This week's View is coming to you from Samantha of From Foreclosure to Frugal,
but she is not sharing anything about financial issues.
No, she has chosen to share a very personal story of hers.
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Cancer Mom
I was diagnosed with cancer when I was 24 years old. I had three babies at home and we were trying :unsuccessfully: for number 4 when I decided to go in for a physical to make sure nothing was physically preventing us from becoming pregnant.
At 7:31 on a Friday evening my phone rang, when I answered it I heard my doctors voice. She said, "Samantha, I just went over the results of your pap and I need to refer you to a specialist." I asked her why? Her response shattered my world..."You have cervical cancer, but I know of a doctor that will try to save your fertility."
The words 'You have cancer...try to save your fertility', bounced around my skull.
WHAT? NOOO.
My mom was diagnosed with cervical and uterine cancer at 26, she had a radical hysterectomy at 27. I didn't want a radical hysterectomy, I didn't want to die, I didn't want cancer.
I had stage one Cervical Cancer. The Questions I needed answered were :
What is Stage One Cervical Cancer?
What are the possible Complications?
What are the treatment options?
I learned that Stage 1 Cervical Cancer meant that the cancer was no longer on just the surface of my cervix. It was deeper and possibly on the outside of my uterus. Causing me to spiral deeper into my fear of following my mother's path.
Possible Complications of this cancer?
I could suffer from stenosis of the cervix (where the cervix holds tight like a vice grip) or have an incompetent cervix (my cervix could just give out), if I could get pregnant at all.
Next I needed to figure out my treatment options, because even if I could never have another baby, the kids I already had needed their mama, and my husband needed his wife. I choose to have a cold knife biopsy.
I made the necessary concessions and arrangements to go under the knife. I remember it vividly.
I sat in the hospital bed as they administered the IV medications, I made small talk with my husband and the nurses. I went in for what should have been an hour long surgery that took 2.5 hours, when I woke up my doctor (who shall now be referred to as The Butcher) told me it was worse than she had expected. She had to go deeper into the cervix and take more than she had hoped. I was devastated. We made my follow up appointment for a week later.
When I went in for my follow up appointment, The Butcher asked me to undress and then cut off another chunk of my cervix (with no numbing measures taken). The Butcher did this three more times. Not only was I trying to cope with Cervical Cancer, I was trying to deal with medical rape. My world was crumbling.
Six months later I was cancer free and given the go ahead to start trying to conceive. And we did. We figured we would be okay, we would be able to conceive easily. Month 1, month 2, month 3....Month 21...nothing. Nothing. I couldn't get pregnant. I wasn't getting pregnant.
February 2013, two pink lines. TWO PINK LINES!!!!! We were pregnant! A baby, our baby. Thank you God. Three days later, we lost the baby. I was once again devastated. Why me? What did I do to deserve this?
April 5th, 2013, again we had two pink lines. I was pregnant again. This time our baby stuck, but I lived in constant fear that I would lose this baby. We planned our home-birth, and worked on coming to terms with the fact that my ordeal was over.
Those two pink lines turned into an all blue nursery for a blue-eyed boy. Cancer didn't get to own me, it didn't win.
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Samantha tells me she has been cancer free for 5 years now. Take that, cancer!
Please share or comment on Samantha's story, and follow at her:
**If you would like to contribute YOUR voice, contact me or go HERE.**
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