stabby's Journey with Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Cervical Cancer

Although tumour was indenting on both bladder and bowel it had not spread there

After MRI scan they found lymph node involvement , so the cancer had spread :(

the chemo radiation left me exhausted and very sick I had cisplaitin so didnt lose all my hair though it did thin quite a lot. I was very sick on my 3rd week I was like something out of the excorsist and had to miss radiotherapy the day after the chemo session but they gave me 2 sessions of radiotherapy the next day, one in morning and one late afternoon to catch up

I had brachy where i had to stay in bed for 2 days and one night , i was put on a sliding scale as i was unable to eat and have type 1 diabetes , the worst part was having the rods and dressing taken out , i was only given morphine which didnt have time to work , it was the most painful expierience ever

I have constant pins and needles in my feet , I cant walk very fast or far as my legs don't do as they are told, they feel very numb at times I also get a lot of back and hip pain for which I take zomorph , oramorph and paracetomol to ease it , it does help with the pain although it does make me very tired and spaced out at times especially if I have had a hypo or my blood sugars are haywire. I don't know if it was the radiotherapt that caused this or my diabetes, maybe it was a combination of both as both can cause nerve damage and my blood sugars were really bad for about a year before discovering the tumour and were terrible during tratment due to the steroids

The radiotherapy has shrunk my bladder and so I have to go quite a lot and can't hold it as long as I used to , during treatment I had radio cystitis which was very painful but it eased shortly after finishing thank goodness

During radiotherapy I was constpated one minute then couldn't stop the next , I am still having problems there as the amount of morphine I am on makes me constipated then I have to take drugs to make me go which only works if I take 4 times the normal dose then I cant stop, I dont think I will ever be able to get the balance right :/ also I cant wait to go if I need to so everytime I go out I have to make sure I know where the toilets are and that they are within easy reach, haven't had any accidents yet thank goodness so my planning is working well :)

I had my last period on my 3rd chemo session , after that the menapause hit me like a sledghammer, I was getting severe hot flushes that made me feel very ill , I'd get so hot and sweat so much I felt like fainting and felt very nauseas, I was literaly living in the shower but they have got less now that I maybe have 3 or 4 a day which isn't ideal but better than how many I was having before which was over 10 in a 24 hour period

3 year NED :) have progressed to yearly check ups :)