On 1/19/2007 Too Young wrote:
Hi Survivor I am a married 29 year old with a 4 month old baby and have just been diagnosed with PPC. I am about to start chemo this Tuesday and am wondering if you have any advice ? I had a pap smear after my little boy was born and this showed an abnormal smear which ended up to be cancerous cells on my cervix. They were all removed and when I was having my check up for that they found the tumour in my stomache. I had a radical hysterectomy, bilateral Salpingo Oopherectomy and omenectomy debulking. They say I am at stage 3 but wont explain much else. My oncologist seems quite positive about getting all the cancer but every where I read there doesnt seem to be a lot of hope. The cancer has spread to the lining of my liver, bowel, bladder and underneath my diaphram. What stage were you at when you started chemo ? any tips on handling the side effects of chemo ?? I want to prepare myself as much as possible !! Any advice would be great
Hello. My name is Shannon..I am 31 years old and just recently I had an unusual Pap as well. Also was diagnosed with HPV..the strain that is known to cause cancer. I went in to my doctor initially because I had extreme bloating..lower back pain, frequent urination and heavy periods. I was DX with IBS some years back, but after the extreme bloating and heavy periods I decided to try to DX myself. I hit a survivor story message board for Ovarian cancer and read about their lives leading up to DX with OC. So I got scared and ran to the Docs. they did their ultra sounds and blood tests and called a week later and said nothing was wrong. But then 3 weeks later I get a call and they say I had an abnormal Pap and to follow up in 4-6 months. Well I asked what the exact test results said from the lab and they said CIN1. So I wasn't really worried. But then I did some more research and found that most people with CIN1 have HPV so I called my Doc back and had them run that test. it was postive and the strain I have is the strain that causes Cancer.needless to say I go in for a Colposcopy this Friday, but I find myself not convinced that it is just CIN1 due to the symptoms that I have been having. Does this sound like what you went through. I have to prepar myself and so far I have been the one to push for tests to begin with. If I have no idea what I am getting into they will miss something. Looking back on my miserable feeling I have had for years...I know that This is something more. Please...if anyone has any info on what I need to do and ask my doc...let me know.