smg658
Well-known member
Just found this thread so I thought I’d tell you all my story, it might be a bit long. Apologies in advance for anything too descriptive. TLDR: had cancer, fine now.
In late 2009 my periods started getting really weird and sporadic, then all of a sudden I’d be gushing blood. Happened once in Tesco and I had to drop my shopping and run to the loo to try and get a pad on. Happened again in my brothers house and this time I wasn’t so lucky and left a snail like trail of blood from the couch to his downstairs bathroom. I spoke to my GP and she suggested that I get the contraceptive injection ( I wasn’t sexually active at this point so never needed to be on anything) depo provera and it would regulate itself. It did seem to work for a bit but in March 2010 it all went tits up.
On Sundays about 11am I would drop my kids with their Dad, go home and get stuff done and then pack a bag and head to my brothers house for the evening. We would usually watch football or go to speedway then come home and have a drink together, we did it every week. This one afternoon as I was getting in the door I felt the uneasy period feeling and just made it to the bathroom in time. Next thing I know I wake up on the floor of my bathroom in a pool of blood so I call 999, I stayed on the line with them until the ambulance got there and was taken to my local hospital where, from what I remember, I spent the afternoon and early evening drifting in and out of consciousness. They transferred me to another hospital that dealt with gynaecology issues and I arrived there about 1am. At some point I did manage to answer a call from my brother as he was worried that I hadn’t arrived at his place, so all was well there, albeit a worried family. At the second hospital I had to have a blood transfusion which is the weirdest thing, the blood is warm when it enters your body and it’s so strange, I managed to get some sleep with a fan about an inch away from my face as I was so warm. The following day I was sent so that really for a biopsy on my cervix as they could see there was something going on. The day after the biopsy I was sent home to await word from the Dr.
The original Dr that I had seen gave me the news that I had cancer, and would have to speak to an oncologist at a third hospital that specialised in cancer treatments so after having more bloods taken and various scans, myself, Dad and brother went to the appointment. The Dr was very matter of fact with me, I didn’t like her to begin with but she grew on me, and explained that I had cervical cancer which according to X-rays had spread into my lungs and lymph nodes and would be best if I started on chemotherapy ASAP. My Dad started crying and my brother just held my hand, I asked her what my prognosis was and she said sorry, a couple of years at best. I was absolutely devastated as my kids were 7 & 11 at the time and I had no idea what life would be like for them without me, I’d split from their Dad when they were 1 & 4 so I was the primary parent in their life. I had to have more blood tests done that day and then we got to go home and I told my sis in law and nieces, along with my ex and his wife- everyone was as devastated as I was but I decided not to tell my kids as I wanted to see how things progressed with chemo. I decided that I was going to be positive, no matter the outcome.
I started chemo in early April, the first round wasn’t so bad, they were very thorough in their description of what it does to you and what the side effects would be. The first time I was there from 9am-6pm and I went straight home with my brother, this was on a Friday so kids would stay with their Dad that day and I stayed at my brothers so I wasn’t alone. They brought a bed into the living room for me so I was close by. I was given medication home with me which was a task in itself as it consisted of taking 9 different tablets 3 times a day but only for a week after chemo and then it would be another two weeks til my next round. So chemo every three weeks for a minimum of 6 cycles. Hunky dory. Session 2 of chemo was a bit different, they changed things around in the hope that I wouldn’t be there for such a long day. First part went fine then I got the saline IV to flush and then they started the second dose which was the different one. After a few mins I began to feel really strange and breathless so I buzzed the nurse. She took one look at me and pretty much yanked the IV out of my hand and shoved an oxygen mask on my face. She said I was the colour of beetroot and after about 20 mins on oxygen and a small hazmat team to clean up the mess from the spilled chemo drugs I was feeling better. They thought I’d had an allergic reaction to the carrier in the medication so they left it at that and I was ok to go home. At this point I was driving myself to and from chemo, against Dr advice, as I didn’t want my brother to take time off work. It was after the second time when my hair began to really fall out so I decided to tell my kids, older one has autism so she didn’t really know what was going on but the younger one had a grasp on Mum not being well, I didn’t mention cancer as I didn’t want to scare them. We decided to shave my head as my hair was super long, falling out in huge clumps and becoming a pain. My niece and my two kids took it in turns to cut most of my hair, and then my niece shaved my head. It was a very strange yet exhilarating thing. When I went out I wore a bandana but at home with family I just left it off. I continued to go to chemo, had another bad reaction the third time so they changed my medication yet again and the last three were fine. My side effects were losing my taste, really sore legs and a couple of times I had the worst rash all over my body, but most of these seemed to disappear in the first week after chemo. It did leave me really tired all the time. I did manage to go and see AC/DC that June with my brother and decided to take off my bandanna and get a pair of devil horns, I look like Dr Evil but its one of my fave ever pics of myself!
Chemo was done and I had more scans to check progress and was happy to find out that chemo had shrunk the tumour on my cervix and my lungs were looking clear too, I was to undergo radiotherapy next. I had 30 doses of rt over the space of a month, Mon-Fri with weekends off and was told that this would affect my reproductive system, I never planned on more kids so yay, early menopause, which I sailed through and I haven’t had a period since 2010. Win win for me. After rt I was again given very positive news that The tumour was in fact eradicated and I was cancer free. My Dr could not understand why as she thought the spread to my lungs was a death sentence for me, she called me her miracle marvel. All was well until 2013.
In late 2013 I lost my Dad and Grandad in the space of a month, both to cancer which was absolutely awful. My Dad had prostate cancer and he assumed that he would get better just like me, it was awful to see him die. My Grandad was three weeks later, he lived in south of England so I was unable to get to the funeral and was still grieving my Dad. Nightmare. Things went ok until I was rushed to hospital on Xmas eve with crippling stomach pain, I had a burst appendix which was removed and I thought that was it. The Dr told me that they had seen shadows in my lungs on the X-ray and I would need an endoscopy. I have a terrible gag reflex and couldn’t tolerate the procedure so I was booked to go to another hospital after New Year and have them go in through my neck for the procedure. Was sent back to my original cancer Dr for a consultation. She told me that I had a condition called Sarcoidosis, which can flare up in the lungs. When they scanned me in 2010 they were only looking for cancer so assumed it was cancer, this explained my full recovery as cancer was only in cervix and pelvic lymph nodes which had been cleared up by chemo and rt. I was relieved, yet wanted to punch her as I felt it was a bit of a misdiagnosis which had caused me a lot of anxiety the previous years but I let it go, no point hanging onto bad things. Still having tests (pre lockdown) every 6 months and I have the odd flare up but it’s nothing I can’t handle. So all good here now, still a fatty but a healthy one!
In late 2009 my periods started getting really weird and sporadic, then all of a sudden I’d be gushing blood. Happened once in Tesco and I had to drop my shopping and run to the loo to try and get a pad on. Happened again in my brothers house and this time I wasn’t so lucky and left a snail like trail of blood from the couch to his downstairs bathroom. I spoke to my GP and she suggested that I get the contraceptive injection ( I wasn’t sexually active at this point so never needed to be on anything) depo provera and it would regulate itself. It did seem to work for a bit but in March 2010 it all went tits up.
On Sundays about 11am I would drop my kids with their Dad, go home and get stuff done and then pack a bag and head to my brothers house for the evening. We would usually watch football or go to speedway then come home and have a drink together, we did it every week. This one afternoon as I was getting in the door I felt the uneasy period feeling and just made it to the bathroom in time. Next thing I know I wake up on the floor of my bathroom in a pool of blood so I call 999, I stayed on the line with them until the ambulance got there and was taken to my local hospital where, from what I remember, I spent the afternoon and early evening drifting in and out of consciousness. They transferred me to another hospital that dealt with gynaecology issues and I arrived there about 1am. At some point I did manage to answer a call from my brother as he was worried that I hadn’t arrived at his place, so all was well there, albeit a worried family. At the second hospital I had to have a blood transfusion which is the weirdest thing, the blood is warm when it enters your body and it’s so strange, I managed to get some sleep with a fan about an inch away from my face as I was so warm. The following day I was sent so that really for a biopsy on my cervix as they could see there was something going on. The day after the biopsy I was sent home to await word from the Dr.
The original Dr that I had seen gave me the news that I had cancer, and would have to speak to an oncologist at a third hospital that specialised in cancer treatments so after having more bloods taken and various scans, myself, Dad and brother went to the appointment. The Dr was very matter of fact with me, I didn’t like her to begin with but she grew on me, and explained that I had cervical cancer which according to X-rays had spread into my lungs and lymph nodes and would be best if I started on chemotherapy ASAP. My Dad started crying and my brother just held my hand, I asked her what my prognosis was and she said sorry, a couple of years at best. I was absolutely devastated as my kids were 7 & 11 at the time and I had no idea what life would be like for them without me, I’d split from their Dad when they were 1 & 4 so I was the primary parent in their life. I had to have more blood tests done that day and then we got to go home and I told my sis in law and nieces, along with my ex and his wife- everyone was as devastated as I was but I decided not to tell my kids as I wanted to see how things progressed with chemo. I decided that I was going to be positive, no matter the outcome.
I started chemo in early April, the first round wasn’t so bad, they were very thorough in their description of what it does to you and what the side effects would be. The first time I was there from 9am-6pm and I went straight home with my brother, this was on a Friday so kids would stay with their Dad that day and I stayed at my brothers so I wasn’t alone. They brought a bed into the living room for me so I was close by. I was given medication home with me which was a task in itself as it consisted of taking 9 different tablets 3 times a day but only for a week after chemo and then it would be another two weeks til my next round. So chemo every three weeks for a minimum of 6 cycles. Hunky dory. Session 2 of chemo was a bit different, they changed things around in the hope that I wouldn’t be there for such a long day. First part went fine then I got the saline IV to flush and then they started the second dose which was the different one. After a few mins I began to feel really strange and breathless so I buzzed the nurse. She took one look at me and pretty much yanked the IV out of my hand and shoved an oxygen mask on my face. She said I was the colour of beetroot and after about 20 mins on oxygen and a small hazmat team to clean up the mess from the spilled chemo drugs I was feeling better. They thought I’d had an allergic reaction to the carrier in the medication so they left it at that and I was ok to go home. At this point I was driving myself to and from chemo, against Dr advice, as I didn’t want my brother to take time off work. It was after the second time when my hair began to really fall out so I decided to tell my kids, older one has autism so she didn’t really know what was going on but the younger one had a grasp on Mum not being well, I didn’t mention cancer as I didn’t want to scare them. We decided to shave my head as my hair was super long, falling out in huge clumps and becoming a pain. My niece and my two kids took it in turns to cut most of my hair, and then my niece shaved my head. It was a very strange yet exhilarating thing. When I went out I wore a bandana but at home with family I just left it off. I continued to go to chemo, had another bad reaction the third time so they changed my medication yet again and the last three were fine. My side effects were losing my taste, really sore legs and a couple of times I had the worst rash all over my body, but most of these seemed to disappear in the first week after chemo. It did leave me really tired all the time. I did manage to go and see AC/DC that June with my brother and decided to take off my bandanna and get a pair of devil horns, I look like Dr Evil but its one of my fave ever pics of myself!
Chemo was done and I had more scans to check progress and was happy to find out that chemo had shrunk the tumour on my cervix and my lungs were looking clear too, I was to undergo radiotherapy next. I had 30 doses of rt over the space of a month, Mon-Fri with weekends off and was told that this would affect my reproductive system, I never planned on more kids so yay, early menopause, which I sailed through and I haven’t had a period since 2010. Win win for me. After rt I was again given very positive news that The tumour was in fact eradicated and I was cancer free. My Dr could not understand why as she thought the spread to my lungs was a death sentence for me, she called me her miracle marvel. All was well until 2013.
In late 2013 I lost my Dad and Grandad in the space of a month, both to cancer which was absolutely awful. My Dad had prostate cancer and he assumed that he would get better just like me, it was awful to see him die. My Grandad was three weeks later, he lived in south of England so I was unable to get to the funeral and was still grieving my Dad. Nightmare. Things went ok until I was rushed to hospital on Xmas eve with crippling stomach pain, I had a burst appendix which was removed and I thought that was it. The Dr told me that they had seen shadows in my lungs on the X-ray and I would need an endoscopy. I have a terrible gag reflex and couldn’t tolerate the procedure so I was booked to go to another hospital after New Year and have them go in through my neck for the procedure. Was sent back to my original cancer Dr for a consultation. She told me that I had a condition called Sarcoidosis, which can flare up in the lungs. When they scanned me in 2010 they were only looking for cancer so assumed it was cancer, this explained my full recovery as cancer was only in cervix and pelvic lymph nodes which had been cleared up by chemo and rt. I was relieved, yet wanted to punch her as I felt it was a bit of a misdiagnosis which had caused me a lot of anxiety the previous years but I let it go, no point hanging onto bad things. Still having tests (pre lockdown) every 6 months and I have the odd flare up but it’s nothing I can’t handle. So all good here now, still a fatty but a healthy one!
but actually I didn’t feel anything just some very painful period cramps. The only horrible thing was the fact the places she took samples from wouldn’t stop bleeding she kept asking if I was on aspirin. But I do tend to bleed excessively if I cut myself etc So had to sit there for 30 mins with her fingers up there and cotton wool wadding, waiting for it to stop bleeding casually talking about the weather. Bit awkward but she was lovely and reassuring. She didn’t offer treatment there and then as she said she wanted the results of biopsy as if only cin1 she may leave it for a year. She’s sure the erosion is probably hormonal and if need be they can cauterise it to stop it being irritated and should stop the spotting. I spotted for a few days after the colposcopy and had light cramps. And felt a bit sore but nothing unbearable. Biopsy results should be back in 4 weeks, I’m sure everything will come back fine 
but happy it’s going to be treated and as previous poster has said will all be fine so relieved can relax now x
very frustrating as smears were available from aged 20 in Scotland but they changed it to be in line with England/Wales. Would have been better to bring E/W to offering smears at 20.
