On 2/26/2008
rita123 wrote:
hi there i was recently diagonsed with this cervical cancer i was bleeding heavy during my peroids for 2 months and sometimes in between it got so bad i was flooding i went to er and next day they did a d@c and a biospy and said i had cervical cancer i was never sooooooooo scared in my life
tommorw i start a 25 day treatment its light doses of kemo and radation its not to make me sick at all or lose hair then i have to go to pittsburgh for the implant and stay for 3 days then home for 5 then do that one more time
i would love to hear from someone whos had this and is a survivor i mean with the treatment i am getti n they told me the surviral rate is 67% is that good for anyone else? PLEASE GET BACK TO ME AS IM SO SCARED. IM 36 YEARS OLD AND OTHER WISE HEALTHY ILL LOOK FWD TO SOME COMMENTS ON THIS
AND PLEASE GET YOR PAP SMEARS IF I WOULD OF I WOULD HAVE KNOWN SOONER I REGRET IT
In January 2007, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer and it was stage 3B, with a 50-50% survival chance. Luckily it appeared in only one lymph node. Anyway, I had the same treatment that you are getting now......low dose chemotherapy once a week (which enhances the radiation treatments) for five weeks, five weeks (five days a week) of external radiation, eight booster external radiations and then five internal radiation treatments.
The chemotherapy didn't affect me much, except for some constipation and I lost a little hair but not enough for anyone to notice. The infusions took three hours; one hour I was hydrated, the next hour I got the chemotherapy, and the third hour I was also hydrated. I was told they want the chemo to go through your system quickly so as not to cause any kidney problems. Didn't mind the chemo, except it meant I had to spend the better part of the day at the hospital (radiation in the morning, then blood work, then talking to chemo doctor, then chemotherapy).
The radiation wasn't bad either. I went into it determined to not let it take its toll on me and it didn't. Of course, toward the end, I was tired, had to be careful about what I ate, had a lot of heartburn and burping, had to deal with diarrhea, took a daily nap, and made sure I put on lotion every night before bedtime from my waist to my knees to keep from getting radiation burns.
I was very lucky with the internal radiation (brachytherapy) as the facility I went to had a machine that delivered the radiation on an outpatient basis. My doctor said there are only a few places in the U.S. that have this machine. I had five treatment in the course of three weeks. I'd get a friend to drive me into the city in the morning, I would be put under anesthesia, and four hours later, I was in the recovery room. The first treatment knocked me for a loop, because they had positioned me in such as way as to make my lower back sore and I was in pain from that for a couple of days. The subsequent treatments were a piece of cake. This was so much easier than the three day stays in the hospital that many women deal with.
Anyway, I was done with treatment at the end of April 2007, had a PET/CT scan in July (they wanted to wait till the radiation is out of my system), and the doctor was happy to tell me that there was no evidence of disease. I get an internal exam every three months as well as a Pap smear, all of which have come back normal. The doctor said that for patients who have clear PET scan after their treatment for cervical cancer, there is a 90% likelihood that they are cured, so I am hoping for the best.
Good luck to you. You are getting the right treatment and you just have to take good care of yourself, rest when you feel tired and say "no" to friends and family if you don't want visitors. You're going to get through this.