I’ve been told I need a total hysterectomy plus removal of the omentum ( fatty apron type covering of organs). Has anyone had this fine? I’m really scared.
Hi Marigolds
Welcome to the Womb group.
I am sorry to hear of your diagnosis of endometrial cancer. If you click on my name, my profile will come up- but I was diagnosed in 2022. I had a hysterectomy followed by chemotherapy and then external beam radiotherapy.
Surgery is normally the initial treatment for endometrial cancer where it is medically possible. Sometimes this is followed by further treatment and this is normally decided when the post surgical pathology comes back. Before surgery there is normally a provisional stage and grade and this is then confirmed after the surgery.
So serous means it is a grade 3 cancer. Mine was also a grade 3. These can, in some people behave a bit more aggressively so treatment reflects this. For me it meant some follow up treatment after the surgery. I am currently doing well.
The stage is whereabouts the cancer is in the body and as you say yours is an advanced serous it would suggest that perhaps it has managed to spread a little out of the womb and is in the pelvic area. This would likely be why they are going to remove the omentum to double check everything. This would be a normal step where the cancer is more advanced. I think the thing to remember is that although it is scary to be told there is advanced cancer- it is still a treatable cancer.
I can understand why you are feeling scared and it is very natural to feel like this. I know I was. Hopefully you do not have to wait too long for the hysterectomy. I found the surgery was fairly straightforward and I was able to go home the next day. I had little pain and recovered quickly.
It is natural to want more information but would advise against looking on the internet. A lot of the info out there is not particularly accurate and can be quite scary taken out of context. I will pop a link to some Macmillan info that you can trust.
Womb cancer booklet | Macmillan Cancer Support
I hope that you have support around you as I found this really important. However sometimes it can be hard to talk to those closest to you so you are welcome to give the Support Line a call if you feel like talking things through would help.
If there is anything you want to ask about or need, please do so. There are many lovely ladies on here who will want to offer you support.
Good Luck with your treatment and I hope it can be done quickly.
Jane
I can understand that it is daunting. I felt the same. However it is better they remove everything to effectively treat the cancer. If they remove it all then there is less chance that any cancer will return. That's how I looked at it.
Not long until you see your team so perhaps make a list of what you want to ask about and take it with you. I often did this and found it helped. If you are ready to have a look at the booklet it might help you think of what you want to know. I found it better to have an idea of what might be bought up so I could think about what was important to me.
It is hard when you are not sure what is ahead but hopefully you should have a much better idea on the 19th. I found that things felt a bit more in control once I had my treatment plan and new what was likely to happen and when.
