and hopefully this will be your story the end of next year! Yes you've a long way to go but you WILL get there, of course some hiccups on the way as I've had but I am where I am and so blooming grateful I am here to try and see through another Christmas with my family and friends. Please don't hesitate to ask away any questions that come to mind I am happy to help.

Take care x