Short Version

I had Stage 2B Cervical Cancer that was treated with radiation, chemotherapy, and brachytherapy.

Medium Version

I have been diagnosed with Stage 2b cervical cancer. I had 1st opinions (2 different gynecologic oncologist in Austin), 2nd opinions (2 different gynecologic oncologist at MD Anderson), a physical, an MRI, a PET Scan, LOTS of ultrasounds, LOTS of blood test, a round (14 days) of IVF where eggs were extracted/harvested and frozen. All these test were used to rule out a hysterectomy and to move forward with a 8-10 week radiation and chemotherapy treatment plan topping off with 5rds (7 attempts) of brachytherapy. Since radiation was required everyday and chemo 1x/wk (weekends off of both treatment modalities), then 5 Breachytherapy treatments, I decided to move my treatment to Austin (vs staying at MD Anderson which is 3 hours away in Houston) so I could continue with my lifestyle of torturing and training myself and others. I have a great medical team to help me with this treatment plan, but they are nothing compared to my “personal team” that kept me sane, motivated and smiling.

Longer Version

WARNING! I’m going to give the good the bad and the ugly and A LOT of TMI. I am making this public with the desire to help someone who might be in my shoes.

I entered January 2014 with a lot of random bleeding (told you TMI). Jan. 23rd‘s annual trip to the OBGYN resulted in an abnormal pap smear. Feb. 5th, I went back for a biopsy of the abnormal cells. Feb. 12th my OBGYN himself called me personally and informed me I have been diagnosed with “endocervical adenocarcinoma, at least in situ”. Blonde terms…Stage 0 cervical cancer. Meaning the cells were acting up, and once they passed through a certain membrane they would be considered cancerous cells. He told me to call and referred me to a gynecologic oncologist. That doc called me before I had the chance to call him, however they didn’t take my insurance, I was pain free and the bleeding has slowed if not stopped. PLUS The Open was coming up and that was my focus (I really cleaned up my eating behaviors and upped my training). Can we say denial?!

My nights quickly turned into internet searches of any word combinations on anything dealing with “endocervical adenocarcinoma, at least in situ”. I was a frequent visitor of Web MD thinking they may have written things wrong. I joined chat rooms and constantly read long threads of other ladies situations.

Things got better in March & April. I DOMINATED The Open, placing 4th in the region and 68th in the world! Hard work and dedication pays off! Bleeding was sporadic and low but manageable. Nothing a tampon couldn’t save.

May 11th (Mother’s Day) the bleeding returned in a much heavier and frequent manner and didn’t stop. May 14th I called my OBGYN’s office stating I think I need to take action on this (they agreed) and what do I need to do. They recommend another gynecologic oncologist…and though LOTS of phone calls and messages, I discovered they didn’t take my insurance either and neither did the ones they suggested or the ones they suggested. I called my OBGYN back on May 21st asking what I needed to ask these doctors/oncologist, and the nurse said I should just look on my insurance website and find an oncologist “that will do a scan”. Awesome, on my own to find my own Oncologist…have I mentioned I have NEVER broken a bone? All the Gynecologic Oncologist places on my insurance’s website have the same phone number…different locations, but same phone numbers. It was a mess.

May 22nd – 25th I had to go compete in Regionals,. I was miserable. I couldn’t stop bleeding to save my life. This left me tired and VERY fatigued mentally and physically. Resulting in a horrible placement at Regionals. Even after all the hard work I had put in.

After regionals was over I made an appt with a PCP (Primary Care Physician) for a physical for May 27th because I knew I could get blood work for free through that and I wanted to see if my results were okay. Once the doc doing the physical got to the questions about my “female stuff” and I told her what my OBGYN said (endocervical adenocarcinoma, at least in situ), she immediately got on the phone and started calling oncologist from the “physician side” and tried to get me in with a certain oncologist, who didn’t take my insurance. I gave her the name and number of a gynecologist from my insurance’s online list and she was able to call that number and get me an appt for June 2nd, but not without a battle from my insurance and others in the medical field.

On June 2nd I met with an Oncologist, but not till I spoke with a financial advisor, nurse navigator, then a chaplain (all 3 not by choice). The doc (and his assistant), did a physical exam on me then left the room, then 4 people came back in to inform me that pretty much I was going to have a hysterectomy which meant giving birth to kids was not possible for me. I was 29 years old. I’m not married and I don’t have kids and I was just told that I wasn’t going to be able to have kids. I was a wreck. This doc ordered a MRI and for me to return in 2 weeks for a follow up. Then the chaplain came back in the room. She was nice but I really didn’t care to have her in there…I didn’t know her so I didn’t care to talk about what just happened with her. I gather my things, checked out then went to coach, because that is what I do, plus it helped keep my mind off the horrible news. I then had to go home and tell my boyfriend, that was rough. I kept him in the dark about all this, including the diagnoses in January, so this was a shock to him.

I decided that I needed a 2nd opinion so I started to try to get into MD Anderson (a well known hospital in Houston that focuses on cancer diagnoses/treatments), that was a horrible process.

On June 13th after a few battles with the insurance company, 1 almost 2 reschedules and 1 power outage delaying the appointment, I had my 1st ever MRI (in Austin). I then decided to call my parents and tell them what was going on. They were NOT happy with my desire to try to handle this on my own because I also kept them in the dark. I BEGGED them not to tell anyone (including family) and to keep this off social media. The following Tuesday, June 17th I saw my 2nd Oncologist since the 1st one was out to town. This guy was really nice and explained the MRI, but couldn’t tell me much about treatment plans, etc since he hadn’t done a physical exam. The MRI confirmed I had a tumor the size of a golf ball in my cervix.

My nightly (really any free time I had) internet searches got really intense. I was now looking at sights for cervical cancer, tumors, hysterectomy, etc. I even googled “crossfit Cervical Cancer” and 2 ladies stories came up (one had a hysterectomy and one went through chemo-radiation), exercise and cervical cancer. I looked at all different arrangement of words with the words “cervical cancer”.

I FINALLY got into MD Anderson and I ask my parents to join me for an appointment on June 24th. And yet again because of the medical field and insurance I only got to verbally speak to the Oncologist, not do an exam (which delayed my treatment by a month). At MD Anderson you have to have your deductible paid in full before you even speak to a doctor. During my meeting with the 1st doc at MD Anderson, we (my parents and myself) went over what exactly cervical cancer is a possible treatment plans of what could possibly happen. Alot of what ifs, etc. I was then asked to come back on a Wednesday (losing track of dates) for blood work (6am), PET Scan (10am) and Ultra Sounds (2 different kinds) then meet with a fertility doctor (wonderful lady).

At this appointment, I decided to move forward with IVF. With this process, I would have my eggs “harvested” and frozen for use later when I am ready to become a parent. With my cancer diagnoses I could apply for a program (based out of Austin) where the cost would be about a 1/4th of the normal IVF. I applied and was accepted. I returned later on to MD Anderson to begin IVF and do all the pre testing stuff and meet with a nurse (wonderful lady) to show me how to do the shots etc. After 14 days of 2 shots per night, 6 different blood draws and 6 different ultrasounds between MD Anderson and a facility in ATX my eggs were retrieved on June 24th.

On June 22nd I met with my 4th oncologist (2nd one at MD Anderson because the original doc I saw at MD Anderson doesn’t normally treat patients, so she sent me to another oncologist). This new doc had all the data from previous docs and test (MRI, Ultrasounds, blood work) and had already presented my case to a medical board because she was unclear on a margin of my tumor. She couldn’t guarantee a clear margin with a hysterectomy (meaning if she removed the tumor there could still be some invisible cells that could spread the cancer into other areas of my body) and was thinking chemo-radiation was a better option. On June 22nd she did an exam that put me in tears (painful physically leaving me with lots of bleeding) and confirmed that she wouldn’t perform a hysterectomy. The OR we had booked for June 25th was cancelled. She connected me to MD Anderson’s radiology department for an appointment. I visited with that radiologist on June 24th, after I had my eggs retrieved/harvested. Since radiation was required every day and chemotherapy was going to be 1x/wk for 5-6 weeks, then topped off with BrachyTherapy (internal radiation) I decided to return to a doctor in Austin to move forward with treatment (detailed blog post regarding treatment is coming) and I couldn’t have been happier.

June 30th, I got in to see the oncologist who explained my MRI to me months ago. He did another painful exam and tolerated my very forceful verbal desire to get things started ASAP (I mean I was diagnosed in January and here it was end of June and I still hadn’t started treatment). He made some phone calls and got me in to see a radiologist in Austin (my 2nd radiologist) the following day, June 31st. I had chemo class and my radiology mapping done on Aug. 1st. I was suppose to have a port (small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin which allows chemo to be delivered versus having to find and stick a vein every time) put in for chemo on August 6th and start chemo on Aug. 15th…they cancelled that and got me in for my first (of 5-6) chemo sessions on Aug. 6th. It wasn’t until Oct.23rd, 2014 that I received my last treatment.

Since I want my experience to help others in my situations, and this post is already super long, I have broken down my experience into different post that will be posted this week. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t hesitate to share this (and the upcoming post) or pass along my contact info to others who might benefit from it.

Things I Was Glad I Did & Things I Wish I Would Have Done (no particular order):

HEALTH INSURANCE. I don’t care how healthy you think you are, make sure you have this, I don’t care who you are. I took darn good care of myself and look what happened to me.
TAKE NOTES. Take a pad and paper with you to ALL doctor visits and write down everything, even if you don’t know what it is; you can look it up later. No matter what you think, you are not going to remember everything, there is tooooooo much emotion involved. They can also draw pictures on this paper incase you are a visual learner…trust me I have a pic drawn on a barf bag because I went empty handed to my 1st appt. This is also a great notepad to have handy for when you think of questions at home and want to ask at your next appt.
ASK QUESTIONS. I know I have had all my lady parts for 30 years, but I wasn’t really sure of what the purpose was or where things are located. Ask the embarrassing questions. If you have cancer in your “lady parts”…kiss your modesty goodbye and do it early on. It makes for asking questions easier.
RESEARCH the internet, but don’t let it consume or control you because you will diagnose yourself with “death” being the only answer, and it isn’t, duh.
ORGANIZATION. Start a binder (or some sort of organizational system) for all the paperwork and bills you are going to get. This whole billing process will make you CRAZY! Matching up EOBs with Bills is rough. You will attend one appt and get a bill from 3 different places. I have 2 binders. A packed 2” one for billing and a pact 2” one for copies of all the forms you will fill out and for any handout they give you.
COPIES….Get a copy of EVERYTHING especially if you sign it. GET A COPY, GET A COPY, GET A COPY. Getting copies of test results is also helpful. Many times I went to appts and my “paper work” hadn’t been sent over or processed yet, but because I had a copy we were able to move forward in some situations.
SUPPORT. Create a support system early on; friends, family, routine. You CANNOT do this alone, trust me, I tried.