Hello Ana39, 

I am sorry to hear about your cervical cancer diagnosis and I hope that your hospital appointment goes well on Thursday. Seeing your oncologist will allow you to find out more about your treatment plan and will hopefully help you feel a little better - it is normal to feel like you are falling to pieces after having just had a diagnosis. Poor you having to deal with this as well as gluten ataxia - it is a lot to have to go through. I just wanted you to know that you are not alone and I hope that I will be joined shortly by other members of our community who have been diagnosed recently with cervical cancer. It helps to talk to others who are in a similar place. I have had a little look for you and found Shazz89 's Stage 3 cervical cancer thread from just a couple of weeks ago - this member was also recently diagnosed with stage 3c cervical cancer so could be a good person for you to connect with. Don't hesitate to post on their thread with your experience if you wish to do so. 

Our nurses are also available on this free number 0808 800 4040 - their line is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm so don't hesitate to give them a call if you would like to talk things through with them at any time. 

Best of luck for your appointment on Thursday. I hope you find out more about your treatment options and if you get a chance, please pop back here and let us know how what they have said at the appointment and what the treatment plan might be. 

Best wishes, 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

Thank you Lucy, for getting back to me, that’s really appreciated. Since I posted I’ve got my game face on ( somewhat!), and am looking at ways to help myself with diet , exercise and complimentary erapies. I keep using coffin humour to deal with my diagnosis- probably bad taste, but the only way I can even mentally deal with my position without bursting into an ocean of terrified sobs. I’ve r ched out to shazz89, and hopefully we can be useful to each other . Again, thank you for taking the time to reach out 

Hi Ana39

I was diagnosed with stage 3a cervical cancer back in April 19

I underwent 6 weeks of chemo delayed by 2 weeks after week 4 as I needed a blood transfusion as my red and white cells dropped drastically (I'd been severely anemic at the point of diagnosis) and 31 radiotherapy, 28 external and 3 brachytherapy (internal given over the 4th and start of 5th week) I then needed a further blood transfusion at the end of treatment after my last brachytherapy.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask x

Hi Juhls…thank you for getting in touch….I’m still pretty numb right now, but not so numb I’ve not totally overhauled my diet, and supplement regime. How did you find brachytherapy?. I only ask as some oncologists seem to think it a little outmoded, and prefer to use noninvasive radiation delivery systems such as IMRT and SBRT - were you offered any alternatives?. And if not, was brachytherapy generally considered a more targeted alternative?