If they were hugging me and crying for me, I would have completely broken down. It was my way of staying strong by protecting them. But eventually I told more people, including one of my managers I also work as a gymnastics coach. She urged me to get a second opinion. But she kept nagging, so I agreed to do it. I found another doctor online at Holy Name Medical Center in New Jersey who had experience in cervical cancer treatment and seemed to be involved in the community, which showed me that she was a caring person.
She got me into her office very quickly. That was surprising; I had to wait so long for my other doctor appointments. But she said I had another option. She went on to explain the details of my tumor and my particular situation, which no other doctor had previously done. She explained the procedure: I would keep my uterus, and she would remove just my cervix and lymph nodes.
I loved that she explained my tumor to me. It pushed me to go through all my paperwork so I could better understand my diagnosis and treatment. It was relieving that I had another option, but now I had to make a decision about what route to take: the very well-known route or the route that I had never heard about before.
I wanted pregnancy to be an option, so I decided to go with the trachelectomy. I had planned to tell my son about my diagnosis at the end of August, but that week we coincidentally had a family friend die of cervical cancer. I waited until my surgery was coming up in September. The day of the surgery was rough. My surgery was supposed to be at 3 p. This operation is done for very specific cases of recurrent cervical cancer.
In this surgery, all of the same organs and tissues are removed as in a radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection. Lymph node dissection is discussed in the next section. In addition, the bladder, vagina, rectum, and part of the colon is also removed, depending on where the cancer has spread. If your bladder is removed, you will need a new way to store and get rid of urine. This usually means using a short piece of intestine to function as a new bladder.
The new bladder may be connected to the abdominal wall so that urine is drained periodically when the patient places a catheter into a urostomy a small opening. Or urine drains continuously into a small plastic bag attached to the front of the abdomen. For more information, see Urostomy Guide. If the rectum and part of the colon are removed, a new way to get rid of solid waste must be created. This is done by attaching the remaining intestine to the abdominal wall so that fecal material can pass through a small opening stoma into a small plastic bag worn on the front of the abdomen more information about colostomies can be found in Colostomy Guide.
In some cases, it may be possible to remove the cancerous part of the colon next to the cervix and reconnect the colon ends so that no bags or external appliances are needed. If the vagina is removed, a new vagina can be surgically made out of skin, intestinal tissue, or muscle and skin myocutaneous grafts.
Recovery from total pelvic exenteration takes a long time. Most women don't begin to feel like themselves again for about 6 months after surgery. The doctor sits at a control unit a few feet away from the patient. The doctor controls the movement of a set of robotic surgical equipment, guided by a video camera. This gives them a 3D view, which they can magnify a number of times.
This helps the doctor carry out difficult operations using very precise movements. The photo below is an example of robotic surgery. You can see the doctor sitting at the control unit on the right of the picture. Your doctor sends the tissue that they remove, including the lymph nodes, to the laboratory.
This is to check that they have removed all of the cancer in the cervix, and to see if there are any cancer cells in the lymph nodes. Your specialist will offer you more treatment if there is a risk that cancer cells have been left behind, or if there is any sign that the cancer has spread.
This might include surgery to remove your womb hysterectomy or chemotherapy with radiotherapy chemoradiotherapy. Having further treatment means that you will no longer be able to become pregnant in the future.
This can be very upsetting if you were hoping to have a family. Your doctors and nurses will do all they can to support you. You usually stay in hospital for 1 or 2 nights. It can take up to 4 to 6 weeks to fully recover from the operation.
Your doctor makes sure the benefits of having the surgery outweigh any possible risks. You have follow up appointments to check your recovery and sort out any problems. Your gynaecological oncologist may give you the results of the surgery during your first follow up appointment. Or some hospitals may phone you with the results.
Before surgery for cervical cancer, you have tests to check your fitness and you meet members of your treatment team. You have a few different tubes in place when you wake up. You usually go home after 2 to 4 days.
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