Hi ncro I'm no help to you but hopefully [@Minska]‍ will be hopefully she'll get in touch, she's been there done that. Good luck........... Billy 

Thank you [@Billygoatt]‍ ! X

Hi [@ncro91]‍  and welcome.

Thank you [@Billygoatt]‍ for tagging me in the post. I too have stage 2b cervical cancer and finished my first round of treatment a year ago. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to have the internal radiotherapy as I had a pulmonary embolism the night before I was due to be admitted for it, but I know lots of women who have had it, and the general feeling is that the thought of it is much worse than the actual procedure.

Different hospitals have different ways of administering it-either as an outpatient or inpatient for a couple of days, depending on the equipment they have, but it’s very effective in giving an extremely targeted “last blast” of your tumour. I had 7 extra boost external radiotherapy treatments because I couldn’t have the internal, and actually I was gutted I couldn’t have it. 

To be honest, I would concentrate on a day at a time for now and getting through the chemo and radio before thinking too far ahead or worrying about it too much. Do you know when your treatment will start? I can point you to some very helpful cervical cancer specific groups on Facebook if you’d like where many women share their experiences, and if I can help with any questions or support please let me know. I’ve sent you a friend request if you want to ask anything in a personal message. xx

Hello Nicole and Minska

I was diagnosed with Stage 2B in October ... started chemoradiotheray on 25th Nov (only managed 4 out of 5 chemo) and had brachytherapy over two days at end of Dec... it all ended on 3rd Jan.  It's hard to explain the brachytherapy as the drawings you'll find in the MacMillan books don't really give you a good idea of what to expect.  The equipment is inserted and done under general anaesthetic, and I was then obliged to lie down for a day and a half, so I also had a catheter.  There are three "tubes" that are external, they are then "plugged" into the brachytherapy machine, which happens three times.  Disconcertingly the team came into the room afterwards with a Geiger counter (!).... I have no idea how much radiation my body has received, what with 25 days of radiotherapy and then brachytherapy.  I think they put it on "high" for the last session as i definitely felt it... I'm surprised I wasn't glowing.  The worst part was the removal... I had previously asked them to remove the morphine drip which was attached to me, as I had no pain with the equipment, at all.  It was relatively painful removing everything, as they had packed me with gauze ... but it's over relatively quickly ... say 3 minutes to remove it all... felt like 3 hours... At the end I didn't know whether to thank them or press charges !  I can laugh about it now, but it wasn't funny... though I still think about it...  Hopefully the treatment has been successful, I won't find out until my appt. in February .... So I wish you good luck, the month seemed to take forever ... but now it's over I don't give it a second thought.  And that's a good thing.  I think cervical cancer is treated as being curable by oncologists, I was certainly told that.  And I also asked to see the MRI's of the tumour, so it was huge to start with, 4cm, then went down to 2cm, the last MRI was 1.5 ... and I hope after it was nuked by brachy... it should have disappeared as nothing could survive that !  All the best Diane