Uterine Cancer Survivor

Ever since I was eleven years old I have had issues with hemorrhaging during my menstrual "cycle". At fourteen I was finally put on birth control pills because I was deemed "old enough". Before that Dr.s had just been administering hormone shots in order for me to stop bleeding. While on the birth control pill as a teenager I did pretty well with regular periods and was able to control the bleeding that way. When I was nineteen I gave birth to a daughter. In my mid to late twenties I was on the Depp-Provera shots in order to temporarily sterilize myself. This was my birth control of choice as it completely shut me down period wise. The only thing that I did not realize about taking all of this birth control is that it contained hormones that could produce and feed female cancers. Over the last sixteen years of going to the same old doctor and them telling me that all of my test results were fine I just gave up. How can a woman bleed all of the time, start growing facial hair at twenty five and be labeled bipolar when she is suffering continuously from manic PMS if there are nothing wrong with her hormones??? After sixteen years I literally gave up. I felt like nobody was ever going to understand or find out what was really wrong with me. Over the last four years I didn't go to the doctors and just suffered. There were times when I would bleed through two overnight pads every hour. When I would stand up I would usually have to go and change my clothing it was that bad. After a couple of months of hemorrhaging and heavy anemia Iwas finally desperate enough to approach a new Dr. She was a nice sounding Gynecologist with an impressive background you know blah blah. I went in and she told me that I would need to lose 100 lbs since there was no way I could have a hysterectomy performed when I was so obese. That was the first task at hand for her. Then she examined me and told me that my uterus did not seem enlarged and looked pretty good. After two months of not being satisfied with this Drs. nonchalant attitude towards what I was dealing with I decided I better give the "big dogs" a call at Virginia Mason. Bam! I was in there within a week getting an examination, ultrasound and blood work done. I had been anemic for so long that I nearly needed a blood transfusion. (All the while working full time in property management!) I was told that I would need to have a hysterectomy. I asked if it was true that I would need to lose a bunch of weight first in order to have one done since I am 100 lbs over weight. They told me absolutely not! They told me that I would have surgery within a month and that they would be using the Da Vinci Robotic Method. I was grateful and terrified all at the same time as I have never had surgery before. Was I gonna wake back up? When they took out the masses and tested them would they show cancer??? Yup I was pretty much terrified but like one brave soul, John Wayne once said..."courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway!" You were right Mr Wayne. After summoning all of my courage I told them to take it all out which is what they did. It has now been one week after my surgery and I am recovering very nicely. After the surgery my Oncologist phoned to tell me that there had been stage one cancer found in my uterus but it had not gone anywhere else. It was completely removed during the hysterectomy and I was told that no further treatment will be needed. I count myself as an extremely lucky girl. Big time!!! I can now just imagine a life without the ickiness of hemorrhaging and no more "period worries". I now wont need to worry about getting ovarian, uterine or cervical cancer again since those parts are now gone. It was during the time I went through all of this that I thought a lot about Fran and what she went through and also women who have made extreme decisions like Christina Applegate. Sometimes we need to go radical in order to save ourselves from getting cancers in the future. It is the courage and the strength that I admire in them and that i want to feel and display in myself. I look forward to a bright and happy future without my complicated female parts. Ahhh the future does look bright indeed!!! :)))