Symptoms

Here is a list of some of they symptoms you may experience:

Low back pain
Urinary urgency
Hip pain
Heavy periods
Post-menopausal bleeding - make an appointment with your gynecologist ASAP if this occurs! Do 
                                             not procrastinate!
Abdominal bloating
Abdominal Pain
Leg pain

In my case, along with some of the above symptoms,  I had a rash on my legs that would not go away in spite of dermatological intervention, had lesions for over a year.  After surgery, they healed within a week.  My nurse explained that this could have been from either the antibiotics they gave me prior to surgery, or possibly could have been my body's reaction to the cancer, and the mast cells were producing at a fast rate to combat the intruder.

If you have the symptoms above, please make an appointment as soon as possible with your gynecologist.  Insist upon tests.  Some women can have their diagnosis delayed for years (see Fran Drescher, Cancer Schmancer).  This is your health, your life!  Be your own best advocate.

In The Beginning

It has been almost a year since my diagnosis with Stage IIIC-2 Grade 3 endometrial serous carcinoma.  I received the news on a Friday, over the telephone.

"It's very important you don't skip your ultrasound appointment on Tuesday.  We have the results of your PAP smear; they indicate adenocarcinoma."

I was in shock.  Could a PAP exam actually diagnose cancer?  Were they telling me I had cancer?  I asked the question but received no concrete answer.  Instead, they emailed the results of the smear to me.  I did indeed have endometrial cancer.

Don't you just love to receive news like that on a Friday when Monday seems years away?  There was no medical personnel available for questions.  I wouldn't have known what to ask, anyway, I was so numb.  I couldn't even think straight. 

I went to the ultrasound appointment.  There was thickening to my endometrial lining.  The next thing that happened was a biopsy, and after that, everything was a blur.  Oncology consult, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation. How odd that, while everything happened so fast, the time also dragged like Marley's chains.

This blog is not medical advice.  It is a guide, more or less, to help the chemo patient and family to include friends.  I hope that it will be of use to someone.