Life-saving Hopeful---THIS IS GRAPHIC in description

     Sometimes I am slow. I mean SLOW.

It can take me years to have an "aha" moment, a moment that can be life-changing yet has been there in plain sight all along.

For me, this one took exactly one year and a day.

    It is uber-obvious that I have been toying with my comments regarding my time at the Cancer Center.  I do so like my privacy.

A few minutes ago it occurred to me that I have the opportunity to possibly save a woman's (or women's) life.  So, open window. Toss out privacy.

     On June 27, 2016, I had a total hysterectomy...a daVinci  procedure.  (The rest of this tale is pretty graphic.)  My uterus, ovaries, and cervix were removed, fortunately vaginally (though I had five incisions for the hysterectomy and 4 others for various reasons).  I had endometrial uterine cancer.  There are many different types of uterine cancer. The most common type starts in the endometrium, the inner lining of the uterus.

Here is the reason for my tossing privacy out the window....I was pretty suspicious for TWO YEARS that I had cancer. 

    Years ago I was subbing and met a retired teacher who was also subbing.  We were at the school at which she had spent her teaching career.  She was quite venerated.
     The talk around the lunchroom was that she had had "female" cancer.  I talked with her in the hall about it and she explained it to me.  She had recently recovered from her hysterectomy.
     I asked her if she had any signs that she might be ill or that something was amiss.
She said words that would haunt me for those two years.....she said she was sloughing (passing) pinkish tissue.  She had gone through menopause, but she has begun to shed this tissue so she went to her gynecologist and lo, cancer was the diagnosis. 

     The crazy thing is, I had been shedding pinkish tissue for two years prior to 2016.  I'd even talked with people about it.  So why did I let myself go unchecked for those two years?
     Having moved back to the Midwest we lost our health insurance.  I had previously had irregular pap smear results which ended up requiring more tests, but had always proved "nothing serious."  Mind you, I KNEW the pink shedding was serious, due to that teacher-conversation years prior....but I kept thinking of the $$$, and couldn't grasp what that would mean.  I had also begun to wonder if I hadn't hit menopause yet.....at age 58!  I went TEN YEARS without seeing a GYN.  I was afraid I would fall into a medical-financial abyss.

     I believe God took it out of my hands the night of April 29, 2016, when I began to bleed so severely that I can only call it hemorrhaging.  I have never been in such pain in my life.  I ended up calling 911 because I was so sick, bleeding so much, and ready to vomit a river.  It was an expensive call, but I must add that the EMTs gave me a medication to stop the nausea....said med. also tends to help with pain.  The ER experience (NOT the same hospital that did my surgery) was horrific and nothing was determined except that I should get a biopsy.
    
Two weeks later I had the biopsy results and it was cancer (told on the phone, I was home alone. Bummer.)  Two weeks after that I was in the surgeon's office at the Cancer Care Center.  The doctor was hopeful and said he felt I would not need chemo nor radiation.  This was good as I am not a chemo candidate, having had the massive heart attack in 2011.
     My surgery was June 27, 2016.  Within a week I had the results-----the surgeon had gotten all the cancer (as shown by the removed lymph nodes) and no chemo nor radiation was needed.  I have finished my follow-up appts. and now only have to go in yearly.

     So why do I tell you this now?  If you, or a woman you know, has these symptoms then by all means available get to a GYN for a biopsy.  Offer to help inquire about financial assistance if necessary.  Though I still have no insurance, I am not overburdened by medical bills.  I have received assistance and can also pay a small amount each month.

     I must also say that I can't believe how much better I felt after the surgery.  I had felt----and been----one sick lady for a very, very long time.

     You now have the corroborating story of two women with the same symptom AND the same diagnosis.  Please, don't hesitate to get help or get help for someone you know who confides in you the same symptom.

I am a slow learner.  Hopefully I am not too late to help someone.