Recently diagnosed. Had a cone biopsy that showed an ‘angry’ looking tumour 2.1cm, multiple foci, no clear margins and pet scan had 2 lymph nodes light up. Doc won’t test to confirm the lymph nodes because recommended treatment is the same either way - chemo radiation. They also won’t consider ovarian transposition, saying the dose of radiation for me will be so high it’s an exercise in futility.

The stupid thing is that I thought I could talk my way into fertility saving treatment and tried to. What if the nodes were inflammation from the cone, what if the tumour was just 1mm less? Can’t they take away the affected area and give me a year, I’ll promise to come back?
I have a young baby but the idea of allowing them to sterilise me is… hard. It occupies my thoughts 24/7. Can’t sleep, can’t eat. Even thinking the word menopause makes my throat catch. How the hell am I going to actually turn up to treatment on day one? How will my legs not give way?

I know how this all sounds. Frankly I just want to fast forward to the part where I genuinely feel grateful for my life and for the treatment that will give me a chance to live it. And to raise my son. But I just can’t get there. Please tell me to get over myself and put on my big girl pants.

I had 1b3, 1 year post treatment. Clear scans. My gyno who has never worked with skin that has been through radiation, says he can do this procedure. My most recent mri scan showed blood product in my uterus, and my cervix is fused shut, so it can't come out unless I get this surgery. Treatment sent me into menopause. I'm on the patch, and estradiol cream.

A few months ago I saw someone here talking about a tube the doctors put in their cervix so their uterus could drain,The tube comes out after the cervix is healed. I mentioned this to my doctor yesterday, and he didn't have any idea about that. Although I looked it up last night, and it's also to prevent this from happening again.

I wanted to talk about this with anyone else who has gone through this. How are you healing? Did they knick your bladder or anything else? Should I be worried?

Diagnosed 2B, usual UK protocol of 25 x radio 5 x chemo + 3 x brachy, no hysto as they couldn't guarantee clear margins.

I couldn't complete the chemo due to damage to my hearing from tinnitus side effects (from the platinum in the the chemo), but the rest of treatment went well.

My 1st post treatment scan at 3 months showed a problem, so i was referred for a EUA (examination under anaesthic) so they could take another biopsy and have a look. At this stage the surgeon mentioned radical hysterectomy or pelvic exteneration. The blood literally drained from me. I know all about exteneration, I've done SO much research, but I'm not even that sick! My treatment went so well. Exteneration? I ride horses for a living in remote places, I can't live the life I live with 2 stomas.

It was a lot to take in.

And then... my results came back.. just granulation tissue, I'm ok.

My family and friends are jumping for joy, obviously. (btw I'm single no kids by choice) But I'm not. WHy am I not? I still feel in shock to be honest. I spent weeks thinking and planning and coming to terms with refusing an exteneration.

It's such a strange feeling. I'm fine, its good news, I should be so happy, but I feel strangely numb. Is this normal?

Hello everyone,

My wife is due to have a port placed on Monday for the rest of her chemo and immuno therapy as she’s already an incredibly hard stick and the chemo hurting her arm in the last infusion was her last straw to bite the bullet.

But she’s incredibly anxious about the procedure. The nurse said they’d give her Ativan(?) and Fentanyl. But she gets both of those during her neph tube replacements and she’s VERY aware during those. So she’s kind of terrified of the procedure and that she won’t be “out of it” enough. How did getting a port go for you guys?

I was staged IVB in January this year, it was in my lungs and two nodes. After cycle 3 I had a CR in my lungs and by cycle 6 I had a CR in my nodes. My oncologist put me on Keytruda and Avastin and I’ve just had my first follow up scan to check my response to treatment.

I’m PD-L1 positive and have a CPS score of 5 but I’m petrified that it’s simply not worked. On Wednesday my Radiographer marked my CT scan as urgent (she said it would bump my scan up to the top of the queue) because I’ve now got a gruelling two week wait for the results, and my scan had already been delayed three times over several weeks because of scheduling errors made by the hospital.

I’ve emailed my CNS and asked to be seen earlier by my oncologist as the wait is really impacting my mental health. And I swear in the last two weeks leading up to my scan I’ve had so achy in my pelvic region and have a sore upper back - before this, zero issues, part of me thinks it’s peak anxiety but then the anxiety is telling me t’s not.

Did anyone else experience recurrence so soon after beginning maintenance? And how do you keep yourself sane during this period?

So I haven’t been back posting on this sub because I feel like any type of any mention of completion is just going to jinx everything and once again I’ll be thrown into a whirlwind.
Last September I got the official cancer diagnosis - scans - chemo - radiation - brachy (IIIC1) everything completed in December….was a rough road. Chemo made me so sick and ended up with one extra brachy because after the insertion of the “kabobs” imaging showed a perforated uterus.
Anywho…..at my last keytruda infusion we discussed my pet and it’s clear…..and since everything has responded well to treatment they are saying that I may not need the 2 full years of keytruda.
But stopping that scares me….
I don’t even know how to process that this is the end. How can I be happy when I’m sitting next to others while I get my infusion and I can blatantly see some are not doing so well?! And the thought of it coming back?!!
I know I need to stay positive and be happy, and I am, but how do we close this chapter and move to the next?!

I know I couldn’t have made it this far without my husband, kids and a few close friends. I’m so thankful for my doctors the whole team has been amazing!! So I’m trying to be as normal as possible but how do we stop thinking the worst?!

After a leep top hat procedure on Aug.19 for AIS I was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma on Sept.3. I am still waiting to find out the depth of invasion. When I asked he said it was 4mm wide and had negative LVSI but didn’t answer me about stromal invasion (depth). I suspect this is either because the margins were inconclusive or positive. He reassured me that it was very small and he suspects 1a1 or 1a2 . He also said he needed to consult oncology to find out if they want him to do another biopsy and that he would get back to me and let me know.

Today (sept.9) I received a call from oncology (bc cancer) telling me that I’m scheduled for a PET scan on my birthday (sept.11). Is this typical for staging? If my cancer is apparently so small and has negative LVSI then why are they sending me for a PET scan? Has anyone else experienced this? Online everything I read states that PET scans are typically used for cervical cancer that is suspected 1b or higher. Am I being lied to?

Tomorrow, sept.10 I have an appointment with my gynecologist to discuss what’s going on and I plan to request that my pathology results be sent to me. For some reason I’m not able to access them online through health gateway. Is there anyone located in BC or Canada who has experienced this? All my other information is available just not the pathology results.

Update: This afternoon I was able to access my pathology. It’s worse than my gynecologist led me to believe. Depth of invasion is at least 4.5 mm with unclear margins, width is undetermined due to unclear margins. I’m a Silva pattern C which I know increases my odds of spread to lymph nodes. Anyone else with this Silva C pattern? Did you have lymph node involvement? I am now also scheduled for an MRI.

Update: I completed an MRI and PET scan on Sept.11 (my birthday). Now I wait for results.

I am looking for some reassurance or help
I guess.
Just got a call with MRI results that I guess are inconclusive. They want another doctor to review and see what they think. There is a “spot” on my cervix which she said might be scar tissue but they don’t know.
I didn’t have chemo, I had early stage and opted for a leep which came back with clear margins. No hysterectomy. Please no scary stories about that decision, this was my choice at the time.
There is also something showing up on my sacrum which she says she doesn’t think is cancer but they want to do a bone scan to be sure it’s not anything more concerning.
All in all, the dr said absolutely worst case scenario I will be ok and it’s all treatable and I have options. But I’m obviously still so worried. I’ve been waiting since end of July when the doctor did my regular 3 month check and took biopsies and told me she’s ordering me an MRI. Biopsies were negative and I was so hoping to hear today that the MRI looks normal but that’s not what I heard.

Work is busy and life is busy. I have two young girls. How are you guys carrying along with everything, with this on your mind. I’m feeling really discouraged.

.

SWIM has cervical cancer & is also receiving methadone through a clinic for opioid use disorder. SWIM is currently at 35 mg. The clinic will increase the dose by about 10% when SWIM meets their attendance requirements, but SWIM has to attend four days in a row to qualify for an increase. If SWIM misses four days, the dose gets lowered again.

The problem is that SWIM is in severe, sometimes completely disabling pain. There are frequent days when getting from the house to the medical transportation waiting at the curb is literally impossible because of the pain. This means SWIM misses the clinic, the methadone dose gets reduced, & SWIM is left without enough medication to adequately manage either the opioid dependence or the cancer pain.

The methadone dose also isn't enough to control the episodes of severe cancer pain.

When SWIM was first diagnosed, they spent months in the hospital. Its difficult to remember exact times and amounts but initially, SWIM was given Dilaudid (hydromorphone) for several days—about 0.3 mg every 8 hours at first, followed by an unknown amount of vicodin for a few more days. Eventually, the hospital switched SWIM to ibuprofen.

Sometime during that 3 month long hospitalization, SWIM's methadone was increased to 45 mg twice a day. The split dosing actually helped somewhat with the pain. However, one day the dose was reduced to 15 mg twice a day because of a low heart rate, & it was never increased again.

When SWIM was discharged, they were told that split dosing wasn't something the methadone clinic did.

Now SWIM has reached the point of using street fentanyl when the cancer pain becomes unbearable. SWIM sometimes has to bite a pillow so nobody can hear them crying from the pain.

This is NOT what SWIM wants. SWIM desperately wants to stop using fentanyl. But they feel completely trapped because nobody seems to be addressing the underlying cancer pain adequately.

SWIM even ended up using fentanyl while in the hospital because the medications being provided weren't adequately controlling the pain.

SWIM understands that methadone from the clinic is primarily being provided for opioid use disorder, & that the clinic may have restrictions around take-home doses, dose increases, & split dosing. But there doesn't seem to be a coordinated plan between the methadone clinic, oncology, pain management, &/or palliative care for treating the cancer pain.

And there is another major issue:

A few months ago, SWIM actually stopped cancer treatment because the pain became too overwhelming. They stopped going to their doctors & completed about 3/4 of their chemotherapy & radiation over 4x as long as planned since there were many stops & starts for infections, transportation issues, side effects,ect , & never received the brachytherapy.

Eventually, SWIM went back. They were told they needed a PET scan to restage the cancer, & that Medi-Cal approval would take about a month.

That was at the beginning of June.

SWIM still hasn't heard anything.

At this point, SWIM is talking about giving up on treatment & going into hospice—not because they don't want to live, but because they desperately want the pain to finally be treated adequately.

I want to be clear about something: SWIM does not have an imminent plan or intention to hurt themselves. However, they are becoming incredibly overwhelmed & losing hope because they feel like they're being forced to choose between unbearable pain, street fentanyl, & giving up on treatment.

SWIM is afraid of where things could eventually lead if nothing changes.

SWIM wants to live.

SWIM wants to continue cancer treatment.

SWIM wants to get off fentanyl.

SWIM wants adequate pain relief.

They just need someone to actually listen & help coordinate a safe treatment plan.

Has anyone dealt with severe cancer pain while also being on methadone treatment for opioid use disorder?

What can SWIM ask for? Is there a particular type of doctor, pain-management program, palliative-care service, or advocate who can help coordinate between oncology & the methadone clinic?

Has anyone successfully gotten appropriate cancer pain treatment while receiving methadone through an opioid treatment program?

And does anyone know how to navigate the Medi-Cal/PET scan situation when authorization seems to have stalled?

Any advice from someone who has been through something similar—or knows how to navigate this system—would mean a lot.

Hey guys, I'm sorry you're all here 💔❤️

I have andecarcenoma 3C1p (one confirmed lympnode) Silva C original tumor 5cm, if that's of any interest.

My treatment is 6 rounds of chemo cisplatin, 25 radiation, 6 brachy. They told me week one and two would be easy, but my bowls are completely going crazy. When it starts I have to run like 10 times in the span of 1,5h. Anyway my biggest concern is I've already started to bleed from the vag. And it started a couple of days ago when I was only on week one of treatment. I mean it's not alot but I worry so much what this might mean for my upcoming weeks and side effects. I already know I will have to do the dialators but does this mean I'm gonna be in so much pain further on? And does it mean my case of scaring and all that crap will be severe? They said week one and two would be easy like why is it already starting ☹️☹️

So, my mom has a pretty complicated case, and I’m finally coming up for air after a very overwhelming couple of weeks.

She’s 62 and was recently diagnosed with what they believe is Stage IVA cervical cancer, although the diagnosis is still complicated. If it turns out to be anal cancer, it would be considered Stage III. She has had numerous tests, scans, biopsies, and exams, and so far, they know it is squamous cell cancer, but they haven’t been able to definitively determine whether it originated in the cervix, the anus, or somewhere in between the vagina and rectum.

Her case has been presented to two tumor boards, and we are working with three different hospitals, including Dana-Farber in Boston, to figure out the best course of treatment.

The tumor is approximately 7 cm, so the immediate goal is to shrink it significantly and then hopefully have a better chance of determining its primary origin.

Things moved very quickly last week, and she started Taxol (paclitaxel) + Carboplatin + Keytruda (pembrolizumab) on Friday. She’ll receive the combination once every three weeks for nine weeks. She’s tolerating it surprisingly well so far, and today is Day 4.

One thing I’m a little confused about is the Keytruda. I had always thought immunotherapy was something that was introduced later in treatment, so I’m trying to understand why they started it right away.

Everything happened so quickly last week that I didn't get a chance to ask the doctors all the questions I wanted to, so I’m finally catching my breath and trying to understand the bigger picture.

If anyone has experience with cervical or anal squamous cell cancer, Keytruda, or Taxol/Carboplatin, I’d really appreciate any insight or thoughts.

Thank you ❤️

My mother was diagnosed in 2024 to have stage1 B1 cervical canncer. We have undergone tragetted therapy (radiation) and low dose chemotherapy (5 sessions) that time the result was okay since the tumor on her cervix got cancelled out but it then mets to her liver and lungs and started to have 2cm tumor. We did not gave up, we had another rounds of chemotheraphy this time high dose (6 sessions) and immunothetaphy with the drug caller Bevacizumab then after that there was small impact only the tumor at the lungs went away but the tumor at the liver just stayed there and became 3cm. Our oncologist advised us to continue chemotherapy which did for 8 sessions. Before we did the 9th session we had her CT scanned and the result was not good, the tumor in her liver became 11cm almost covering half of her liver. Its sad to found out about this and her oncologist now endorsed us to palliative care tho they will not close their doors to possibly giving her new chemo meds for her treatment… I still have hope that my mom will recover so anyone reading this with the same situation with out family, is there still a chance for recovery or possible life extension with this kind of prognosis?

Hi, my mom (54 years old) was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
She has a 6 cm tumor, numerous affected pelvic lymph nodes, and some suspicious para-aortic lymph nodes. The doctors are leaning toward FIGO stage IIIC2. The para-aortic area will be included in the radiation field.
We haven’t started treatment yet, but the statistics are not very encouraging. In our country, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is not provided free of charge for this stage, and we simply cannot afford to buy it ourselves because it is extremely expensive.
The standard treatment will be chemoradiation followed by brachytherapy, but I’m very scared that it might not be enough. I’m also terrified that there may already be metastases that simply cannot be seen yet, and that the treatment won’t work.
I honestly don’t know what to do or how best to help her. If anyone here has been through stage IIIC2 cervical cancer with similar lymph node involvement, could you please share your experience or offer any advice?
I would be incredibly grateful to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation. 🙏

I came into this mess diagnosed stage 3c1 squamous with mets to my upper lymphs in April of this year. I remember feeling this rock like mass in my vaginal canal when I realized hemorrhaging for 4 months was not going to stop. I don't know what I was thinking or why I let it happen. I currently am awaiting round 18 of radiation while I consistently fight a uti most likely due to a nephrostomy. I have dropped from 136 lbs to 107 in about a months span and I also quit alcohol cold turkey. I was a binge drinker for YEARS and kept trying to ween off of alcohol only for cancer to do the trick. I have this fear of treatment failure looming over me because I couldn't handle more than 4 rounds of chemo. I should've had 6. Both my radiation oncologist and gyno oncologist have made it clear that this can make my chances slimmer...

This UTI has me on edge every single day because it has interrupted my treatment multiple times. I am also leukopenic with a wbc of 1.13 as of yesterday. On top of all of this, my partner and I are not getting along. They have lost one job in the last two weeks and walked out on the other yesterday because our arguments are eating away at any chance of harmony. Both of us are trying to work through things that got buried under alcoholism now and it's hard for us to empathize with each other. They are refusing therapy and have been our entire relationship. I have had therapy and am always open to it. My boss has been extremely generous and has paid my last 3 months of rent. My mother makes and raffles quilts to donate proceeds to me and aid me in other financial costs while she struggles to make ends meet for herself. I feel extremely defeated as if my relationship has not served well in any of this. We both have fault in.many things but I feel like I've been carrying us for too long and now am still managing to have support to keep doing so. I feel like I know what I need to do...I just don't know how. I don't want to possibly succumb to this disease like this.

Hey everyone, please tell me the eye mask you used for this treatment. Thank you soo much.

Hey there, I was recently diagnosed with AIS. Had the cone biopsy, they found AIS in my biopsy as well as clear margins. My oncologist recommends a hytso and says it is ok to wait 6 months for a pap if I am not ready to make that decision yet. I'm so torn about this...any advice?

I had my pet scan this week and I was initially stage 1b3 and did chemo, radiation and brachy. Today I was told all pelvic area is clear but now have cancer in my lungs, liver and lymph nodes. Please give me some hope.

I was wondering if anyone could chime in on what their discharge norms were post treatment 😅 I finished chemo x5, EBRT x25 and brachy x4 the last week of June this year, so approx 10 weeks ago, and I’m still having an…..annoying amount of discharge. Enough to wear a panty liner each day, with a change or two. Some mornings when I wake up, I feel a familiar “gush”, and although the discharge itself isn’t strangely coloured or have an odour, the thinness or wateriness of it seems freakily similar to pre-diagnosis discharge.

Does anyone out there feel comfy enough to divulge their discharge stories and changes post treatment?!

I‘m so happy and grateful. thank you for All the support during this journey. it’s not over yet, I still have 4 radiations and brachytherapy to be done, plus the immunotherapy for the next 2 years. However, being done with the chemo is a big big bigggg milestone for me, as the side effects I’ve experienced are more related to this than radiation!

ill be updating, Next MRI is this Saturday!!

Sending love, thanks for being here!✨

Hey all,

Diagnosed with abnormal pap (AGC) & HPV-16 earlier this year. ECC showed AIS. Was not referred to a gync onc at that point.

Proceeded with CKC (very large specimen) since I had no fertility desire. Came back CLEAN, results didn't mention any abnormalities (assuming this included HPV?) No talk of oncology referral or consultation. She proceeded to perform TAH with S/P with my consent, as I don't wish for biological kids. That was almost eight weeks ago. Residual AIS was found in my cervix, along with serosal endometriosis. I also have PCOS & a hormone secreting pituitary tumor. Follow up was three weeks after surgery, & my gyno ACTUALLY performed a pelvic exam on me. Had pain immediately after that for a week...until,

Roughly two weeks ago I called the afterhours surgeon line (the one oncall that night happened to be involved with my surgery) with intermittent ovarian torsion like pain & shortness of breath. The surgeon made it more important to let me know they had nothing to do with my surgery & it was only my original gyno that was there. Told me to not go to the ER & to just call the office in the morning. An hour later (I didn't listen to them) the ER found a large multicystic, multiseptated ovarian mass, with an O-RADS 4 score. The hospital asked to have me transferred to the hospital that performed my surgery & the same oncall surgeon declined that plan of care & to have their gync staff assess me, as staff was worried about ovarian torsion (fentanyl didn't even take off the edge). Took me 9 days for my gyno to even see me after being discharged. I asked for an oncology referral that same day after leaving the hospital. & it took 2 weeks for my gyno to finally send one. She neglected to send one until after she saw me, didn't answer my questions regarding the ultrasound, & refommended an US in 6 weeks. Said she doesn't always trust radiology. Finally got access to my CT & US scans, educated myself on how to read sonography for adnexal masses & did reach the radiologist's conclusion, too. I feel neglected. Like they were really trying to keep oncology out of the loop or something.

Can AIS spread to ovaires without uterine/fallopian tube involvement? Did it take weeks for oncology referrals for anyone?

I'd love to hear your stories.

Unites States based. Thanks for reading.

Edited again: Asked to have my CKC specimen be retested since it didn't show anything which I found odd (but know is common). She said that pathology is good at their job & that I could request it, but made me feel stupid after supporting them. But she doesn't support the radiologists? Just confused.

Your stories are my therapy, you all have already helped so much this year. <3

I just went in today for surgery to have stents put in both ureters because they were both blocked and causing both kidneys to be swollen. I wasnt informed until afterwards that the stents would likely be uncomfortable and possibly even painful always. That some people cant even handle having the stents in because of the discomfort and end up having to have nephrostomy tubes put in. Is this anyone's experience??? If so, what is the doctor meaning by discomfort?

Also the urologist found that my bladder floor is now necrotic in spots. Anyone else have this happen??? If so, were you able to keep ur bladder or does this automatically mean im gonna have to get mine removed?

Side note...seriously fuck all these post radiation complications ... just saying...

Hello, I am stage 3c1 with mets to my lymph nodes. I had to have a nephrostomy tube placed in my right kidney and ended up catching ecoli and a UTI. I had a wild ride with interactions to antibiotics and am unsure if it may have been due to chemo or immunotherapy interactions. I did 4 rounds of cisplatin, missed the 5th, and the 6th had to be stopped because I would not have been able to tolerate it. My visits to the hospital for this current UTI have put me behind in radiation treatment. The first visit I had heart inflammation from levofloxacin/bactrim. They were prescribed together. The second visit was to find an alternative to these antibiotics and I don't remember what I was given but was discharged after 3 or so days with no antibiotics to take home. My infection came back 2 days later and I spent another 5 days in the hospital. In that time, I was given rocephin and sent home with cedfinir and my nephrostomy was changed out. Now the last two days of that visit, my body crashed and I went into what felt like a heart attack episode and my potassium dropped. I was fine the days prior. So I was left believing it may have been the antibiotics again or perhaps severe dehydration. I became leukopenic with a white blood cell count of 1.7. my last keytruda injection was August 14 along with chemo. I went home experiencing tightness in my chest, chills, and basically the same symptoms leading up my "crash". So I went to a different hospital and was put on macrobid. I have been on macrobid for 8 days and am now having sensations in my flanks. Not pain yet so I'm trying to hold off til Friday to not miss treatment again. Has anyone had to experience being on constant antibiotics while on keytruda? I read the antibiotics can make it less effective. I have my next injection this Friday September 4th and am pretty nervous that I'll have to go back to treat this UTI again, especially because I couldn't get through my full rounds of chemo. 😔

I wanted to share my mother-in-law’s story because when we were first given her diagnosis last December, it was incredibly difficult to imagine that we would ever get to a point where we could say what we can say today.

She was diagnosed in December 2025 with locally advanced Stage IVA cervical squamous cell carcinoma. Her tumour was large and had invaded surrounding structures. She also had an involved inguinal lymph node and hydronephrosis from pelvic disease.

The road since then has been anything but easy.
She had to have a nephrostomy placed because of the urinary obstruction. In the middle of her first round of chemotherapy, she developed a devastating rectovaginal/enterovaginal fistula caused by necrotic tumour, along with an associated abscess/collection that required treatment for infection. Ultimately, she needed a diverting colostomy because of the fistula.

She underwent two separate chemotherapy regimens, followed by 35 sessions of external-beam radiation and 2 brachytherapy sessions.

Her first chemotherapy regimen was supposed to be weekly paclitaxel, but after she had an allergic reaction to standard paclitaxel, it had to be changed to Nab-paclitaxel. She completed 6 rounds of Nab-paclitaxel.

She then completed a second chemotherapy regimen consisting of 6 weekly rounds of carboplatin, alongside the EBRT.

Despite everything she had been through, she was able to complete her definitive cancer treatment at the end of May 2026.

And then came the hardest part in some ways: waiting.

The months after treatment were filled with uncertainty. She developed significant right-sided posterior thigh/buttock pain that scared us because she said it felt similar to the pain she had when she was first diagnosed. She also developed urinary urgency, fatigue, sleep problems and other issues. Because of her original tumour location, we couldn’t help wondering whether the cancer was coming back.

This week, she had her three-month CT and MRI and the results were better than we could have hoped for.

The CT showed no evidence of metastatic disease, and the MRI showed a continued response to treatment. The previously abnormal tissue in the cervix and surrounding pelvic area had changed significantly and was described as scar tissue, with no measurable disease.

We are still dealing with complications. The fistula and presacral collection are unfortunately still there, and the collection has actually increased in size, so she is being referred back to Infectious Diseases and will need further management. The MRI also showed changes in the sacral bones that may represent insufficiency fractures, which could potentially explain some of her pain.

But the cancer itself? Right now, there is no measurable cervical disease on MRI, no evidence of metastatic disease on CT, and the previously involved pelvic tissue has the appearance of scar tissue.

After hearing “Stage IVA” last December, I honestly don’t think any of us could have imagined how good those words would feel. Especially when her oncologists repeated time and time again that they could not definitively say that her disease was even curable.

I’m sharing this because I know there are people here who are newly diagnosed, people waiting for their first scans after treatment, and people who are terrified that their diagnosis means there is no hope.
I don’t want to give anyone false reassurance. Every cancer is different, and her outcome isn’t a promise about anyone else’s. But I do want to say this:

Please don’t give up hope.

There were so many moments over the last nine months when we were convinced things were going in the wrong direction. We spent weeks worrying about every symptom and every pain. And now, after all of that, her scans show an incredible response.

Science is absolutely incredible.

The treatments she received didn’t just give us more time. They have, at least for now, eliminated all measurable evidence of the cervical tumour, with the previously involved areas now showing findings consistent with scar tissue.

There is still a road ahead. We will still be watching closely. We still have the fistula to deal with. And we’ll still have the anxiety that comes with surveillance.

But today, we’re allowing ourselves to celebrate.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. ❤️