I saw my oncologist yesterday and he confirmed that the cancer is back. I can't have radiation because they did it so aggressively last year that it caused too much scar tissue. I could have chemo again but he said that it would only slow it down a little.
So here are my options.
I can leave it alone and have less than a year to live.
OR
I can have surgery called Total Pelvic Exenteration. It's approximately a 12 hour, highly extensive, highly dangerous procedure that involves a full hysterectomy, my bladder and colon removed and two ostomies are created, one for urine and one for stool. Which means wearing bags for how long the surgery gives me to live.
Obviously, we are going to get 2nd and 3rd opinions. But from the reading I've done, this procedure is recommended for recurrent, advanced cancer.
Obviously, I've been a total wreck since yesterday afternoon when I found out. I have a PET scan today. Which if it's spread more, might make things worse. Last year, a lymph node and my tail bone "lit up" under the PET. The radiation was supposed to kill all of the cancer there but it hasn't been checked except for CT scans (which came back looking fine). So keep your fingers crossed that the PET doesn't show anything other than the cervix lighting up. Because if it does, I might not have any options.
This sucks! I love you and will continue to pray for you. I hope that your 2nd and 3rd opinion leave you with more and better options! I'm just a phone call away if you want to vent! Now get your ass better cause you promised me that you would make it to our next Coleto adventure and I am holding you to it missy!!!! Sending lots of therapeutic hugs from down south!
ReplyDelete~Shelly