⚠️ Update on my #cervicalcancer:
Testing is officially done, for now… 😅 I’ve kinda been a bit more quiet the last few weeks as I’ve been really busy with visits to the Juravinski cancer centre. Since my appointments of blood work, X-rays and IUD removal that I had discussed a few posts back, here’s the cervical cancer tests I’ve done to date:
The first test I went for was a CT scan. The picture shown was the IV setup I had installed 😐 I’m not one for needles, and I had a nurse in training put this in, so it was definitely uncomfortable. After this you go into another room with a large donut shaped machine. You lay on a table that goes through the centre. This is done with a full bladder so they can get the best results. Your injected with a dye, and that dye shows up when scanned through the donut like machine.
The next test I had done was an MRI. 😔 Such a hard test. You get injected again with another iv, that first has saline and then some sort of drug that slows down your bowels so you have no movements when in the machine. For this one your given earphones, and hand pump ( for emergency) and a heart rate monitor on your finger. You go into a large toilet paper roll type machine for 40 minutes and hear dial up type sounds extremely loud while inside. You can’t move either. It’s a huge mind over matter test. It’s extremely close quarters, and I don’t do well in tight spaces.
The next week I had my next test which was the PET scan. This test is 2 hours long. You are given an IV, flushed with saline, then given a dye for your PET scan. After your given the dye, your given two large cups of water mixed with radio tracers. 👎🏻 Shit taste like dust water. It’s awful. Anyways after you get it down, your given a recliner chair and blanket and told not to move for an hour. Like no reading, no phones, nothing. You can pee if you have to though 🙏🏻. After the hour, you head into a room and the machine is similar to the ct scan machine, the donut shaped one. You go in head first this time, get scanned like the ct scanned similar to the ct scan.
After the PET scan, it was time to finally meet with my radiation oncologist for the news of my tests, and get an actual outlook of the state of my cervical cancer. The good news, I’m still at stage 2b2. I still don’t qualify for surgery, as the tumour is 5cm and there are some surrounding lymph nodes containing cancerous cells. However it has not exceeded my cervix, which is great news. 🙏🏻
The doctor suggested that I have to go back for two more sets of appointments to get my radiation planning appointments. Another CT scan, and another MRI. 😐
So I went for the scheduled appointment ( they were both scheduled on the same day ) The ct scan was the same as the first one except there was no IV this time, I had needles put in my hips and above my cooch 😅 these needles contained a permanent tattoo type dye. I now have 3 permanent dots on me now. But these dots will be used to map out my future radiation visits. 3 dots that I will keep as part of my journey 💕
The MRI this time was 20 mins instead of 40, and I was not injected for this one either. I went in head first though, they strapped my feet together so tight my legs went numb, and I had a huge plastic weight on me to keep me from moving. I had a hard time this time, I panicked a few times and hard to walk myself through breathing while in that tight toilet paper hole. It’s hard not to break down. 😔😭
After it was done, the tech told me I would have to have another round done after radiation to check how it worked. 😭 I want to cry… MRIs are so hard.
Now I wait… in 7-10 days I’ll have a radiation / chemo schedule, and we will be getting that started. It will last for 5 weeks. After the 5 weeks, I will be admitted to the hospital for two overnight visits to have targeted radiation. They will insert clips into my tumour and zap it with radiation. 😭 I’m terrified for this part 🙏🏻
From there, we will be able to know if I’m working towards being cancer free, or working towards more radiation. 🙏🏻 I’m praying for strength as much as I can to get through this and back to healthy life. 😔♥️ Like I mentioned, ill continue to keep you posted as I move along this cancer journey. ✨