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Just diagnosed with cervical cancer. I'm absolutely petrified

CazS
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Hi everyone, I joined over the weekend but been coming to terms with the biggest shock of my life. This is a long story.
I'm in the menopause and about a month ago I started bleeding really heavily with big clots, I went to A & E and they saw me quickly but the Doc couldn't see my cervix as there was so much blood. I was sent for blood tests which came back showing my thyroid was very low so my meds were put up for this, the cancer marker was also up. I was booked in for an ultra sound and examination, the nurses said in their own words I was an enigma as they couldn't pull anything up on the scan. I went to have the examination but I was so tense they had to stop it so they said I would be booked in for 2 procedures under GA I was also booked in for an MRI scan which I went to.
So basically I had my MRI before the operations. So last week I went for the 2 operations but before they took me down the doctor came in, sat down and said has anyone spoke to you about the MRI results? I said no they hadn't, she then said it's bad news, there's a 5cm mass on my cervix and it looks like cancer so prepare for the worst! She also said it's in a couple of my lymph nodes but it's not spread anywhere else. Obviously I went into total shock. She went on to say they've caught it early but not at its earliest stage. She said they were taking biopsies and also having a good look around to make sure it's only in my cervix.
So I had the ops and when I woke up she came round with another nurse. She said yes it's only in my cervix and that they have definitely got it early so can be treated either with surgery or 10 weeks radiation but we need to wait for the biopses. When I have looked at my discharge sheet it says I have a suspicious hard mass on the anterior lip of my cervix. That was last Tuesday and the hospital have just rang saying can I go in at 9.30am in the morning to see the Nurse Practitioner. I feel like the life has just drained out of me, I'm absolutely petrified xxx
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    Hi Cazs, 

    Thank you for coming here and sharing your story. How frightening it must have been for you experiencing this very heavy bleed which landed you in A & E and all the tests that followed. What a shock it must have been to be told you had cancer after they did the MRI though it's reassuring that they told you that it was caught early and can be treated with surgery or radiation. 

    Have you managed to speak to the nurse practitioner? I hope that you have a bit more information now as the hardest thing is not knowing exactly what is going on. It's normal to feel anxious and scared and I hope that you find out more soon and that you are given all the details regarding your treatment options. 

    You can read more on our website about cervical cancer and about treatment options for cervical cancer including surgery and radiotherapy. You are bound to have lots of questions racing through your mind at the moment and I also wanted to let you know about our nurses' free helpline which you can ring on 0808 800 4040 Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. 

    I also wanted to let you know about a couple of recent threads here on the forum from members who have had a cervical cancer diagnosis and it might help to talk to others who find themselves in a very similar situation or who have been through this in the past and are willing to share their experience. For example,   posted this cervical cancer thread a couple of months ago and  posted this thread and mentioned having a radical hysterectomy and lymph node removal 2.5 years ago for stage 1b1 cervical cancer. These are just a couple of examples and I hope that you will soon be chatting to others here who have had a similar diagnosis and who can really understand how you are feeling at the moment. 

    Best of luck for your treatment - I hope it all goes well for you and that you feel better once you know exactly what the treatment plan will be. Keep us updated if you don't mind on how things develop for you.  

    Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

  • Offline in reply to Moderator Lucie

    Hi Lucie, thanks for replying. I'm petrified even more. I went to see the nurse practitioner yesterday and I have stage 3C1 cancer. It's in my lymph nodes so now they have to do a PET scan to see if it's in any organs. I can get to grips with the stage it's at now but the thought of it being anywhere else is sending me to so many dark places. They said curative care is the aim and I feel ok in myself physically so trying to stay positive that it's not spread. She said its not a death sentence but that's all I can think of.

  • Offline in reply to CazS

    Hi CazS, 

    I am so sorry that the meeting with the nurse practitioner has left you even more petrified and you have been told you have stage 3C1 cancer. You can read more on our website about stage 3 cervical cancer. I can imagine this is a real time of uncertainty for you as you are having to wait for the results of this PET scan and it can be terrifying not to know whether there has been any spread. But try if you can to bear in mind their reassuring words, that they have said it is curative care and it is not in their own words a "death sentence" so they sound positive and confident and I am keeping everything tightly crossed for you. This is the hardest time now as even though you now know the staging there is still a lot of uncertainty and unknowns regarding for example your treatment plan. 

    We're thinking of you during this really anxious time.

    Lucie

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