Womb Cancer Support UK
  • Home
  • About Us
    • My Story
  • Awareness & Support
    • What is Womb Cancer?
    • Can womb cancer be prevented?
    • How you can help!
    • Share your story
    • Awareness Leaflets etc
    • Awareness Month
    • Peach Postcard Project
  • Blog
  • Useful Links
    • Local Support Groups
  • Contact

My story of a womb cancer diagnosis by A.T

23/4/2017

1 Comment

 
Another Peach Sister shares her story.

"
I received my diagnosis of endometrial cancer  on 8th June 2016.  I had my hysterectomy on 16 June 2016 – my 59th birthday.  It turned out to be stage 1a – with no further treatment required.   Most people sympathise with having had such a serious operation on my birthday – spoiling the day.  I feel rather differently.  It was the best birthday present I've ever had.  Quite apart from spending most of my birthday high as a kite on post op morphine (something a lot of people would quite enjoy), the surgery  saved my life and meant that I am now looking forward to my 60th birthday on 16th June this year and planning a spectacular weekend of partying with my friends. 
 
I was fortunate in many ways.  I had a gap of 8 days between diagnosis and surgery – most of us who have gone through this process spend a lot of time waiting and worrying.  I didn’t really have time for that.  I went into work the following day, told my line manager and colleagues about my diagnosis, and  returned to work nearly four months later.  I am still working a phased return (4 days a week with 2 worked at home and 2 in the office).  My employer still pays me a full time salary for which I'm very grateful and following a meeting with occupational health last week, I will be returning to full time work on 1 July – a little over a year after my diagnosis, and 9 months after I returned to work.

 
I received excellent treatment, and support from the NHS and cancer support charities from the point of diagnosis onwards.  However, the reason that I was operated on so quickly was because the process of diagnosis had taken so long and they had to operate by 16th to ensure that I didn’t breach the NHS cancer treatment time deadlines,.  I first went to my GP with post menopausal bleeding in early  March.  I was referred to a gynaecologist within two weeks and then the process stopped.  My referral for a hysteroscopy was considered ‘routine’ and after almost constant badgering for three weeks, I was told that I had an appointment in August.  I would probably have accepted that, if I hadn’t been through the same process almost exactly a year before.  I got a two week referral and within a total of four weeks, I had had a hysteroscopy, and my follow up appointment and was given the all clear. 
 
Eventually, I had a hysteroscopy on Sunday 29 May – the hospital was trying to clear a backlog so were doing them for a couple of weekends.  After my procedure my gynaecologist came through to tell me that she’d removed a couple of polyps (as she had during the previous years hysteroscopy) and that everything looked fine, and a follow up appointment was set up for three weeks later.  As I'd been through the process a year before, I thought no more of it, and went back to work a couple of days later after the effects of the general anaesthetic had worn off.   The next week, I got a call while I was in a meeting at work, it was the hospital, bringing my follow up appointment forward to the next day.  I knew it wasn’t going to be good news.

 
The next day I went to the hospital with a friend.  The receptionist knew nothing about the appointment, and insisted that I had made a mistake.   I was incredibly upset by this time because I know that when the NHS calls in in a hurry, there's usually a good reason.  Fortunately my friend was there to support me, and we insisted on speaking to the unit manager, who eventually confirmed that I had been called in and that I had an appointment.  After this little bit of confusion, I was called in to the gynaecologist, and as we went in I noticed that there was a nurse in the room and that her badge included the word ‘oncology’, so any hopes I'd harboured that it wasn’t cancer, evaporated.  It was cancer.  It looked to be early and unaggressive but that could only be confirmed following surgery which was booked for the following week.  After going to work the following day, the rest of the time before I went in was spent having blood tests, scans, and oncology appointments.  I don’t remember being terribly upset, although I was worried about my mum, who has dementia.  I'm her main carer (alongside my full time job) and I was really worried about would happen to her if things went badly.  Immediately after the appointment, I phoned my sister in Germany who was obviously upset,  but very kindly took on the responsibility for telling my other sister.  I found the process of telling people quite difficult, because I was so worried about their reactions and  their sympathy and that would make me break down and cry.  I actually feared that if I cried, I simply wouldn’t stop,  I am so grateful to my friends and family who supported me through that awful period.  I spent a couple of days shopping to make sure that my mum had everything she needed until my sister could get to London and take care of her, and tried to get myself ready for surgery.
 
I am single, I work full time and am a carer, and although I have no complaints at all about my treatment once I received my diagnosis, I do think that the NHS needs to do more to understand the needs of single patients.  Following my surgery, I was due to be discharged the next day, but I was in no state to go home to an empty house so soon after surgery.  I needed to be taken care of that night and I almost had to fight to stay in hospital for a second night.  No consideration was given to  the fact that as a single woman with caring responsibilities for vulnerable adult, I wasn’t able to rest or relax following discharge.  I know that the NHS has to meet many sometimes conflicting needs, but many single people  wont necessarily have someone they can rely on to support them in the first few days following discharge from major surgery, and that endangers their recovery.
 
As far as the diagnostic process is concerned.  I would urge anyone who has unusual bleeding – to get it checked out.  At the same time as I was diagnosed with womb cancer a friend of mine with the same symptoms found out she had cervical cancer – despite annual smears.  If its odd, get it checked out, and don’t be afraid to make a fuss if your worries aren’t taken seriously.
 
Because I'd gone through the diagnostic process exactly a year before and was given the all clear, I knew how it was supposed to work, so knew when it went wrong.  We all want to be told that we don’t have cancer, so sometimes, the fact that the medics don’t seem too worried, is something we don’t want to challenge because to us it means theres nothing wrong!"

If you would be interested in writing a guest post for us then please get in touch using the contact form.

Kaz xx

 
 
 
 

1 Comment

My story of womb cancer by E.H

15/4/2017

0 Comments

 
Here is another personal story from a Peach Sister.

"
Hello, I am a womb cancer survivor. When I have days when I think about what happened to me I feel as if it happened to someone else. I can't believe it did happen to me; after 5yrs clear you would think I would be over it by now.  I have got on with my life, you have to.
 I was 64 when I noticed there was something not quite right. It was May 2012. I had a small smear of blood after I had been to the toilet. I was a wee bit alarmed. I thought at my age that shouldn't  be happening. It only happened the once  but I kept a check on myself, then it happened again in the June and that started the alarm bells in my head going off. A bit scared I went to the doctors; she sent me to the hospital where they said I had polyps and I had to get them removed.
By this time it was September and I had to wait until October to get the results. I went to the hospital to get results; at the back of my mind I think I knew what she was going to say.
I just sat down she didn't hesitate,  straight out she said  you have womb cancer. Well I was numb, I don't know how I felt. Shocked, my mind was all over the place. I just wanted to run away. I felt if I ran  away it wouldn't be happening.
My family where distraught; my husband, he was so upset. I just kept saying to everyone, don't worry I'm going to be OK, it's alright I'll be fine.
I had my hysterectomy and all my lymph nodes removed but there was one they couldn't get too. I was told everything went well and that they had got it all. I had to wait two weeks after my op to find out that my cancer was stage 1 and I didn't need any radiotherapy or chemo,  but because of the one lymph node they couldn't get out, I was checked every 4 months for 3yrs then every 6 months for 2 yrs until I got the all clear in November 2016.
So that's the story of my journey with womb cancer .I've had lots of scary times  and tearful times but I believe early detection saved my life so please don't ignore anything. Get checked ASAP.
So sorry it's been a long story but then it's been a long journey for me too and I'm so thankful I'm still here to tell it."

If you would be willing to share your story or would like to write a guest post for us then use the contact form to get in touch.

Kaz xx


0 Comments

It's Birthday time again.

11/4/2017

2 Comments

 
Well, today has arrived and we are marking our 6th Birthday with a virtual party over on the FB page with lots of cake (virtual, unfortunately) but there will be some real giveaways throughout the day so make sure you pop over throughout the day to check out what’s happening.
For those of you who haven’t been with us from the beginning or who don’t know the story behind WCSUK then let me give you a brief run down.
I started the organisation in April 2011 after having been diagnosed with womb cancer in Dec. 2009. I went looking for support and couldn’t find anything specifically for womb cancer so decided to start something myself and so on 11th April 2011, Womb Cancer Support UK was born.
It started off as a support group on FB but quickly grew when it became apparent that there was a lack of awareness around this cancer despite it being the most common gynaecological cancer.


6 years later WCSUK has grown and we are now so much more than just a support group. We have almost 2,500 likers on the FB page, plus over 170 lovely ladies in the private support group; a well-used website and twitter feed and we have sent out over 9,000 awareness leaflets up and down the country (including some to US & Canada)

I have been asked several times why WCSUK hasn’t become a charity, and although I have considered this a couple of times, to be honest  I already devote several hours a day to running and promoting the organisation and taking on the status of a charity would mean a lot more work for me and I’m just not physically able to do that anymore. Plus living as I do on a small island off the west coast of Scotland, getting anywhere by public transport is a nightmare so travelling to conferences etc is out of the question.
There is so much that goes on "behind the scenes" so to speak that most people don't see. I write blog posts for our own website and guest posts for others; I network a lot on Twitter to connect with other organisations and people to spread the word about womb cancer; I am constantly searching for relevant articles to share; but for most of the women who come to us the private support group is what matters to them the most. A private space to share their worries and get support (and offer it) from others who know what it feels like to have womb cancer.

So, WCSUK will remain a not for profit organisation that is committed to supporting women who have been diagnosed with womb cancer and also to raising much needed awareness of this cancer. With over 9,300 women diagnosed in 2014 (and numbers rising by about 10% a year according to CRUK) it is shocking that there is no dedicated national awareness campaign for womb cancer.

We are lucky to have a small group of dedicated women within the organisation who help us raise awareness and together we have achieved a lot of the past 6 years but we have so much more to do. Please join us and help us spread the word about womb cancer – it can, and does affect women of all ages. None of us ever thought it would happen to us, but it did. Please don’t let it happen to you.

Be womb cancer aware.

Kaz xx


2 Comments

    Author

    Blog posts about life with womb cancer; by me and other womb cancer fighters and survivors. Plus occasional guest blog posts on relevant subjects.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Old Posts From Blogger
    Personal Stories

    Archives

    May 2022
    February 2022
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014




Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.