Sisterhood of Survivorship
Sharing, Caring, Surviving
Lisa M's Story
Year Diagnosed: 2009
Type of Cancer: uterine
Well I guess every one thinks why me, and I felt the same way. About 3 years ago I was having some problems with anemia and finally after lots of testing found that my periods where getting heavier and that could be the problem. Had a uterine ablation and the heavy bleeding stopped. I loved having mini-pad periods. All was well until October 2008. I had heavy bleeding with my period but because I was in the middle of a family crisis I blew it off. Then the next month with crisis over my period was heavy again. That period lasted into December and I was passing large blood clots. Called to my Gyn. and was able to be seen January 15, 2009. Good news was the bleeding stopped for Christmas but started again just after. I bled until the 5th of January. I couldn't wait to see the doctor. Well Jan 15th came and I saw my Gyn. and discussed a uterus-only hysterectomy to be done on February 3. We took biopsies and made the arrangements to have surgery. On January 21 my life changed forever. My gyn. called me on my cell phone; I was at work, she did not want to wait and told me that the biopsy came back stage 2 cancer and she could not do the surgery. She did set me up with a good oncologist gyn. I took the next day off and called for appointment. Not able to be seen until February 2 so now I had to wait. I saw the oncologist gyn. and after exam and hours of talking we where able to set surgery date for February 20, two days before my grandson's 1st birthday. I had surgery by the DaVinci robot and spent the night in the hospital. Only problem during surgery is that a 4 hour surgery turned into 5 and the doctor had problems getting my lymph nodes due to a vein being in the way. Initial pathology showed Stage 2b and that the cancer was 69% thru the wall and into the cervix. Ten days later the final report was done and yes Grade 2 Stage 2b cancer that deeply invaded the cervix. I was lucky the lymph nodes and washing were negative. Radiation now became a goal. My oncologist gyn believes in getting treatment started as soon as the patient can handle it. I was able to see the first of 2 doctors a week later and after a long discussion I would start the external beam treatment one month after surgery. So many scans later CT x2 and PET; good news on the PET—all were negative. I had seen both the external beam and the internal radiation doctors and was set to start treatment. On March 23 I had my "dry run" for external radiation and started the treatment on March 24. After 25 IMRT and 4 HDR treatments I am now done with treatment. I have a 2% chance of the endometrial cancer coming back but I can live with those odds.