Hey guys, lately I have often been asked about my cancer diagnosis so today I decided to address it :) and hope that it will spread awareness about endometrial cancer.
It was "accidental" that we found out about it. I was complaining about back pains a lot and my abdomen area was a little bloated. I was also experiencing occasional bleeding, and spotting. All the symptoms seemed to appear I was pregnant, and since we have been trying for years, we thought that we might be finally pregnant. So we went to see my doctor. However, instead of a heartbeat, we found a big tumor inside my uterus. So we decided that I would right away undergo curettage, which was an outpatient procedure to remove the tumor and also to get a sample for biopsy.
The procedure went well, I woke up feeling disoriented in the recovery after 2 hours however after a few minutes I was already walking out of the recovery room ready to go home. I felt very well the first few hours since we arrived home. I was even up and moving around until when I started to feel the urge to pee and realized it was very difficult. I thought it was just side effect and will just go away after a few hours. But my bladder became so full and it was very uncomfortable. So I ended up at the emergency unit in the middle of the night and extended my stay in the hospital for three days. I had to be attached to a cath and had to take muscle relaxants.
Eventually I went home and was advised to wait for a week for the biopsy result of which I also spend going through PET scan, Chest Xray and countless blood tests. The result finally came back and I was positive with stage 3B Endometrial Cancer which means that the cancer had already spread to my ovaries. So my OBGYN sent me to an oncologist so we can weigh our options and our treatment plan. Finally we decided to remove my uterus, ovaries and cervix. And had to undergo 6 months of chemo therapy and 4 cycles of radiation/brachytherapy.
I was 34 years old when I was diagnosed with Endometrial Cancer. What was surprising was, my doctors thought that I was too young to be diagnosed with endometrial cancer since it is more common to occur to women after menopause or during the menopausal stage.
So I thought that writing about it would create an awareness that endometrial cancer can happen to younger women as well and it is very important that we have ourselves check.
