Pat's Story
Many thanks to Pat for sharing her womb cancer story with us to help raise awareness.
I am a 65 years young, married for 44 years, mum to a son and daughter and nana to fab twin granddaughters. I still work as I love my job and consider myself fit and healthy. I have never had any gynaecological health problems and sailed through the menopause in my mid/late forties. Never really had any time off work in the last 30+ years.
I had a little spotting at the beginning of December 2013 and made an appointment to see my GP. Took about ten days to actually see her but she put me on a two week referral to my local hospital. I had a hysteroscopy on the 23rd December, the doctor noticed some polyps and took a biopsy. I then received a phone call from the hospital asking me to come along and see the doctor on the 6th of January 2014 when I was told I had cancer of the womb. For some unknown reason I wasn't fazed by this and from the word go my attitude was OK so what's the plan. I had another appointment on the 16th to discuss what happens next. I was told it was stage 1a but a Carcinosarcoma which is an aggressive type of cancer. I had my hysterectomy by keyhole on the 20th January and had very good recovery. I was then referred to The Christie hospital where it was decided that because of the type of cancer I had that I have 4 cycles of chemotherapy ( Carbo/Taxol) which commenced on the 13 March every three weeks. For a few days after each cycle I didn't feel brilliant but coped OK then for two weeks normal. This stage of my treatment finished on the 15th May. I did lose my hair which I expected but hats, scarves and my wig all came into use.
I was then passed over to the radiotherapy department and was decided I would have 20 sessions of external beam radiotherapy which started on 5th August and completed on 2nd September. I had very little side effects from this, just the occasional upset tummy which usually only lasted a day. I've had two scans, one before chemo started and the other before radiotherapy started both of which were clear so fingers crossed it stays like this.
I am a support worker for people with multiple disabilities which is quite a demanding job so have been on extended sick leave for all of my treatment. My employers have been very supportive throughout the year and have planned my phased return to work over a period of six weeks starting on the 3rd of November, looking forward to really getting back to normal.
