At War With Cancer: Part 4 New Diagnoses

Once again, cancer slows me down…but never stops me! I’m back to continue the war!

So, we left off with me being cancer free. How I wish that was the end.

2 short weeks after my CT Scan, I noticed a small lump on my inner right thigh. I showed my Radiation Oncologist, Dr. R, and she said it was nothing. But I knew what it meant. Dr. R waited another 6 weeks and then sent me to a Gynecological Oncologist, named Dr. M, and he confirmed what I already new to be true; I had a new tumor.

Dr. M was incredibly confident we could surgically remove this new growth with some ease, so off to surgery I went.

September 30, 2019 I woke up in my hospital room and for some reason, I didn’t feel better. My new tumor was gone, and yet somehow something just felt wrong. Dr. M told me he got great margins so I should be celebrating! I recovered and went home the next day.

For the next 3 weeks, I lived in complete fear. I no longer trusted my doctors because when I knew there was cancer, they didn’t. I felt totally alone. I feel so sorry for my dad and my daughter, who’ve lived through this war with me!

Again, in late October, I found another lump. This was also in my right groin. All my doctors said they had never seen my type of cancer act like this! No one knew exactly what to do. I really feel that at that moment, I became an experiment.

The new treatment was going to be a new round of 15 days of radiation along with an oral chemo called Xeloda. I feared the radiation, but knew it had to be done.

I completed my treatment and it wasn’t nearly as horrible the second time around. I basically slept all the time because of the chemo and took a lot of anti-nausea medication. But this cancer was smart. Treatment did absolutely nothing! It didn’t even shrink! I soon learned Dr. M was a cutter. He sure liked surgery.

At first, he suggested something completely crazy! He wanted to do what’s known as a Barbie Butt surgery. With this surgery, you become unable to go Number 1 or Number 2 and must rely on ostomy pouches. I was not ready for that at all! I asked if there was anything else we could do. He said we would try a radical right vulvectomy, which is what it sounds like. The right half of my vagina would be removed. Since this sounded much better to me, I went with it. January 2020 took half of my womanhood.

That was a very scary time in my life. I started seeing cancer everywhere. Anytime I had a small anything, or my family had an issue, I worried.

2020 wasn’t done with me. Since the next part of my story is long and difficult, I will save that for next time. Thank you all for your support and for reading my story.

To be continued…