On 4/5/2009 all positive wrote:
Hi I'm new here so here is my story. I am a 37 yr. old man; My wife of 17 yrs. is 36 yrs. old. We found out she had stage 1-2B cervical cancer in Aug. 2008. We talked with our oncologist and decided to do a combination of radiation and chemo. It shrunk it down, but didn't get rid of it, so we decided to do Brachy therapy. That is putting radiation rods into the vagina and leaving them there for a certain amount of time. You will be laying on your back in the hospital for the whole time. My wife had to do it for 39 hrs. After that it still wasn't all gone so we decided to do a total hysterectomy. Finally she was free from cancer and feeling good. Thank God!! Three months down the road though at one of our routine checks the cancer was back. We were devastated, but at the same time we were praising God because we still had a curable way to deal with this cancer. This was our options; Chemo which would only slow it down and my wife would probably be dead in 5 yrs. or Pelvic exeneration which is a curable way but very invasive, and not guaranteed (you have a 50-50 shot of cancer coming back.) We decided for the curable way; WE do have three wonderful children. So here we are March 16, 2009 surgery day. My wife's surgery took 11 hrs. with three main doctors; Oncologist, Urologist, Plastic surgeon. She had her bladder taken out, her vagina taken out and part of her rectum taken out. They made her a new internal bladder with some extra colon( she will have to cath herself to urinate for the rest of her life). They reattached her bowel so she wouldn't have a colostomy, and they made her a new vagina with a Tram flap (stomach muscle and skin). Everything went well, She was in ICU for 2 days and then moved to a regular room. The doctor said that if everything went well we would be able to go home in about 8 days. When my wife started eating solid food her bowel ended up getting a small tear where they reattached it; so it was off to surgery again for 4 hrs. and she got a colostomy (hopefully temporary). After that she started feeling good again. Then 3 or 4 days later she started getting little fevers and lost her appetite and got a pungent discharge out of her vagina. Well it ends up in surgery again for an hour to see what was going on in there. It ended up being an infection from a pool of fluid that wasn't draining properly. So here we are still in the hospital on April 5, 2009, and we will probably be here for another week. I know it all sounds bad, but it's not. We both knew there was risks of complications in this major of a surgery. Yes it's no fun going through all of this for both of us. We have faith in God he will pull us through, we have a family that supports and helps us whenever we need them, and also church family and friends that help us. We are positive people making the best of a bad situation. In my opinion that is the most important part of dealing with any kind of bad things that happen in your lives. Don't get me wrong there are some times when you get sick and tired of dealing with the set backs, but you will be surprised how strong you really are when you go through them!! I know I hate seeing the love of my life go through all of this, but it's a chance to have a life together no matter if it's a little different or not. I tried to explain some of what we've been through. If any of you have questions or comments feel free to write. In my opinion if you have a chance at a longer life then go for it and my lovely wife agrees. God bless all of you and keep us in your prayers!!!
I know I am a little late in asking you this but did you get another opinion or at least 3 opinions before your wife went through the pelvic exenteration? I was told I also needed it and got two different opinions so I did not have the surgery and what they did was remove the tumor and now I am going through chemo. I am happy to say my tumors are gone for right now. It's just you don't know where these cells are going to show up again and to have such a radical operation I thought was not something I imagined. I am sooo glad she is doing well. Keep praying that she goes into remission. I truly wish her well.