Well my story starts back about 4yrs ago, after giving birth to my 2nd child my husband and I decided no more children, as there were some health issue with the preganancy. So I decided to have my tubes tied my Dr. at the time performed a annual pap then set up surgery. Pap came back normal surgery went fine, since tubes had been tied and I didn't need birth control nothing was forcing me to get my annual paps so I didn't for 4 years, after all it was my least favorite exam in the whole wide world.
So 4yrs later, I start having some girl issues, weird periods,bleeding and pain after intercourse etc. So I say to myself well I suppose I should have a pap make sure all is hunky dorey, expecting the whole time it would be and not giving it another thought. So I go have the pap and talk to dr. about issues I am having, she kind of passes them off but oh well. About a week later I get a call and my pap is abnormal and I need to have a colposcopy done. OK no big deal I have had this before always turns out fine.
I didn't like the advice the first dr. had given so I saw a new dr. She did the colposcopy and took a bunch of biopsies and I disscussed my issues again with her stressing how much it was effecting my life and the health of my marriage. So we disscussed some different options including hysterectomy. We were leaning more towards hysterectomy and discussing the different types, but my dr. said she wanted to wait for biopsies to come back before we made any final decisions.
About a week later, I get a call "Mrs. Ferrell we need you to come into the office to discuss your results." I knew it couldn't be good they only call you into the office when things are not good. So I set up an appt. for the next day.
I'll never forget that day, the dr. sat me down and told me my biopsies were abnormal the pathology report said, "Adenocarcinoma in situ with areas suspicious of invasion" for one biopsy and "Endocervical adenocarcinoma in situ with areas suspicious of superficial invasion" on another.
I was devastated. Here I am a 30yr old wife and mother and I am being told I have cancer. I couldn't move I just sat there shaking my head, and your life just passes before you. You can't even absorb what the dr. is saying all you think about is your kids, your husband, and that dreaded word, you can hardly even say it, CANCER. Then the worst part is telling your husband and your family and watching them fall apart and trying to be strong all the while your falling apart inside.
I was referred to an oncologist/GYN and she did a pelvic exam and based on what she was seeing decided to set me up for a radical hyst. I was so scared. She also wanted to do a cone biopsy just so we could see what exactly we were dealing with. So two days before the hyst. I had the cone.
"Good news/bad news, bad news yep it's definately cancer, good news it's very very early, only about 1mm of invasion. So you don't need the radical hyst." Yeah!! I was overjoyed sounds funny doesn't it, to be overjoyed. But if it had to be cancer it doesn't get much better than this. Dr. says I can have the hyst. done vaginally with laporscopic assist, and I will only need to stay overnight in hospital. So that's what I did. Everything went very well and I wasn't in to much pain, honestly the most uncomfortable thing was the catheter.
2 weeks post-op and a major set-back. My vaginal cuff opened up and I started hemorraging, it required emergency surgery to repair. I lost about 3 1/2 pints of blood and almost needed a transfusion, but managed to avoid that thank goodness. Very tired and very weak and oh great another hospital stay. I don't like hospitals.
My 4 week post-op appt. I am feeling better, still tired and on top of just the fatigue that comes with surgery, I can't sleep at night. Dr. says that is normal. Then we go over the final pathology, even better news the cone biopsy had removed all the cancer, the was no residual cancer in what was removed in the hyst. but they were glad they had done the hyst. because they felt it would have come back. So at this point it is safe to say I am cured. Cured music to my ears! Dr. says it is most likely I will never have a problem again with this, but because there is still a small chance it can come back I must have pap exams every 3mo for the first year, then every 6mo for the next 1-2 yrs and if all those are fine I can probably go back to once a year
My next goal is 5 yrs cancer free, then I get to be a survivor. I love the sound of that!
Store »
Hysterectomy Checkpoints
Hysterectomy News [Read More]
What 100,000 Women Know About Hysterectomy
