suffering from cervical cancer

[Sunshineeyes]

hi ladies,
i am new to this website
i am 23 years of age. and suffering from cervical cancer.. this is the second time it has come back to haunt me. i've gone through surgeries and i am going through one this afternoon at the hospital.
because of this i am stressed out and upset.
all of the ladies in my family on my mothers side have experienced the same thing i am going through earlier in their lives and ended up having a complete hystorectomy or opoectomy. my doctor says that it may be possible that i will go through the same thing.. i am 23 i dont have my family yet i plan to have children and she drops this on my lap.. it may be difficult for me to have children if this cancer keeps crawling back. i am depressed b/c of this and i need some support or other women to help me get through this. life sucks sometimes.

[Sunshineeyes]

just got a call from my gyno.. i am going in for the LEEP procedure.. and do some pathology tests.. this really sucks... just when my life gets on track and i am having fun and doing good things for myself.. this stops me in my tracks and screws everything up.. why cant my doctor get it right the first time? or even the second time?? i really want to find a new Gyno..

[CHANDLERS WISH]

Hey sweet.

It seems to me that they want to conduct every test under the sun to try to ensure it doesn't come back a third time.

It does suck but it's not a death sentence for you, they will ensure that they keep beating it.

I am sorry your having to go through this and the hurt and pain of the thought of children but at this stage, you can have them so try to think of all the positives with this.

Let us know how it all goes.

CW

[chica]

just got a call from my gyno.. i am going in for the LEEP procedure.. and do some pathology tests.. this really sucks... just when my life gets on track and i am having fun and doing good things for myself.. this stops me in my tracks and screws everything up.. why cant my doctor get it right the first time? or even the second time?? i really want to find a new Gyno..

I am sorry you are going through this.

I had to have pretty much all of my cervix removed due to cancer cells, and huge legions on my cervix. My doctor did the cold knife cone surgery. I have to go back every 3 months to try and keep an eye on this.

I am sorry you are going through this.

Please keep us updated.

[Kallygirlie]

I have to ask, what stage are you. If you are doing a leep procedure then you are in the very early stages. Ususally LEEP is for Stage 0 (carcinoma in Situ) or precancer. All of which is totally and completely curable. The best thing about Cervical cancer is that the word Cure does exist as long as you stay on top of things. My brothers ex girl friend has gone through LEEP 3 times for this same thing. She found out she needed it a 3rd time while she was pregnant. See cervical cancer cells in most cases take a long time to develop. Rarely do they turn into cancer over night so catching them when they turn is the keep. It's not uncommon for people to need LEEP more than once. The only thing you can do is stay hopeful and take care of yourself. Are you getting a paps every 6 months? With your family history and the fact that you have already had this issue, your doc should have recommended this already. Cancer never has to be a death sentence or the end of your life (having children). Like I said, my nieces mom had LEEP 2 times before getting pregnant as well as my cuz. Just stay positive

[caterpillar79]

Yes, I agree with Kallygirlie. Keep a positive mind and ,aintain a healthy body. Eat well and right, exercise and drink plenty of water and juices. I had been diagnosed of some warning signs, too. I was very closely watched and still am. You are not alone in this battle.

I had papsmear last June and went back normal at last. For the last 6 months prior to the most recent pap, I was restless and don't know what to do. I decided to get by and just live with it. I joined a yoga class, and it hastened my mental and emotional healing. If you keep yourself peaceful deep within, your health usually follows.

Take care and keep in mind we pray for you.

[Sunshineeyes]

my doctor never told me what stage i am at. but all i know is that this will be the 3rd surgery. and my doctor said the cells came back doubled this time.. cervical cancer, breast cancer utern cancer and ovarian cancer runs on my mothers side.. and all of her sisters and the women have suffered from those. i've talked to many people that have gone through the cryosurgery and the leep procedure. and everyone i have talked to either said that the leep can help you get pregnant or prevent you from getting pregnant if they go to deep. so i am just a bit scared, i do want to have children. and i have been trying for a few months but just haven't been working yet. can you be pregnant and have the leep procedure done? and as for getting the pap smears done. i have been getting them every 3-6 months right now every 3 b.c of the cancer cells coming back. but i always go.
sorry i am blabing on but i need to find out some information.
i asked my gyno why this keeps coming back, and why my pap's are abnormal.
i was very shocked with her remark. she told me it was b./c of my social engagements meaning that i sleep around with multiple partners.. i am only having sex with my fiance and i have been for the last 4 years.. so i am pretty upset at what she said.. has any of your dr's said that to you before?

[Sunshineeyes]

i've read somewhere that sometimes females can be allergic to sperm.. is that true? if so could that be causing me to have cervical dysplasia? and my paps coming back abnormal?

[WildChild]

I too am curious what stage you tested at. You should do some research, abnormal paps can be caused by a variety of factors including tampons hitting against the cervix or intercourse. Often times if you wait a bit and retest, everything is fine. Of course that doesn't pay much...

I used to get abnormal paps almost every year, they would retest and everything was fine. Got biopsied a couple of times, everything was fine but they sure did stress me the first couple times. We didn't have so many options to "treat" it then and oddly it was fine. It's tartgeted at older women but go to the library and get the Dec 2008 issue of More mag and read the article about women, docs and health procedures as a starting place, get educated. As it's been explained to me (my mom died of cancer)your family history really matters only if there is a pattern of a particular cancer.

Your OB/GYNs comment would bother me too, she is making assumptions not based on your behavior. In most cases if you have HPV your immune system will take care of it anyway. You don't want to ignore anything that is important but you don't want to get sucked into over reaction either. Maybe a second pap, some education and a second opinion are in order?

[Miya]

I just wanted to say I'm very sorry to hear this dear. Despite everything though try not to get it down. You said your life was going positive and good things were happening so just remember that those things are independent from this news. Get your good treatment and try not to give the cancer the energy of thought. Focus on what you love and who loves you. Remember that we all here care and wish you well.