Angela

One word that I often use to describe my journey is "fast". Everything happened so fast and my life changed so fast. I am just now....4 months post treatment, 7 months post diagnosis, 9 months post receiving the first call that something was not normal.....able to sit back and say, "wow did that really just happen to me?!?!?" I went in for my routine physical and Pap test on September 11, 2009. I received the call on September 18 that something was not normal. I was sent to a specialist for a colposcopy, something still didn't look right so they sent me for a Cone biopsy. The cone was done on October 30, 2009. I received the call on November 4 that there was some pre-cancerous adenocarcinoma but there was 1 mm tumor with it of a neuroendocrine small cell carcinoma of the cervix. I was told on that call that this was a rare form of cervical cancer, but I learned more about what that meant in the coming weeks. I had my first PET scan on November 5. My first appointment with my oncologist was November 8. They thought that there was some disease outside the cervix based on the PET, but it ended up not being cancerous, so by God's grace the cancer was confined to the cervix-and the tumor had been completely removed in the cone biopsy with clean margins. In that first appointment I learned that this SCCC (small cell carcinoma of the cervix) makes up less than 1% of cervical cancers and is actually not detectable by a Pap...so it would only be found by the Pap if there are other abnormal cells present. So for me....having adenocarcinoma cells present ironically saved my life. This type of cancer is a rare and agressive one that moves fast, so we started Chemo right away. I did 4 rounds of 3 day Cisplatin and Etoposide, every 21 days. My first follow up PET scan in March came back clear. I will now go to my oncologist every 3 months for the next 3 years and have a PET scan every 6 months for the next 3 years. I want other ladies who find out they have this Neuroendocrine SCCC to know that they are not alone, that there are others of us out there and there are women beating it and surviving it!!! So that is the technical side of what happened, but the biggest changes happened in my heart and in my life in general. For me, this cancer was awakening to my relationship with God. It was a regeneration of my relationships with my sister, my brother, my mom and my dad. It made me aware of the fragile nature of our mortality and causes me to be so grateful every morning that I open my eyes! I have met my "SCCC sisters", which has been such an amazing blessing. These ladies teach me everyday what it looks like to be a survivor-whether they realize it or not! I look forward to a day when there is no cancer...until then I am blessed to be part of a universal fight to bring hope, awareness and motivation to so many!!!