When I noticed something was wrong: In 2013, about 5 months after my Pap test, I noticed bleeding after intercourse. I googled this symptom after a couple months of it not going away and up popped “cervical cancer.” I called my doctor but they wanted me to wait until my next exam. After some crying and insisting, they finally scheduled me. No one seemed worried at all since I had never had any problems.
Getting diagnosed: My doctor thought it could be a fibroid, so she scheduled me for an internal ultrasound. The results were inconclusive, so I was scheduled for an MRI – on my husband’s 29th birthday! As I was leaving work, my doctor called me to tell me that the MRI showed a malignancy on my cervix. I cried like never before, the kind of crying that empties you. I showed up to my mom’s house where she, my husband and my 2 kids just happened to be and could barely get it out. The next week, I visited the oncologist and she could visibly see a 6cm tumor. After my first PET scan, I received a call that it had started to spread but had not yet reached my lymph nodes.
My treatment: I started chemo and radiation, as surgery was not an option because of the location and size of my tumor. At the end, I received a surgical implant and internal radiation or Brachytherapy. Halfway through my treatments, the tumor had shrunk. My post-treatment pelvic exam showed no sign of visible tumor. I was scheduled for a PET scan 3 months later once the radiation and chemo should be “done” internally working. The PET scan showed no cancer cells.
Now: Cancer free!